| Personal Life in My Words: |
After graduating from high School. I moved to Wilburton, Oklahoma and attended junior college for one semester at EOSC. After seeing the reality and responsibility of life I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in September of 1991. I went to bootcamp in Greatlakes, Illinios. Lived in Philedelphia, PA and SanDiego, Califorhia for 10 week intervals for high pressure weld Schooling. In June 1992 I meet my 1st ship (USS San Jose) in the persian gulf. Where I would spend 6 months in operation Desert shield and southern watch. The Navy would eventually lead me to the Micronesian Island of Guam and this is where God drew me to His Son and to allow me to meet my wonderful wife, Cheryl. We both received the New Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, while living in Guam and later moved to Tucson, Arizona were we would have our daughter Lindsey E. Mapp and our son Camden S. Mapp. I am very thankful and privileged to have both of these children to raise for the glory of God. The call to preach in 1996 led us to a local church bible college in 1999 for the call to prepare for Gods service in the Tidewater area of Virginia.
My Conversion:
In September of 1994, while I was stationed on the USS Holland in Micronesia, Guam, God brought me unto Himself. God had been drawing me (John 6:44, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him) unto His Son for about seven years, but it was not until this time in my life that I began to ask serious question about things of eternal value.
I must say that the seed of the words of God that bring forth faith was planted in my heart when I was about 17 years of age. I lived in the country part of Oklahoma near a town named Chouteau. A friend that I went to High school with invited me to go to church with him and they would faithfully come and pick me up to attend church. I would attend this church for some time before I would go forward one day and say a prayer that meant nothing to me. I made a profession that I knew Christ as my Saviour and for five years I lived in deception that I was truly saved.
It was 1993 and my wife, Cheryl was in the Air Force. She had just moved from her previous assignment of Alaska. In July of 1993, I married Cheryl Janine Griffith while living in Guam. Cheryl and I were both professing Christians, but we did not live a life of Repentance nor true Faith. (Acts 20:21, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.) Approximately one month before I was to finish my career with the Navy, a co-worker stationed with my wife at Anderson Air Force base in Guam, came over to our house to talk to me. My wife planned for me to meet Dave for the first time, while she went to his wife’s house for a Mary Kay party. Dave came over that night and started to ask me a series of questions about my personal relationship with God. He showed me from the Bible that a man must be Born Again by Faith and Repentance through the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked much about the Bible that night and I remember him putting a strong emphasize on Faith (Believing) and Repentance (To have a change of mind that leads to a change of life). It was after that night that I begin to question whether I was truly a Christian. I remember praying that night and asking, God why I had never been told about a change of life and how come I had not seen all things pass away in my life, from the results of being born again. Before Dave left to go home that night he invited me to go to church with him. My wife had already been going to this church and had been compelling me to go, but I refused because it was a Baptist church. All of my experiences with God were in the Church of God, a Pentecostal Church that I had made a profession in. But, I could not say “no” to Dave unlike the multiple times I rejected an invitation from my wife. This led me to attend Temple Baptist Church that following Sunday. After hearing the Word of God preached to me that Sunday morning, I left under heavy conviction. (John 16:8-9, And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me) Many questions came to my mind again about my relationship with God. My thoughts and beliefs did not line up with the doctrines that had been taught to me and the results of this put me under deep conviction. We continued to go to this church and after attending for about three weeks. Pastor Ray Fagan and Dave where asking me questions about Baptism and why I had never been baptized. So Dave showed me what the Bible reveals concerning the doctrine of Baptism. It was during these studies that I realized that I needed to be baptized, but God also revealed to me that I must be Born Again before my baptism would have any significant value to God. As I waited that week to be baptized on a Sunday night there was a huge battle that took place in my life and God won. That Sunday night before I was baptized I went to the alter of that little church and I admitted to God that I was not saved (Romans 10:9, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved) and that I needed His Son to wash me of my sins and to give me the new birth that only He could give. God brought me to the end of myself and made me realize that I needed to trust in THE LORD JESUS CHRIST of the Bible. The results after that night were Repentance from God. (2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.) And (2 Timothy 2:25, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth)
My Baptism:
After receiving the Lord Jesus Christ that September night in 1994, I made a public profession to faith (Matthew 10:32, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.) and was Baptized by immersion into the membership of Temple Baptist Church in Micronesia, Guam by pastor Raymond Fagan. Pastor Fagan had been a Missionary to the Micronesian Islands for 19 years.
My Church Membership:
Since I have been redeemed, I have been a member of an Independent Fundamental Bible Believing church. My membership was moved from Temple Baptist Church in July of 1995, because of the military transfer of my wife. We moved our church membership to Sun and Shield Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona, pastored by Steven Morris. Then in December of 1999 we moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia to attend the local church bible college of Tabernacle Baptist Church. The pastor of this church instructed me to join this church, upon his request, we joined this church. God would later move us to a different bible college and church. In May of 2000, we moved our membership to Peoples Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Virginia, pastored by Michael Wetherington and this is where I have been an active member until this day.
My Call to Preach:
God first began speaking to my heart about preaching the unreachable riches of Christ Jesus in the summer of 1996. But I was much more concerned about following my own career of fire fighting, drafting or any other thing that would keep me preoccupied with my self ambitions. In September of 1996, God squeezed my heart and spoke to me through His precious word.
1 Corinthians 9:16 says, “For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” That day God spoke to me with this verse and I realized His call upon my life was to Preach Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 1:23, But we preach Christ crucified)
My Family:
I met Cheryl Griffith on April 15th of 1993 and we begin to date. That incredible woman is now my wife and the mother of our two children. We dated for a short time and were married in Guam in July of 1993. She was a very beautiful young lady but, like myself, did not know the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour and Lord. After my conversion in September of 1994, God put my wife under deep conviction of her own personal relationship with Christ. Though she was a professing Christian, she did not posses the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible. She noticed a tremendous change in my life and was saved in November of 1994. At this point our relationship became closer and we shared in the things of God together. Cheryl followed the Lord in believer’s baptism in 1996 at Sun and Shield Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona.
In July of 1996, while living in Tucson, Arizona our first child Lindsey Elaine Mapp was born. In May of 1999, our second child was born in Tucson as well. His name is Camden Sidney Mapp. Lindsey is currently 6 years old and is not saved and will acknowledge to you that if she died without Christ she would go to Hell. We are praying that God will convict, draw, and give our children faith and repentance to the acknowledging of the truth in his timing and not in our timing.
My Preparation for Ministry:
As I stated earlier in my testimony, I knew that God was calling me to preach the holy blameless life, the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we moved to Virginia Beach and attended classes at Tabernacle Baptist Bible College and Theological seminary for one semester. In May of 2000 several members of the staff at the Bible College moved and so God moved us as well to a school that would bring our attention upon The Lord Jesus Christ. Foundation Bible College and Graduate schools would be the place where I would receive my degree.
God has also allowed me to serve Him as Youth director of Sun and Shield Baptist Church in Tucson Arizona for three years and also as Youth pastor at Peoples Baptist church for two years. We moved to Kharkov, Ukraine in March of 2005 and now serve as Baptist Church planting Missionaries here in Ukraine.
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Aubrey Mapp (Missionary2Ukraine)
