By Carol Bolden – Trinidad, Colorado … Walter Williams was a pilot for Piedmont Airlines when he met Michelle, a flight attendant for the same airline. That was in 1984. It wasn’t until a year later that they met again, and he asked her out. Many dates followed that first one and by the time eight months had passed, they knew they were on the path toward marriage. Ten months later, they were ready to tie the knot.
At that point, Walter asked a good friend from Andrews University to marry them, but he was not keen on doing that since both were not Adventists, even though at that point, Walter was an Adventist in name only.
Frustrated, Walter made the decision to drop his membership from the church so that he and Michelle could be married by their friend. Thus, it was, that on June 24, 1986 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Walter and Michelle were married.
In the early years, Michelle, raised in a Presbyterian home, was curious about Walter’s beliefs and would ask him questions about his abandoned faith, questions that Walter often could not answer. Although they weren’t attending church then, both, says Michelle, always believed in God.
Nearly ten years ago, the two became earnest about finding biblical answers to their questions. Together they studied, reading the Bible, listening to videos from Amazing Discoveries, finding truths that burst on their consciousness with conviction. Somewhere at the beginning of their studies, they were convinced of the importance of keeping the Sabbath and began observing it.
Not long after the coronavirus hit the United States, Walter and Michelle began checking out the Seventh-day Adventist church in Trinidad. Although closed at that point, they continued to watch until it opened. That’s when they met some “wonderful people” who “welcomed us,” said Walter. Convicted that he had done the wrong thing by dropping his membership all those years ago, Walter wanted a fresh start with God’s church.
So it was that on September 26, the two who had been earnestly seeking for truth from God’s Word were baptized together into the church that Walter left, the one whose God never left him.
—Carol Bolden, now retired, she was RMC communication assistant; photo supplied.