[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.24.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.24.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]When God wants your attention, He\u2019ll command it. That was certainly the case for Brandon Mannon (in the green shirt, pictured above), whose life did a 180 exactly one year ago after the Lord brought him to a place of acute awareness of his mortality and recognition of his need for salvation.<\/p>\n
Brandon, a member of Fellowship\u2019s Cabot Campus along with his wife Sarah and daughter Emmalyn, grew up a military brat. \u201cI didn\u2019t have a place in particular that I called home. It was wherever the military sent us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up on bases around the world was, as one could imagine, filled with both unique experiences and hardships. On the one hand, Brandon got to live abroad in places like Puerto Rico and England, getting to visit culturally significant sights such as England\u2019s breathtaking historic churches and cathedrals. Too, due to moving every two years, he learned how to quickly assimilate and adapt to new surroundings. On the other hand, though, he witnessed and went through heartbreaking circumstances that are hard for civilians to imagine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up on a base during a time of war where there\u2019s a, it\u2019s called a casualty notification vehicle. It\u2019s just a regular vehicle that\u2019s on the base. But it has a white top. And anyone that drives that vehicle is going to go notify someone on base, that someone they love has either been injured or killed.\u201d Every time he saw that white-top truck drive by, he would think, \u201cplease God, not my house. Please God, not my house.\u201d Brandon says that experience taught him \u201cto respect and love those that sign that blank check for, you know, giving their life for you to have the ability to do whatever you want to do. Because there\u2019s not very many places like the U.S. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The worst moments were when his dad would receive the notification that he was being deployed. \u201cWe were at dinner a couple times, and dad would literally take off his wedding ring and take off all of the stuff and hand it to Mom and then have to go. \u2018Cause it\u2019s not one of those things, you know, you don\u2019t know where they\u2019re going, but where they\u2019re going, it\u2019s not a good place. So, and he can\u2019t take anything like that with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of the difficulties of living as a military family, there was an instance of church hurt in Brandon\u2019s childhood that would affect his spiritual life for the next two decades.<\/p>\n
At the Puerto Rico base, both Brandon and his parents experienced exclusion because of his father\u2019s rank in the military. Brandon said some of the kids had cliques, where he was not welcome, and it left a sour taste in his mouth regarding church and church goers. \u201cSo it kind of, like, pushed me away,\u201d Brandon recalls. Prior to last year, Brandon says it had been \u201cover 20 years since I had willingly set foot in a church. I had been for like, holidays and whatnot. Like Christmas service or Easter service, and you know, I was forced to go, I didn\u2019t want to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result, he said, \u201cI just continued on in life, just kind of doing whatever I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon explained that he had \u201ca very cynical outlook on life in a lot of ways,\u201d and that in the past, \u201cI was I was not the easiest person to be around. Like the person you see now is not the person that I was, you know, a year and a half ago. \u2026 I\u2019ve never been one to just be rude to random people, but, you know, cross me and look at me the wrong way \u2014\u00a0yeah. Like I just wasn\u2019t the nicest of people. But I would, you know, still help the old lady get to her car or whatever the case was. \u2026but I just, I was very quick to rage and very quick to anger, you know, it was just, that was just who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon said the extent of his communication with the Lord during that period of his life was basically just anytime he found himself in a bind and needed something. \u201cIf it was one of those, you know, \u2018this is a scary situation,\u2019 ask God for whatever I needed to ask Him for, and then forget about it five minutes later.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to be a mechanic, a husband, and a father, and life continued on as normal.<\/p>\n
That is, until May 6, 2023.<\/p>\n
Brandon\u2019s blood pressure randomly spiked that day. It shook him up quite a bit. Then, he had another episode on May 12. He said he felt like he was going to have a stroke \u2014\u00a0his blood pressure this time skyrocketed to 220 over 170. He waited five hours in the ER with that sustained blood pressure. The doctors ran the gamut of tests on him, and everything came out fine. They said, \u201c\u2018We don\u2019t know what caused this. But you\u2019re fine.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018These are not the answers I\u2019m looking for. Like, I know something was wrong. And I<\/em> don\u2019t know what it was, and you<\/em> don\u2019t know what it was.\u2019 So that\u2019s like what prompted me to be like, okay, \u2018I know I\u2019m going to die\u2026 so, I\u2019m just gonna get right.\u2019\u201d Brandon said their best guess ended up being that he had experienced panic attacks, but regardless \u2014 this had commanded his attention, and he knew he needed to meet with God.<\/p>\n So, he began looking for churches. The first one he tried wasn\u2019t open. As he was passing by the second church he was considering, something inside him didn\u2019t feel good about it, so he just moved on. The third was Fellowship Cabot.<\/p>\n When he walked in, he saw Cabot Kids\u2019 Pastor Greg Summers. He said, \u201c\u2018hey, I\u2019m looking for a pastor,\u2019 and he\u2019s like \u2018hey, look no further. I\u2019m a pastor.\u2019\u201d Brandon broke down in tears. The two talked for about forty five minutes. Brandon told Greg, \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m on my way out. I\u2019m just basically trying to save myself. And he\u2019s like, \u2018well, in the event that you\u2019re not on your way out, why don\u2019t we do this? We continue talking, you continue coming here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It would take two more weekday visits before Brandon would attend a Sunday service. He went back a week after his interaction with Greg. Cabot Adult Discipleship Pastor Tyler Vance saw Brandon at the door and let him in, and he went into the Worship Center just to sit by himself for a bit. There, he broke down again. Cabot Campus Pastor Jason Beams walked through the Worship Center, saw Brandon, and sat by him. \u201cHe just sits down next to me and goes, \u2018hey, you look troubled. How can I help?\u2019\u201d The two talked and prayed, and then Brandon left for work.<\/p>\n He returned the next Friday to find Cabot Student Pastor Alan Greenwood in the parking lot trying to fix a van that had died that was supposed to take the Cabot students to an Arkansas Traveler\u2019s game. Being a mechanic, Brandon offered to help. \u201cAnd he kinda could tell something wasn\u2019t right.\u201d So the pair went inside and talked for a bit. Alan told him, \u201cyou need me? Just reach out.\u201d<\/p>\n That third interaction was the final push that he needed, and Brandon and his family attended church the following Sunday. Fellowship was in its \u201cPlaylist\u201d sermon series on the Psalms at the time, and the passage for that day was Psalm 6, taught by Jason.<\/p>\n PSALM 6 (ESV)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 1<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>O\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>,\u00a0rebuke me not in your anger,<\/em> Brandon said that Psalm described exactly<\/em> what he was walking through. \u201cI am just yet again a blubbering fool, trying my best, to just keep it together and at the very least not make noise to disrupt the service.\u201d<\/p>\n He approached Jason afterward and asked if that message and passage had been chosen for him, since they had had an interaction recently about what Brandon was going through. Jason answered that actually, due to the teaching planning schedule, that passage had been chosen a year prior. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018so I have a question for you. Are you a believer?\u2019 And I literally said, \u2018Well, I kinda gotta be now!\u2019\u201d He said that Psalm Six being read that day was like God saying, \u201c\u2018Hey, I\u2019m talking to you in particular. It\u2019s not: \u2018to whom it may concern.\u2019 It\u2019s: \u2018I\u2019m talking to you<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Brandon also pointed out the significance to him of the numerical facts of his interactions: his initial visit was on the third day of the week. It was the third church he\u2019d considered. He ended up having profound encounters with three of Cabot\u2019s pastors. And, he was 33 years old when he visited. He didn\u2019t initially know the significance of those numbers in the Christian faith, but over time, he learned, and it blew him away. To him, it was further evidence of God\u2019s sovereignty. Also, since May of 2023, Brandon has not had any more health scares or panic attacks.<\/p>\n All of this came as a much-welcomed blessing to Brandon\u2019s wife Sarah, who\u2019d told Greg on the Sunday of their first visit that she had been praying for years for him to want to go to church.<\/p>\n At the encouragement of Teaching Pastor Justin Bilson, Brandon has been faithfully sharing his testimony in a variety of platforms over the past several months, such as\u00a0Navigate: Men\u2019s Gathering, as well as all three of Cabot\u2019s Christmas Eve services.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople that know me know I\u2019m different. People who have known me for years, they have said on more than one [occasion] like, \u2018dude, you\u2019re not the same person.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018would you be?\u2019\u201d When God wants your attention, He\u2019ll command it. That was certainly the case for Brandon Mannon (in the green shirt, pictured above), whose life did a 180 exactly one year ago after the Lord brought him to a place of acute awareness of his mortality and recognition of his need for salvation. Brandon, a member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":16,"featured_media":30503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[494],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-written"],"acf":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fellowshipar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>nor\u00a0discipline me in your wrath.<\/em>
\n<\/em>2\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Be gracious to me, O\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>, for I am languishing;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>heal me, O\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>,\u00a0for my bones are troubled.<\/em>
\n<\/em>3\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>My\u00a0soul also is greatly troubled.<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>But you, O\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>\u2014how long?
\n<\/em>4\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Turn, O\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>, deliver my life;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>save me for the sake of your steadfast love.<\/em>
\n<\/em>5\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>For in\u00a0death there is no remembrance of you;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>in Sheol who will give you praise?
\n<\/em>6\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>I am\u00a0weary with my\u00a0moaning;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>every night I flood my bed with tears;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I drench my couch with my weeping.<\/em>
\n<\/em>7\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>My\u00a0eye wastes away because of grief;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>it grows weak because of all my foes.
\n<\/em>8\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>Depart from me, all you\u00a0workers of evil,<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>for the\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>\u00a0has heard the sound of my weeping.<\/em>
\n<\/em>9\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>The\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>\u00a0has heard my\u00a0plea;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0<\/em>Lord<\/em>\u00a0accepts my prayer.<\/em>
\n<\/em>10\u00a0<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;<\/em>
\n<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>they shall\u00a0turn back and be put to shame in a moment.<\/em><\/p>\n
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