Leaving a tract sometimes seems like the smallest thing a Christian can do.
But for Genna Pennell, it changed her family. Her older sister, Victoria, took a tract home that was given to her and shared it with Genna. They thought going to the church on it would be a “fun date”. They determined they would get lunch afterwards for their outing.
What they didn’t know was that day, both Genna and her sister would raise their hands to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Nothing would ever be the same.
Genna grew up in a house not free from trouble. Her father was abusive towards her mother. Her mother left once but came back after promises of change. The promise didn’t come through. By God’s grace they left without incident. Her father never liked church, and really wouldn’t allow them to go. At most they would go twice a year, maybe. They got involved in an Awana type children’s program, and Genna noticed the difference.
The people were nice. They were peaceful even. One man who was about her own father’s age, taught them Sunday school. Genna remembers clearly that he was a man of God who was very kind. She began to see the stark difference between them and her father.
Her mother remarried a Christian man. Her Stepdad had a son, but Genna and Victoria were treated no differently. He would take them on special outings, get gifts for their mother. The way Genna puts it, he genuinely cared for her mother. A big difference from how their Father’s girlfriend would treat them. But they were still infrequent at church.
Through time she would begin to see just how nice it seemed the people treated them at church. She knew of Jesus, and they would attend from time to time, but when her sister brought that tract home when she was 16, that’s when the light went on.
Genna describes it as she was in a room that had the light finally turned on, and now she could see the whole room. She remembers the preacher that day asking if they trusted Jesus and had their life changed. Genna thought that she knew of Jesus but she didn’t have her life changed, but that’s exactly what she wanted. When the preacher then asked if they wanted to do that today, she raised her hand. It went from her head to her heart, as she wanted a personal relationship with Jesus.
Her little brothers would eventually be saved as well through that church. Her Aunt would later get saved too, who as Genna puts it, was so far from anything Godly. Her whole family was transformed.
Genna would eventually go to West Coast Baptist College, where she would meet her now husband Chad. She prayed that she would meet a man who didn’t treat her mother the way her father did, and Chad was the answer to that prayer in every way.
She would feel the call to missions, and made that her major in college. She knows the Lord may lead them to the field someday, but for now, her and Chad feel their biggest mission field is the ministry here at Valley Forge Baptist.
One of her biggest hopes is that by teaching Spanish to students, that maybe they would be able to witness to someone in Spanish. There are so many stories that she has heard through the years of Christians being in a situation where they could’ve witnessed to someone, if they knew Spanish. She hopes to change that.
They would later find out that the man who would eventually become their first youth pastor, was the one who left the tract at that Taco Bell. She wants her students to ask, how can God use me? One of her favorite Scriptures is Psalm 66:20…
“Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.”
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