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Most of us are acquainted with Bo and Angie
Shelly, the young couple with two children who sit in the
back of the church, faithfully operating our Tape Ministry
and serving in the Church Nursery’. This month, as a
reminder to their church family to lift them up in prayer,
we’d like to briefly share their testimonies and thank the
Lord for the many blessings that He has lavished
upon the
Shelly family and upon the church body through them.
Both Bo and Angie Shelly were born and raised
in Santa Barbara County and have never lived outside the
area, Bo in Buellton and
Angie in Solvang. Bo became a Christian as a teenager while
living with his mother in Santa Barbara. His father’s
second painful divorce led him to seek God at
Christian-based churches
in Santa Barbara and Bo was moved to attend with him,
receiving Christ as His savior two years
later while reading a
tract about the separation of God and man and praying
with a friend of Pastor Blain’s, Pastor Bob. Pastor Bob’s
congregation split at around the same time as the
heartrending Community Church split in the mid-90’s and
while Pastor Bob and
Pastor Blain leaned on one another for counsel and
support, Pastor Bob encouraged Bo to get to know the
congregation here in Buellton. Bo did and he and Angie have
been faithful parts of this fellowship for over a decade
now.
Angie was raised in a godless home by a
mother who struggled with
manic depression. She never knew her father and she and her
mother and sister lived in poverty. Angle’s childhood was
difficult and abusive. She had little accountability
and no understanding of herself as a child created to
worship and enjoy intimacy with Christ.
Bo and Angie met through friends in high
school. They began by talking on the phone for hours at
a time and soon they fell in love. The Holy Spirit began
to convict Bo over the relationship as Bo was saved
while Angie was hostile towards the word. As Bo says,
issues of heaven, hell, and judgment didn’t sit well with her! Bo
discussed the relationship with his father and decided
to break the connection with her after a two week period
of witnessing and prayer which he hoped would plant a
seed. Bo gave Angie the same tract about the separation
of God and man which had helped to soften his heart
towards the gospel and asked her to read it. She phoned
him later that same
evening with questions about the tract and Bo walked her
through the steps of salvation and Angie repented of her
sins and believed the Lord was her savior. Bo
felt that the Lord wanted their relationship to continue
and two years later,
they
eloped. Angie was 18 and Bo was 21.
Since their beginning, the Lord has blessed
this precious couple in myriad ways.
Angie and Bo say that the Lord had the other
in mind when he created each of them and their marriage is a
gift. He blessed them with their precious children, Luke and
April. He has blessed them even further with the opportunity
to own a home in Los Alamos through the affordable housing
program. The couple had assumed that they would always have
to rent to be able to remain in the valley near their church
family and Bill and Lillie Shelly, and accepted that fact
when they came in seventh on the lottery list for the four
available brand new affordable homes. The Lord worked it out
so that they slowly moved up the list and are now grateful
homeowners, amazed that each of their children have their
own room to sleep in, a luxury that Angie had never thought
possible.
Bo’s labor intensive work at Arrowhead has
taken a toll on his health and in recent months, Bo’s back
has suffered injury to the extent that he is unable to sit
or stand for long periods of time, much less work. Bo says
that this is perhaps the most difficult time in his life as
he believes that he should earn every dollar and work
everyday of his life to support his family. God has decided
in His providence that
for an indeterminate amount of time, Bo will not be able to
work and will have to depend upon a limited income from
workers’ comp to sustain the family financially. Bo
and Angie would covet the prayers of the church body for his
healing, for the ability to return to work, and that in the
meantime, workers’ comp income would be fair and expedient.
The young Shelly family clings to Psalms
34:1-9 for strength at this time: “I
will extol the LORD at all times; His praise
will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with
me; let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and
he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who
look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with
shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard
him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is
the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his
saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”
*Interview
by Anjie Park |
