A RELUCTANT PRODIGAL RETURNS of (Asia Minor Apostle)

Dear friends as we celebrate this miraculous event of God coming to earth I
want to share something with you that because of HIM a huge miracle
has happened in my life.

BLESSINGS and Merry Christmas to yall.
hope you can read this

eddie brooks


A RELUCTANT PRODIGAL RETURNS
EDWIN C BROOKS

12-15-09

PREFACE: I was most reluctant to write this for possible publication because lack of writing skills but I was compelled by the Lord and my cousin who told me I am obligated to write this. Folks IT WAS God who changed and is continue to change my life and blessed Church of God people who facilitated and participated in the change. I never liked the term prodigal; therefore I qualified the term by using reluctant because my life seems to be one of reluctance.. It nearly killed me
Let me start this journey midway between sobering up and the present because it is all GOD . I take no credit for any of these things. I made decisions but the Lord developed the situations.

One day as I was praying about 7 years ago whether by vision or dream I know not but in the picture I saw a host of men in a cloud of which I knew only one --Bill Sheeks. I asked the Lord who the others were and HE said these are men with whom I would be acquainted in the future. There is not enough space for me to list all of these fine COG pastors and men who God has placed in my path over the last 8 years. Before I go there let me start with how I got to that point in my life


As I sobered up in Feb 1978 after 20+ years in the Church of God (COG) and 20+ years in the military my only desire was to continue my hedonistic lifestyle without the benefit of alcohol and drugs(more on the side of alcohol). I definitely wanted nothing to do with the prudish Christians and the COG never entered my mind even though my character had been inculcated in the South Cleveland COG and all my education had been developed through education in Lee College. These organizations were latent instruments returning me to the COG with or without my consent.. Unbeknownst to me embedded within me was a God consciousness which I thought I had gotten rid of..
Simultaneously My second marriage was disintegrating and I was a single parent raising an 11 year old son.

After 5 years learning how to stay sober in AA, occasionally, I tried some churches which would help me with my required spiritual program in order to have a good sobriety . Without getting saved I helped in prisons, Juvenile facilities, half way houses and nursing homes. All of these were of no avail in returning me to the God of my youth which I unknowingly desired and needed

A neighbor /Registered Nurse came into my life with whom I went to Catholic Mass for about 5 years and as a result of this catholic contact became involved in helping juveniles come off of alcohol and drugs.. Come to find out the worship leaders were Holy Spirit filled Catholics and were involved with the Catholic Renewal a group of people seeking to find a closer walk with the Lord and Holy Ghost baptism.

During this time a Catholic Lay Evangelist(Charlie Osborne) from Florida came to N. Hollywood St Peter’s Catholic Church for a REVIVAL … After going to a week long revival I went to my condo got on my knees and prayed till the Holy Ghost manifested Himself in me again.. My life was forever changed never to go back again.. Never to test the waters of sin again.. Never to try the pleasures of sin again.

This young nurse decided to follow me in the walk with the Lord after which we started a platonic relationship till we got married one year later. She decided that the only real walk with the Lord could be achieved in Church on The Way where Jack Hayford pastored rather than the Catholic church. She was the impetus behind the church thing because she had gone to mass every week in her entire life. But this is about me and not her
One would think that the restoration was fine and complete…. But let me continue dear ones because God was not finished with us yet. We joined the church, paid our tithes, taught Sunday School , got involved in World Missions and started my own personal journey to Turkey. My restoration was continuing for God wanted me back into the COG(I did not know this) How could HE do this without my consent since I never thought of this neither did I want it since I was most comfortable doing God’s work in the church with a most faithful wifey.

God sent me on my own personal journey to Turkey to tell my former employees that HE is LORD, GOD and Savior of the universe. This went on for about 10 years when the local church informed me there was no church interest in what I was doing in Turkey. In about 18 years of witnessing we were able to help 3 people say the sinners prayer before they died. We stayed with Haluk, Kiymet , Nihal and Yesim literally unto their death. They are in God’s hands as I inventory my life to determine if I did all I could do to help them make a decision for Christ. We have witnessed to many others but only 3 prayed in the Istanbul area.

Here is where our magnificent God brings me again in touch with the COG after about 45 years. I began to see HIS way but only step by step --totally unclear because I only wanted to do as the Lord told me to do in the beginning. The COG was not even on the horizon of my life nor did I seek it . I just wanted to go to heaven when I died---after all I got saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost and legitimized my relationship with the nurse(CHITA)..

Then one day as I was flying from Istanbul to Los Angeles God most clearly said to me that my work in Istanbul was finished and told me to go to Bergama( Pergamos)--reason unknown .. So I surmised it was only to pray.. Anyone can do that without any thought of failure. My wife and I complied by praying from high upon the old city of Pergamos over the new city.
Then in 2001 the Lord told me to go back to Bergama and again I presumed it was for prayer only. No commitments or obligations ---just prayer.

However, Grant McClung(COG World Missions) called me saying he wanted to go with me . Immediately I knew something was about to happen and I wanted no part in it. I emphasized to him this was ONLY A PRAYER JOURNEY and I did not want to get involved in any long term commitment to the COG. He brought with him Paul Lauster and Earl Brown. We arrived in Oct 2001 and we have been there ever since. In an effort to help us many people have come and gone ; now only Hristo , Pavlina, Chita and I remain . We are all part time since our work and the law does not allow us to be there alll the time. We need help!!!!!!May our God raise up men and women in the COG to take the Gospel to Muslim souls in Turkey.

Grant McClung and Bro Warren G. Beavers( till his death last year) stayed with me all the way till the present and have worked in my behalf for the advancement of the cause of the Kingdom of God.
Bro Raymond Hodge with approval of Bro Stevens took my case under his wings and was the catalyst in getting my license restored. Thank you my dear brother Hodge.

Recently a group of men headed by Bro Mark Williams convened to restore to me my COG license which I had so frivolously thrown away 51 years before . The Lord reminded me on that day that these were some of the men he had shown me in the cloud about 6 years previously. COG World Missions subsequently blessed me by changing my status to Missionary Evangelist--being an evangelist is what I started out being in the COG 50+ years before.
Isn’t our God amazing. This miracle is not on 34th St. but on the streets of Bergama

There are so many COG people and others outside of the COG who knowingly and unknowingly helped me after I stopped drinking and started serving Jesus. Too numerous to count. Praise God for my now wife Chita who followed me in the Lord and participates in our ministry.

This reluctant prodigal has been totally restored not only to the Kingdom of God but to the COG from where I started 76 years ago. AMAZING ISNT IT.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY


eddie brooks