Meet Earl & Betty Pittman
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Betty’s Testimony
I am Betty Pittman and I want to add to my husband's story on our marriage. From my earliest memories, I can remember having a heart to want to serve Jesus, One prayer that I remember the most was, "Lord,when I grow up I want a husband who loves You." I must have been 10 or so when I prayed this. Now that prayer over the few years to follow just left my mind and was, so to speak, put on the shelf. I was a little girl and went back playing with my brothers and sisters the kids games you play as a child.
My Daddy tenant farmed for a living so we were used to moving from farm to farm, but this time Daddy told us we were moving out of the county to a new town called Battleboro. I had never heard of it and was very nervous at the thought of moving to a new town and a new school. Farming season ended in the fall, so we moved during the Christmas Holidays. I was in the seventh grade at this time, so guess maybe 12 years old then.
The morning after Christmas holidays were over, that big orange school bus pulled up in our yard. We were the first pick up. The door opened and I pulled up on the bar and sat in the first seat by the door, then we headed to town to pick up more kids. There was a railroad running through the middle of town and the bus had to make a stop there. The door opened and I saw this hand reaching up to grab the bar of the bus and pull himself up. As I looked into his face this thought came to me, "that's the boy I would like to marry." I was very young at this time and it was not a lustful or dirty thought, but a sweet and innocent one. After that, I didn't go home and dream or think about marrying him. In fact, the thought left me just as the prayer I mentioned earlier. God put it on the shelf, and I went on about my business as a seventh grade student and working on the farm.
Now, I had a heart for God but didn't know how to really feel those good, clean feelings I wanted in my heart. I would confess Christ and claim to be saved on several occasions, but the feelings wouldn't last. I remember having thoughts that there must be something that can help me feel clean and free in Jesus, but I just didn't know what it was.
At 16, I was a junior in high school. I was home with my mother when someone knocked on our front door. There stood a young man, his face glowing with a big smile and ask if my sister was home. She wasn't but he went on to tell us why he had stopped by. He told us how the Lord had blessed him and how there is an experience you can receive from Jesus that can fill your heart to overflowing. An experience that will wash away your sins and you will never have to doubt about your relationship with the Lord anymore. I was thrilled beyond measure because that was the answer to my prayer. I started attending his home prayer meeting on the 1st and 3rd Sunday. Sometime later I received that "Blessed holy ghost" with the evidence of speaking in tongues he was talking about. What a wonderful feeling to feel God's sweet power and love.
Earl and I were spending a lot of time together because we just loved our feelings together in the Lord. I finished high school and we married in July of 1967 of that same year and had a little girl 3 years later. It was not until years later that the Lord brought back to mind the prayer I prayed of wanting a husband who loves God, but the next thought He reminded me of was the day I saw the young man getting on the school bus. It was Earl, the same one who came to the door telling me about Jesus, and who boarded the school bus that day years ago. It was such an exciting moment for us because we traced our lives back to those times and we realized how God was working out things for us to be together, and we didn't even realize it at the time. He let me forget the sweet thought of wanting to marry the boy on the school bus so God could get all the glory, and, so, I wouldn't try to get involved and make something happen. God knew he could handle this job all by Himself.
July of 2013 was 46 years Earl and I have been together. Our daughter, Amy, is now married to a wonderful man named Vince and both are filled with the sweet holy ghost and have a happy marriage, but that's another sweet story. I'm thankful God did this for me (us). Wait on God and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Betty
Earl's Testimony
I'm Earl Pittman, and Betty and I have been married for forty-six years as of July 11, 2013. I met Betty and her mother in a small farm town called Battleboro. I had received the holy ghost in 1964, and was excited by the experience of being born of the Spirit and would often visit friends and school buddies telling them of the goodness of God. I went to Betty’s house to tell one of my school friends of my experience and that is where I met Betty and her mother.
I felt the baptism of the Spirit was for everyone. Soon, I found my joy wasn’t shared by all. That’s why Betty and her mother impressed me. They had faith that others had rejected. That first meeting started a road of happiness for both Betty and me. She told me later, after we were married, how God had put feelings in her heart for me early in her school days before we actually met. She said, when she first saw me on a school bus one day, “That’s the man I would like to marry.” I didn’t know then that God would later put us together, and neither did she.
After that first meeting, Betty started attending our worship services, and it wasn’t long before she was praising God in a heavenly language. That further strengthen our relationship. During this time, we were regularly attending worship services and visiting our pastor’s home. One day, our pastor Preacher Clark, John Clark’s father, asked me if I would be interested in marrying. I said, “Yes.” Then he would name certain ladies we knew, and I would respond, “They are nice but lack understanding in the truths of God.” I said, “If there was one that I would marry, it would be Betty.” She had overcome the test of being faithful to God and was full of the Spirit. That was the key to our relationship. I didn’t realize what God had being doing all along the way. My heart was being knit together with Betty’s heart. That’s what happens when you have fellowship with someone who loves God.
Soon after, we went to the Justice of the Peace and were married. That was on July 11, 1967. Later, we had a daughter named Amy, who now serves the Lord, and we thank God for our marriage of forty-four years. May God bless you with the same fellowship.
Earl
