La Vernia Christian Teaching Center
Pastor Billy C. Moore's Testamony
I recall the early years of my life as very difficult years. I was born during the depression
age, in 1929, and my mother and father were divorced when I was age three. By the time
I was eight years of age, I was shining shoes and selling newspapers, on the streets of
Houston, Texas.
This was also the place I learned the ways of the world at an early age. There was no
dope problem in that day, but I picked up such bad habits as cursing and petty theft. I
even learned to pick up cigarettes from the street curbs and gutters. I also some how
learned, about the facts of life, how to survive, make a living, etc.
My mother later remarried and we moved to the country north of Houston. Here I could
run with a better group of boys. We did some farm work and had less time for mischief.
However, I remember a Sunday when a group of boys gathered for a hunting trip and one
boy had an old shotgun that didn't have a trigger. You had to pull the hammer back, and
then let your thumb slip off the hammer to fire the shell. While we made preparations for
the trip, a friend of mine playfully pointed the old gun straight at me and said, "I think I'll
just go ahead and shoot you, and save the hunting trip." We both thought the gun was
unloaded, but as I pushed the barrel away from my midsection, my friend's thumb slipped
off the hammer and the 12 gauge gun went off. I felt the wind as it passed my side and I
knew I had escaped death, but I didn't give this much thought.
However, a few weeks later a very close friend of ours went hunting with another buddy,
who was using the same gun. While our friend walked in front of the boy, he raised the
gun to shoot at some birds, with the gun about mid-way of our friend's back, his finger
slipped off the hammer, killing our friend instantly. After this I knew my life had been
spared.
I was 16 Years of age then and World War II had just ended. I tried to join the armed
services, but failed because of my small size.
I then joined the Merchant Marines and went to Corpus Christi. Later, on a tanker, during
a bad storm where hardened old seamen were singing "Nearer My God to Thee," I
became very seasick. For two days I was almost out of my head and didn't care to live.
The ship was bucking hard and I had gone to the stern and climbed on the guard rail. A
fellow sailor came and pulled me off, and asked me if I was trying to commit suicide.
Immediately a huge wave swept over the ship's stern and I knew again my life had been
spared, but I still gave God no credit. I was to busy living my own sinful life. I wasn't
even trying to get ahead like most young people.
We speak of "cursing like a sailor". Well, I think I could have taught the sailors a few
things about profanity. I didn't go to high school, but I was educated in sin. After a few
years of the sea-going, I got a job with a construction company that took me to the town
of Lytle. At the age of 18 , I married a girl and we later had three children, but being an
alcoholic, I didn't have much time for a family. I was found closing up a beer joint most
every night of our eighteen years of married life. We both lived in sin and didn't raise our
children as Christians. Later, just before the birth of my third child, I got a job as a line
construction man and after a "Sunday" drinking party, I went to work in the town of
Hondo. While changing out a voltage line there, I came in contact with 2300 volts which
passed through my body and cam out at my hip. I woke up in a hospital with a doctor
saying, "If he makes it through the day, he will live." Some few hours later the same day,
I was sitting on the hospital steps waiting for the line crew to pick me up and they
couldn't believe it was me, but I still wasn't giving God any praise. We started home, but
first I had to go by a beer joint.
Soon after this, I went back to heavy construction, mostly drilling foundations for
bridges. I came to a little town of La Vernia where they were putting a bridge over the
Cibolo Creek. Here I met my future wife, Ruby. I started going with her and got divorced
from my first wife. We could no longer get along and didn't want too. The divorce didn't
solve any problems either. I was just more free to do as I pleased. I loved the night life,
and all that goes with it, Hill Billy and Western Music. There aren't many places between
here and Arabia I haven't been in and played music. I now knew the drinking habit was
going to ruin another good relationship. I never got a grip on myself. I went to Arabia as a
Crane operator. Money was good and I thought I would level off, but again I ran into the
same problems, drinking and more time to drink.
Ruby wrote me that she had been reinstated in her La Vernia church. That didn't mean
much to me, but it sounded good. I came back to the states and found her to be a
changed person. Here, I thought , was a chance for leveling off myself. So I attended
church and thought this is good, since I had never belonged to anything religious. I could
sit there comfortably with the best of them.
But going to church didn't change my life. The membership alone didn't give me the
satisfaction I needed. I hadn't given my heart and life to Jesus Christ or been Born Again.
During this time, Ruby and I were married, but five years later, not missing a Sunday
service, I still had my sinful habits. My wife owned a restaurant in La Vernia at the time
and our friends would meet there on Sunday afternoon and have beer and a fellowship
party. One Monday, after a good drinking spree, I realized we hadn't really received Jesus
Christ. We were just hypocrites and I was leading them all.
On my way to work, I poured out my heart to Jesus Christ, saying, "Lord if there's
anyway in your power, enter into this life and clean it up, and I will dedicate the rest of
my life to live for you." Immediately a peace and joy came over me and the tears began to
flow. I could scarcely drive to work. That day I didn't say a curse word all day,
something I hadn't done in 30 years.
Later, on the way home, I stopped at my favorite old joint, where I met my wife each
Monday when the restaurant was closed to go shopping, and instead of asking for a beer,
I asked for a coke. The bartender looked straight at me and my wife asked me if I was
sick.
God had let me go back to that joint to prove I had been delivered. The desire for alcohol
had left me, I immediately began to witness and tell others what had happened in my
life.....If you would like to find out how God keep changing Billy's by healing him from
tumors and such click on the link below.
age, in 1929, and my mother and father were divorced when I was age three. By the time
I was eight years of age, I was shining shoes and selling newspapers, on the streets of
Houston, Texas.
This was also the place I learned the ways of the world at an early age. There was no
dope problem in that day, but I picked up such bad habits as cursing and petty theft. I
even learned to pick up cigarettes from the street curbs and gutters. I also some how
learned, about the facts of life, how to survive, make a living, etc.
My mother later remarried and we moved to the country north of Houston. Here I could
run with a better group of boys. We did some farm work and had less time for mischief.
However, I remember a Sunday when a group of boys gathered for a hunting trip and one
boy had an old shotgun that didn't have a trigger. You had to pull the hammer back, and
then let your thumb slip off the hammer to fire the shell. While we made preparations for
the trip, a friend of mine playfully pointed the old gun straight at me and said, "I think I'll
just go ahead and shoot you, and save the hunting trip." We both thought the gun was
unloaded, but as I pushed the barrel away from my midsection, my friend's thumb slipped
off the hammer and the 12 gauge gun went off. I felt the wind as it passed my side and I
knew I had escaped death, but I didn't give this much thought.
However, a few weeks later a very close friend of ours went hunting with another buddy,
who was using the same gun. While our friend walked in front of the boy, he raised the
gun to shoot at some birds, with the gun about mid-way of our friend's back, his finger
slipped off the hammer, killing our friend instantly. After this I knew my life had been
spared.
I was 16 Years of age then and World War II had just ended. I tried to join the armed
services, but failed because of my small size.
I then joined the Merchant Marines and went to Corpus Christi. Later, on a tanker, during
a bad storm where hardened old seamen were singing "Nearer My God to Thee," I
became very seasick. For two days I was almost out of my head and didn't care to live.
The ship was bucking hard and I had gone to the stern and climbed on the guard rail. A
fellow sailor came and pulled me off, and asked me if I was trying to commit suicide.
Immediately a huge wave swept over the ship's stern and I knew again my life had been
spared, but I still gave God no credit. I was to busy living my own sinful life. I wasn't
even trying to get ahead like most young people.
We speak of "cursing like a sailor". Well, I think I could have taught the sailors a few
things about profanity. I didn't go to high school, but I was educated in sin. After a few
years of the sea-going, I got a job with a construction company that took me to the town
of Lytle. At the age of 18 , I married a girl and we later had three children, but being an
alcoholic, I didn't have much time for a family. I was found closing up a beer joint most
every night of our eighteen years of married life. We both lived in sin and didn't raise our
children as Christians. Later, just before the birth of my third child, I got a job as a line
construction man and after a "Sunday" drinking party, I went to work in the town of
Hondo. While changing out a voltage line there, I came in contact with 2300 volts which
passed through my body and cam out at my hip. I woke up in a hospital with a doctor
saying, "If he makes it through the day, he will live." Some few hours later the same day,
I was sitting on the hospital steps waiting for the line crew to pick me up and they
couldn't believe it was me, but I still wasn't giving God any praise. We started home, but
first I had to go by a beer joint.
Soon after this, I went back to heavy construction, mostly drilling foundations for
bridges. I came to a little town of La Vernia where they were putting a bridge over the
Cibolo Creek. Here I met my future wife, Ruby. I started going with her and got divorced
from my first wife. We could no longer get along and didn't want too. The divorce didn't
solve any problems either. I was just more free to do as I pleased. I loved the night life,
and all that goes with it, Hill Billy and Western Music. There aren't many places between
here and Arabia I haven't been in and played music. I now knew the drinking habit was
going to ruin another good relationship. I never got a grip on myself. I went to Arabia as a
Crane operator. Money was good and I thought I would level off, but again I ran into the
same problems, drinking and more time to drink.
Ruby wrote me that she had been reinstated in her La Vernia church. That didn't mean
much to me, but it sounded good. I came back to the states and found her to be a
changed person. Here, I thought , was a chance for leveling off myself. So I attended
church and thought this is good, since I had never belonged to anything religious. I could
sit there comfortably with the best of them.
But going to church didn't change my life. The membership alone didn't give me the
satisfaction I needed. I hadn't given my heart and life to Jesus Christ or been Born Again.
During this time, Ruby and I were married, but five years later, not missing a Sunday
service, I still had my sinful habits. My wife owned a restaurant in La Vernia at the time
and our friends would meet there on Sunday afternoon and have beer and a fellowship
party. One Monday, after a good drinking spree, I realized we hadn't really received Jesus
Christ. We were just hypocrites and I was leading them all.
On my way to work, I poured out my heart to Jesus Christ, saying, "Lord if there's
anyway in your power, enter into this life and clean it up, and I will dedicate the rest of
my life to live for you." Immediately a peace and joy came over me and the tears began to
flow. I could scarcely drive to work. That day I didn't say a curse word all day,
something I hadn't done in 30 years.
Later, on the way home, I stopped at my favorite old joint, where I met my wife each
Monday when the restaurant was closed to go shopping, and instead of asking for a beer,
I asked for a coke. The bartender looked straight at me and my wife asked me if I was
sick.
God had let me go back to that joint to prove I had been delivered. The desire for alcohol
had left me, I immediately began to witness and tell others what had happened in my
life.....If you would like to find out how God keep changing Billy's by healing him from
tumors and such click on the link below.
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