My Christian Testimony
Del Kralman
My story begins when I was born into a Christian family on a farm northwest of Freewater Oregon. We attended the First Christian Church of Milton Oregon, where my name was entered on the cradle role of the Church and I was baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ at age nine.
As a child and young teenager I was active in all church activities including camps, retreats, conventions, and then on to collage at Northwest Christian Collage in Eugene Oregon where I met my first wife Evelene.
We were active in Church attendance as we spent ten years traveling the Midwest for Boeing working on Minute Man missile installation and modifications, sale to the Airforce. We returned to Seattle February of 1969.
In April of 1969 I was self employed and all alone in my office at home filling out business forms when suddenly I heard a very loud voice calling my name which startled me so I jumped in the chair and looked around to find no one present, the voice said, “Del! You cannot be effective for Me until you read the Book”. I then reached over and picked up my Bible, turned to Matthew 1:1 and began to read, after I read five pages the same voice said, “You are not getting anything out of it”. I turned back to Matthew 1:1 and said, “Lord, If there is something You want me to see You will have to show me, help me to discern where one thought ends and the next starts.”
So I took colored pencils and began reading for understanding marking the text where it appeared the thought changed and writing a summary on the margin, then moved on to the next thought. After five pages of that procedure the same voice said, “That’s it”. That began a five year intense study through the entire Bible, and as I progressed I found many truths I had been taught and many errors I had been taught through the years and was able to discern the difference.
The day I finished the entire Bible I found rebellion from my eldest son and that afternoon I declared to the family there is a new rule starting tonight, no one goes to bed until we sit down as a family and spend one hour in Bible study. Everyone objected including my wife because school demands would not permit it, however I insisted and prevailed to everyone’s dismay.
It took two years to finish the Bible one hour every night including Saturday and Sunday. Eventually their resentment changed to tolerance and by the end of the study I saw a great change, where the children used to fight with each-other it was replaced with love for each-other. Where they had rebelled against me it was replaced with love and respect My relationship with my w ife which I thought was good became great and our love for each-other was magnified. I also noticed that when we first began, we would read a text as I had marked, I would turn to my wife, a Bible Collage student, and asked what she saw in the text, her response was just as we had learned from our teachers, but I saw it gradually turn to align with my own new understanding, which I perceived as the work of The Holy Spirit.
The change I witnessed in my family gave me confidence to begin public teaching and through the following years we witnessed changes in those who attended our classes as they also began to mature in their understanding. That was the beginning of a lifetime of service to our loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Evelene died of kidney failure at age 44 and I was left with four teenage young people still at home which kept me quite busy. After three years The Lord brought Rifkah into my life when she started attending my Bible class and demonstrated great interest in the study, though being an Orthodox Jewess, she came and even stayed after the rest of the group had gone, having more questions and debating about the Messiah. After a few weeks of pelleting me with questions, Rifkah believed that Y’shua was in fact The Messiah, she accepted Him as her Lord & Savior.
My teenagers all stated, “Dad, Rifkah is the one for you.” I liked the idea also. A week later before Rifkah left the Bible study, my eldest daughter, Janice, backed up against the front door and informed us that her first free day from work would be February 16th and for us to be married then. I said to Rifkah, “It looks like I am getting married February 16th, if you want to be part of the program you will have to show up.” She did! Rifkah and my then teenagers began planning the wedding.
I learned about my Jewish roots when Rifkah showed me my name in the book Select Jewish Names and I learned more about my ancestors who had become Hellenists to save their lives at the time of the Maccabees when the Syrians ruled and were killing Jews who refused to convert to Greek ways by giving up Judaism and all Jewish traditions. That turned to be a blessing in disguise as they were left open and receptive when they were first introduced to Christianity. They were probably among the Hellenists mentioned in Acts 6:1.
When the Church was scattered due to persecution from the Jews they left Israel and later migrated to Prussia in northern Germany where they were identified as Christian on church records found in the 1600’s. They departed from Prussia and migrated to America because of programs where Jews were being killed and persecuted.
Now after 40 years of wedded bliss to Rifkah, I feel that I am the most blessed man on earth. Marriage based on common love for each-other and The Lord God makes for a wonderful life. I am greatly blessed.
My four children all walk with the Lord God and I am the proud “Zayde (which means Grandpa in Hebrew) of 7 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren all of which are learning the ways of The Lord.