Frederick Jadick was born in Chester, PA on May 28, 1943.  Lynda Lorene Jadick was born in Beckley, WV on January 28, 1947.  Fred grew up in Eddystone, PA with his mother, father and brother.   Lynda grew up in Mullens, WV with her mother, father and brother.

Fred and Lynda met at Marshall University in Huntington, WV in 1963.  Fred told the story of seeing Lynda across the Student Union at Marshall and knowing that she was the woman he was going to marry.  They were married on June 17, 1967.

Fred had to fulfill his military scholarship duties and went into the Army.  He was stationed in Seoul, South Korea and Lynda went with him.  As an educator, Lynda taught English while in Korea.  In 1970, they had their first daughter, Juli Ann.  After a move to Kings Mountain and Statesville, Fred and Lynda settled down in Greensboro, NC where they had another daughter, Carrie Lorene in 1974.

Fred worked for Burlington Industries for years and then for Highland Industries and Takata.  Lynda was a lifelong educator teaching second grade for the majority of her career and had achieved National Board Certification.

More later...

Lynda Jadick's Testimony
written in 1996 to give as a Sunday School class at Mt. Pisgah.

My Testimony

            --Lynda Jadick, 1996

This is a wonderful opportunity but there is also a very vulnerable feeling about opening your life before others.  But I do think it’s important for us to be willing to give our testimonies.  Not at all to bring any attention to ourselves but to let the world know the love and willingness of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ to meet each one of us where we are and when we meet Him willingly, yield everything to Him – He faithfully creates something beautiful in our lives.  Romans 8:28

My life began several (41) years ago in a small town named Mullens in the southern part of West Virginia – both my parents were teachers but my father had stopped teaching to work in the post office and make enough to support us.  I had and have a brother nine years older.  All my years growing up were wonderful.  We had a very loving family and my parents somehow made me believe that I could do anything.  This was really an amazing feat due to the fact that I wasn’t a great student.  I had even started school a year earlier than the other students and that was OK with this small school system since my mom was a teacher.  I even had to be tutored in math to take the classes I needed in college – but you see my parents had done such a good job with this self esteem – I thought that was normal or that the tutor really just wanted to spend time with me.  We always went to the First Methodist Church and my parents didn’t talk a lot about religion but they were wonderful loving and giving people.  They are now very vocal about what God has done in their lives.  I also had two wonderful grandmothers who prayed of me every day and there is not enough praise I can give about their faithfulness to God.

At the age of 13, we had a city wide revival meeting where I really felt God calling me to repent and I did go forward at that time.  I accepted as much as I understood about God but I still did not totally yield everything and I went merrily on my way making choices and decisions without knowing what God’s word had to say or praying.  I was president of our MYF and president of Tri.Hi.Y, which was a religious club but I still was holding on to a large part of my life.  I went to college and during the summers I was a counselor at a YMCA camp and had a lot of interest in spiritual things but also in things like existentialism and I loved all Ayn Rand’s books.  So, basically I was confused but it was always important to me to do the right thing and appear right before man.  Even if I knew there was something missing I didn’t want anyone else know.

While I was in college I met this really cute boy who was so mature and so nice to me and he was also the best dancer ever.  Well I was absolutely sure that that was all you needed to make a marriage so when we asked me to marry him I was 19 and sure this was the answer to life.  We were married and in the service and lived all over and ended up in Korea and we decided we should have a baby and let the Army pay for it and we did.  Our first daughter Juli was born in Korea.  We then came back to the states and Fred went to work for Burlington Industries.  At this time we just did not have any time for church and really I felt like we were handling everything ourselves. You see that pride I mentioned earlier was not broken at all.  All through scripture God uses the examples of the seed that needs to be crushed before it can take root and bear fruit.  God could not use me at all because I was still trying to do so much on my own.  My heart was still hardened in many areas and even though what I wanted in my life was all the things God could give me I was still trying to do it all on my own.  Psalms 127:1.

Well we moved to North Carolina and finally came to Greensboro and shortly after had our second daughter Carrie.  And by all outward appearances we were perfect.  But what you can’t see when things appear perfect many times is the turmoil inside.  I wanted to be the perfect mother and wife but found myself crying many nights because I was impatient or not satisfied.  By this time we had started coming to Mt. Pisgah [United Methodist Church] and I was even teaching Sunday School to children.  Even as I was doing all that I was doing it in my own strength and trying to hide the fact that I wasn’t a perfect mother or wife.  It’s what many people call striving instead of resting in God.

A circumstance happened in my life ten years ago that changed things in our family forever.  Fred, at the age of 34, had a heart attack.  Here I was 30 years old trying to do everything right when I faced something I could not fix or even handle.  The first night Fred was in the hospital as I was putting the girls to bed – Juli was 8 and Carrie was 4 – Juli like any sweet 8 year old looked at me and asked if Daddy was going to die.  I of course said no and tucked them in and went to bed myself with what felt like a six ton truck on my chest.  During the night I remember sitting straight up in bed and I felt a real presence in the room.  I was not scared at all but I started crying and I guess I knew it was God because I just said God I can’t handle this – you are going to have to take this burden and you can Fred and the girls – I just can’t do it.  Well the most amazing things happened – I felt a peace flood my being and I picked up the Bible that had decoratively been by our bed and began to read.  I slept like a baby that night.  That peace, serenity and even that purpose I had longed for seemed there even though I didn’t understand it.

In God’s Goodness and plan, in the next week, Nancy Watson said she was having a Bible Study at her house – I was the only one to show up at her house.  Well by this time I had such a desire for God’s word that I could hardly get anything done at home.  Fred was out of the hospital and going back to work and I was going to as many Bible Studies as I could.  I wanted everything God had and one of the books that really meant a lot was The Holy Spirit by Dennis & Rita Bennett.  So many things started to change in my life.  Not all of them good.  God showed me how I had been at the center of my life and why I couldn’t understand spiritual things until Christ was the center.  1 Corinthians 3:1-3 tells about that.  He showed me why my life had been vain and with no purpose.  You see according to John 15:5, I had not been abiding in Him and even though He was the vine, my life had no fruit because I was apart from Him.  That’s why I had no peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self control – the fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22.  I certainly understood why I had no power.  I had no allowed the Holy Spirit to flow out and totally fill me.  God showed me that my pride had made me manipulative as a wife and mother.  Those nights of crying with guilt – I was guilty.  But now I was forgiven – Romans 8:1.  Therefore now there is ????  but with each bad trait God showed me and said but I have an answer for this problem.  Let me show you and teach you in my Word.  He is so gentle and kind and all forgiving and loving when we come with that open and humble spirit to Him. 

Fred had to go to Birmingham, Alabama for heart bypass surgery and I went with him.  Fred always laughs when I say this but it was wonderful for me.  I would spend time with Fred and then go back to the motel alone and spend hours in God’s word and prayer since the girls were in Greensboro.  I continued after we returned to Greensboro and his 4 bypasses were successful and Fred ws back at work going to every Bible Study I heard of in Greensboro (none at Mt. Pisgah), High Point and even drove to Charlotte.  The more I learned of God’s word, the more I realized my sin or where I had missed the mark of God’s glory and the more accountable I feel toward His word.  Several years later I had an opportunity to begin teaching full time and Fred really wanted me to for several reasons.  Well this was really upsetting my apple cart because I loved these Bible studies but by that time I had learned God’s plan for the family and I went back to work full time.  I have to lean more heavily on His Word now and I cling to several promises:

1. Be confident of this – the good work that I have begun in you will be completed until the return of Christ Jesus.  – Philippians 1:6
2. He will never leave me or forsake me.
3. 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John 16:13 says that the Holy Spirit when we ask for Him will guide us into all truth.  But God will never do in our lives what we don’t ask Him to do.  I could go on and on sharing how good and faithful God is.  He did not promise us all mountaintops.  We have had valleys and mountaintops.  I can say without fail that He has always been right there and more times than not in our family through 4 years of not knowing about Fred’s job.  When we don’t understand, His answers are always exceedingly abundantly above what we even hoped or dreamed. Ephesians 3:20.

People ask what the biggest change is and for me I think it’s freedom and purpose for living.  My purpose is not to glorify Lynda but to glorify Jesus Christ and to do that I needed to come totally to the end of myself and be broken and crushed and formed into a different image – His image.  I am a person in process and I praise His name because He is My Lord and will complete those changes as I continue to yield.  Let me end by asking you a question.  What is your purpose for living?  If it’s not to Glorify God and enjoy Him forever, then you are not fulfilling the purpose He created you for or the joy He intends you to have.