SI member Lorddoitagain's post: JUST CURIOUS … How many lives have been changed by SI discussions? Any testimonies? ( www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=47672&forum=36 ) has caused me to think about some of my memories of SermonIndex over the years. I thought I would share some of them and open a thread where others can do the same.

I first found SI either in Dec of 2002 or Jan of 2003. I found it the same way most early members of SI did, I was searching for A.W. Tozer sermons online. I immediately emailed the link to all my friends and continued to do so once a month for almost a year. I was amazed at the shear number AND QUALITY of the sermons available for download. And that's just what I did with my dial-up service...lol. Because of where I live, my 56k service was more like 5k. I would start a sermon downloading before I went to work and would listen to it when I returned home. This place had David Wilkerson--one of my heroes, Carter Conlon, T. Austin Sparks, and even Keith Green! I thought I had found heaven on earth and I still think that sometimes. Now with a 30meg connection and several large hard drives I try to download as much of the site as I can and store the sermons.

Joining the Forums:

At first I didn't post in the forums; I didn't even join the site. I was quite comfortable to download everything anonymously. On April 18th of 2003 I couldn't take how brother Wilkerson was being treated in the forums. It was time to join in--I brought my battle axe. I immediately got into a fight with Jimmy Humphrey who now goes by the nickname KingJimmy (Love you bro! :-)) and another member named Agent007 and a few others. I worked at Wal-Mart; I would race home during my lunch hours and fire off a few quick attacks and counter-attacks before heading back. Eventually that died down but a oneness believer had joined the forums and was baiting members into debates about the trinity. Being fresh from Bible College naturally I took the bate. I pretty much treated the forums on SI as my own personal fight-club my first year and a half. Greg even made me a moderator so I could watch over the section of the forum designated for David Wilkerson. (At that time the forums looked much different. There were several sections each devoted to a different speaker.) But during that time I was also listening to the sermons and they were convicting me. At the time most members were here for the sermons more than the forums and the forums reflected that. There were very few members by today's standard. Greg used to keep a counter on the site that showed how many members there were. We would post a special topic and have a little online party every time we crossed a threshold. But only a few of us actively participated in the forums and for about a year the forums became a very sweet place of fellowship. We were tired of fighting each other and posting repentant threads constantly. There was a different spirit for a while where we all kind of lifted each other up. It was even mentioned a few times by the members how the forums had changed and how they used to dread coming to them but now they looked forward to meeting each other so-to-speak online.(More of this later)

Getting to Know Greg (SermonIndex):

As you know by now, I was a fan of David Wilkerson. I already had a large tape collection of TSC sermons and was familiar with the church in New York City. I had recently visited it in 2002. At the beginning of each sermon Times Square Church states that no one has permission to put any of their sermons on a web-site. What does this have to do with me getting to know Greg? Well my first correspondence with him was a pm asking him if he had permission from TSC to post the sermons. He told me he was hoping for forgiveness as he had not yet acquired permission...lol. (More about this later, Greg may want to share about this, it's a wonderful story.) We added each other to MSN messenger as did most of us at the time. Greg and I discussed ways to promote SI and encouraged each other. For a while we looked up Bible College web-sites and emailed all the professors an invitation to look at and join the site. There were a few that included SI in their course syllabus after they researched the sermons! I thought that was pretty awesome.

Alan Martin and my change of attitude brings Greg to Missouri:

Most of the time as I became friends with Greg I was pretty miserable. My job was horrible, my church was dead, my denomination was embracing the world's system, my local friends were abandoning any discernment in order to get people to join their churches. I was pretty depressed. Greg was living in California at this time and attending the Calvary Chapel Bible College there. He would often try to convince me to move to Ca. and finish my degree out there. I had convinced him that there was nothing here in Southeast Missouri worth staying around for. At one point I had given up. I still attended church but I didn't expect anything out of it. I was content to go to work and come home to get in my study and read. But in May of 2005, after I had told another friend that the presence of God was nowhere to be found in my hometown, I met Alan Martin. Alan lives about 45 minutes south of me. They are a wonderful family full of the Spirit of God and there is a wonderful fellowship there. God began restoring my faith and the tome of my letters changed so radically that Greg detoured through Missouri on his way home to Toronto Canada to meet me and my new friends. It was great meeting up with the brother and introducing him to Alan. Alan has since spoken at some of the revival conferences.

Many members have since become my friends. KingJimmy, PaulWest, RobertW, Ron Bailey and many more. I've met the Courvilles in Springfield Mo and a brother named Travis met with me while I was working in Cincinnati Oh. last spring. The fellowship was very blessed. The Lord has worked through the forums here to tie many of us together. We pray for each other and share our lives as much as we can together.

Alright, I have to go and mix up some cookie dough so I'm gonna leave off here. There's still much to say and share. I look forward to hear how you all have interacted with SI over the years. I hope someone has something to share about the revival conferences. I hope this thread is a blessing.

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Jeremy Hulsey