I was born September 3.1946 to James and Delaska Bilbo (buck & Rue). I grew up on the North side of Orange, the Oakland Addition. Most of my younger years my playground was the cypress swamps, Oak Flat, Pine Ridge, slues, and the bayous of the Sabine River-now called Blue Elbow Park. My dad taught me to hunt and fish. He was one of the best shots I had ever seen. The love for the outdoors came from him and my uncles. When we went fishing they always seem to give me the deep end of the net, while catching bait for trout lines. I caught armadillo, possums, and snakes. I can remember one year the weather got real hot early in February and March. Snakes were everywhere-water moccasins, cottonmouths, copperheads, and some I couldn't even tell you what they were. Ell, I took a stick and began to kill all the snakes I could. Before long, I had a five-gallon bucket full of snakes. I went all over the neighborhood showing them off.

When I got in front of my grandmother's house, Mrs. Harmley was crossing the street coming over for her morning coffee. She said ''Bucky, what's in the bucket?'' Well, I told her, and poured the snakes out around her feet. They went all around her and she was off in a flash to safety on papa's porch. I gathered up all the snakes and put them back in the bucket, still proud as ever. My dad called me in later that evening and said ''Boy, why did you try to kill Mrs. Hamerly? You could have given her a heart attack.'' I didn't that she was afraid of snakes. I got a real good talking to.

My basic Christian education came from the Church of Christ on the corner of 9th and Button-which still stands today. My grandfather was the song leader. To this day I can still hear him singing Heavenly Sunshine and Blessed Redeemer. I can remember Sunday nights as a child with my head on my mother's lap and dozing off while they sang hymns. What a secure feeling! In Sunday School we studied the New Testament, memorized verses, and studied God's word right up to my teenage years. I was taught right from wrong.

I guess I was one of those boys that gullible and an impressionable teenager. I seemed to listen to everyone but my mother and dad. That's when I heard the world calling me, and all I could do was to chase temptation. I went from one sin to another, chasing the devil. All it took was for someone to tell me not to do something or to see someone else having what I thought was fun-and off I'd go. I slid into the world of nightclubs, street life.

During that time, I started dating Sam; she had two little girls from a previous marriage. E dated for nine months and then got married. Our lives settled down and we were getting by. Jobs were hard to come by. So we just made ends meet. We decided to join Community church and try to chance our lives. We were smoking pot and while going there only for a short while, I got busted for pot. Because of the people I knew, my hand was slapped, I paid a fine, and was put on probation for 2 years. It was suggested to us that we leave the church. But that didn't stop me- I still smoked.

Then came cocaine. That's when I really began to slide down. At the time they use to say it wasn't a drug-well, I believed what was said and it nearly ruined my life. The people who are hooked on this drug are on a runaway train headed for destruction. Cocaine never did anything foe me but make me want more.  It made me paranoid-I mean paranoid to the brink of becoming terrified! While I had been under the influence of cocaine, I would go from window to window peeping out to see if anyone was driving up. I always felt uneasy.

After cocaine took all my money, my common sense, and my morals-it gave me an ice-cold heart. On my way to get more cocaine one night-that's when it happened-I was slapped upside the head, and a voice said, ''Look at yourself! Stop and look what are doing to yourself!'' I stopped the car and turned it around and never touched the drug again. After quitting, I went into a deep depression and lost all my self-esteem. I also had an inter-fear of which I had no control.

One night while I was paranoid and depressed, I must have fallen asleep. I saw a bright light and a voice said to me,'' Bucky why do you fear? Only you can decide, it's all up to you. If you believe in Me and trust, for I am the Way and the Light. This world is just the beginning.'' That night, I faced my demons and they ran from me. My depression was gone. I don't know who these three were that came to me that night, but I know who sent them when I was in deep need. Even though, I was undeserving, now I understood the scripture, ''for I have a plan for you and I know the plan.'' At that point, I was ready to change my life. First we gave up cigarettes, liquor, and then pot was the last vice we had. He came like a thief in the night and took all those desires away from us.

A friend had been calling us for several years (every once and a while) wanting us to go to his church. So, finally Sam said, ''We have to do something, he's not going to stop if we don't go a couple of times.''  So, we did just that. The church was on 10th and Cherry at the time. Ell, e did go a few times and we even signed the little paper they send around so that they know if you are a guest. For 13 years we received without fail, a newsletter from the First Church of the Nazarene letting us know what was happening each month-just like we were already members.

Then about five years ago, don ball started calling again on Saturday reminding us of church on Sunday and telling us that they'd love to have us come. Really, we started coming here just to shut him up. We couldn't figure out any other way. We planned to come for a few times then skip out. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. Just Sunday service at first, then Sam joined the choir. Then came Sunday School, and before you knew it, I was singing in the choir-just praising the Lord!

With the help of the Lord, and our church family, out lives have changed so much. The Lord took away all the rest of the bad habits. He changed my heart, the old Bucky doesn't exist, and he's been made new. He made a new Bucky that can't begin to tell of all the blessings that He has given me. I can say for me and my house, we will always serve the Lord!

Thank you Jesus for loving me and changing my life…

My Testimony: Ms. Sam Bilbo

I feel the sweetness of His faithfulness and gladness fills my heart. It's impossible to not share all the works He has done in my life, but with my mouth I will make known of His wonderful power. I praise His name for His wisdom is like the vastness of the sea. I find shelter in the shadow of His wings, He is my King, and His steadfast love reaches as high as the sky.

I haven't always felt this way. It took many years to get to this point in my life. I had a rough child hood and was a little wild in my teenage years. My parents were Etienne and Annette Dugas. I was raised Catholic, so I had no idea what the Bible consist of, or what it's purpose was. In this religion you didn't have a Bible. The priest spoke in Latin, and most of the time I never understood what was going on. So to leave the church wasn't such a big deal. I had a problem going to confession, and having a man tell me that what I had confessed was for given, if I'd say ten Hail Mary's and 4 Glory B's and 5 Our Fathers. I just didn't believe it that.

I quit school on the 11th grade and got married to my first husband when I was 17, and by 23 I was divorced. It was real hard bringing up two little girls three and four at the time. My first job was selling wigs making $99.00 a week, and received no child support. I had to get a job that paid more, so I started working in night clubs, tending bar, and working as a dancer (not a stripper). Then got a job in LA. working as a dancer, and running nightclub. I didn't find out until I had started working there that it was ran by a small time Mafia ring out of Lake Charles. It wasn't a bed of roses, but I could make enough money to support my girls. One night in walked the sweetest guy I had ever met. He bought me a coke and we began to talk. After three weeks we started dating and nine months later Bucky and I got married.

We had it rough the first few years we were married, but most young people do. We didn't go to church in fact it was never a thought; I'm ashamed to say. We were married for three years then we were introduced to pot. At first it didn't mean much to us, then a few years we got into it heavy and it consumed our lives. It ruled our lives we were hooked, and hooked good. It didn't seem to be a problem keeping it a secret for many years. But, the traffic at our house got so out of control and things got risky. We knew that things were going to have to change. We started going to a local church, but we were still smoking pot, to us we had decided that it wasn't a drug. We were only trying to justify it to ourselves.  Well, things change we got busted for pot. Nothing happened to me, but Bucky was put on two years probation. It was so hard to face our families, but the devil still had a hold on us.

A few years later we were introduced to cocaine and pills. Now, we were on a roller coaster ride for a few years. But one night Bucky came in the house and said something had just happened to him in the car that made him come back home. He really didn't know what it was, but that we weren't going to do drugs any more. He had a dream a few nights later that woke him up. He tried to tell me everything that happened that night, but he was so excited it wasn't until a few days later he could sit me down and explain the dream to me.

We have made many mistakes in our life. But the Lord was watching all the time waiting for us to call him into our lives. After almost loosing everything and having our world tuned upside down in 1998 we decided t come to this church. Really it was to get Don Ball from calling us every Saturday night and reminding us of church on Sunday. We had been to his church a few times and every once and a while he'd call. I told Bucky if we just go a few times he'd leave us alone. Well, God had other plans for us. He was ready for us to do some changing in our lives, and this was where it was going to start.

We had been coming here for three tears when I found out that I needed a second hip replacement. We didn't have the money to even get me into a hospital. Well, Marilyn Ball our Children's Pastor got a brainstorm. She said that God told her what to do and her kids would help. The kids from this church raised enough money to get me into UTMB for my second hip replacement.

Without their help it would have been nearly impossible for us to raise the money needed, and they raised the money I needed in two weeks. This was in June 99 we know it's because of His great power, I have no fear, and because He lives in my heart, I will be strong. I take courage, because He has showed me that He is a forgiving God, and He has made a way for me. For when there was no way I could find myself; He showed me that through Him all things are possible, and I could start forgiving myself.    

In September I found out that my first hip replacement had to be replaced. Again money was raised for me to get into the hospital, but I was put on a program that took care of the whole bill. While laying in my bed the third night, something entered my room something came to me in the night, and opened my eyes, and showed me that there was a way through His forgiveness to change my life completely. That there is none like Him for He and He alone changed my ways and cleansed my soul. He is such an awesome God, that it's hard to fathom how He can forgive all of our sins. That all we have to do is put our faith in Him, and ask for forgiveness and He will forgive us. I lift His name up high for He has redeemed me, and has given me a ''New Life.''

The night that His Your Holy Spirit filled my heart in the hospital I could hardly keep still. I shared it with it seemed everyone that came into my hospital room while I was there. He took away a burden, a vice, which I thought I couldn't let go of, I thought, I was hooked. But I was wrong. My life has not been the same since, and neither has Bucky's. We are so thankful for His forgiveness. Our hearts are light having our burden lifted from us. We give Him all the praise. If I tried to share all the wonderful things that He has done in our lives just since that day, I could write a book; ''Thank You my Lord.'' 

He has turned my mornings into joy; He has given me healing in my body, and I give Him all the praise. Where there was pain He took it away, at the same time He opened my eyes, I saw the light, and He lifted my broken heart and took the sins away that I was hiding and not letting it go.

He is alive in my heart and I give Him all the praise for all that He has done for my family and me. Jesus, name of all that is holy; He is my glorious Lord, and blessed Redeemer. For He and He alone has cleansed me and made me strong. Being a part of The First Church Of The Nazarene has helped me learn how to pray to the Lord. To feel that He is with me at all time makes me feel secure. I am so thankful for that chance to have a church family that I can share my needs with. Through their unconditional love members of this church have helped me through many trials and tribulations. And still loves me no matter what my past consisted of.

I thank my dear Lord, for placing Bucky in my life for I know that He had a purpose for us. I really didn't know of all the many wonderful things He did while He was here on earth, but through Bucky sharing what he learned when he was a little boy, and hearing the Word from church I have learned so much. I know Bucky doesn't really think he has done that much to change our lives, but he has. His positive out look on life, and his strong faith in the Lord is so powerful I feel blessed to be his wife. I give my Lord all the praise, and glory for our home changed when we truly let Him come into out lives completely.   

In May of 1999 I was diagnosed with Septic shock, Hyperthyroidism, and I had no iron count in my body, no platelets along with double pneumonia and had to be hospitalized, my family was told that I would most probably not make it. Bucky was told to get my affairs In order that I only had a few hours left maybe 48 at the most. ''Dear Lord You were there with me. I could feel your arms around me and knew that I wasn't alone. I don't remember most of went on in ICU, but I could feel Your angels all around me. I could feel the power of Bucky's prayer to You.'' There were so many people who were praying for me that I have no doubt in my mind He heard every one of them. I feel that He allowed me to continue to stay on this earth for a purpose. ''Please Lord help me fulfill what ever it is that you want me to do.'' 

''Dear Lord thank You with all my heart for giving me the time to find my way to Your forgiving heart for all I had to do was ask You into my life and it would be changed. For I know now without a doubt things would not have happened the way it did if I would not have accepted You into my life. ''I know Father that it is in our daily lives that we most easily become anxious. Help us find peace in Your word.''

The Bible says, ''Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.'' That means me too. Because of prayer life, and if by chance there are obstacles that come my way, He is there with me, and I won't face them alone. As I learn more about Jesus, my prayers become quite conversations with Him.  ''He is my best friend.''  Natural ability and educational advantages do not figure as factors in this matter of prayer, but a capacity for faith, the power of a thorough conversation, the ability of self-littleness, an absolute losing of one's self in God's glory, and ever-present yearning and seeking after all the fullness of God is all we need. 

Thank you dear Lord, in Jesus name I pray,
Your faithful servant
Ms. Sam

Sam Bucky