Meet The Pastor
Pastor Heath Ammons
As the new Pastor at West Marion Baptist Church, I would like to welcome everyone who visits this page to come and join us one Sunday morning. I am very blessed to serve a wonderful church filled with Christ believers and prayer warriors! Here is a brief testimony of my life.
I was born into a military family. My dad was serving in the US Army and was stationed in Hawaii
when I was born. I was born on April 27, 1978 and was the first born for my parents. It was very hard on them being so far away from home and trying to raise a child.
My parents were originally from Latta, South Carolina. What made it even more difficult for them was the fact that I was born with a hole in my heart.
The first two years of my life were very difficult ones. I wasn't expected to live past the age of two. But back at home I had a very faithful Grandmother who never ceased
praying for me. My Grandmother was as close to God as you could get without actually sitting in His lap. Her prayers really could move mountains! When it came time for my two year
old checkup, the doctors were astonished to realize that the holes in my heart had completely healed themselves and that I had a 100% clean bill of health! I guess you could consider
me to be a 'miracle baby'.
By the time I was five years old my dad had been stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He would remain there for the rest of his military career. This was a huge blessing in
my life because I didn't have to move around like so many other military kids had to do. I was very blessed to remain in the same school system from my 2nd grade year all the way
until I graduated from high school.
For the first few years of my life my family did not attend church unless we were visiting with my grandparents. It was a known fact that if you visited with Grandma that you were
going to church Sunday morning! As I got older I began to question as to why my family didn't go to church anywhere back at home. And thanks again to a God given Grandmother who never
stopped praying for us, we eventually found a church back and home in 1990 and began going regularly.
My dad was sent on a one year tour to Korea in 1991 and it was a very tough year for me. I was considered the 'man of the house' while he was away. I had a younger brother and sister
to look after and my mom was not working. It was the toughest year of my life. I faced a lot of bullying in school and a lot of problems socializing as well. It wasn't until the end
of my 7th grade year that I would begin to realize that something was missing in my life and that I needed to figure it out as soon as possible.
My dad returned home early from his tour because his dad had fallen ill and passed away suddenly in October of 1992. This was the first time that death had hit our family and it was very
surreal for me. I knew what death was, but I never stopped long enough to think about what happened after we die. I was very blessed again to have my Grandmother in my life. She is
the earliest recolation that I have of someone actually witnessing to me about Christ. I remember seeing two pictures in her house and those pictures contained the first two Bible verses
that I would memorize; John 3:16 and my all time favorite Bible verse, Philippians 4:13.
1992 slowly turned into 1993 and 93 into 1994... I would now be a teenager and looking forward to going into High School. I had become a dedicated member to my church's youth group and I
had my first chance to go to Youth Bible Camp in the summer of 1994. We went to Camp Caswell for a week and it was the first time that I was away from my family for an extended amount of time.
During that week I went through a lot of changes in my life. I learned more about God and most importantly about Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation. I learned about daily devotions and
also about witnessing. When we returned home from our trip in June of 1994, I made a public confession of my faith and turned my life over to Jesus Christ. I was baptized in July of 1994 at
Green Springs Baptist Church in Parkton, NC. Now that I was saved I figured that my life was going to be great from that day forward! I was in for another rough year in my life, but this time I had a savior to fall back on.
On November 7, 1994 I lost one of my best friends to suicide. It was the first time that I had lost someone so young in my life and it was very difficult for me to understand why this had
happened. What made things worse for me was that on November 18, 1994 my other grandfather passed away suddenly due to a heart attack. In less than two weeks death had visited my door and
taken two people that I held dear to my heart. Through it all my dad continued to remind me that life was precious and that I should not worry about my friend or my grandfather. He
believed strongly that they both were in Heaven and now because of my recent confession of faith, that I too would one day live in Heaven.
The years went by and I found myself graduated from High School and moving on with my life. I began to fill a strong calling in my life to go into the ministry, but I kept making excuses
not to do it. I was married in 2000 and married life seemed to move ever so quickly. Fast forward to the year 2014....
In 2014 my wife and I rejoined the church where we were married. We had been out of church for a little over two years and had fallen deeply out of the will of God. The calling in my
life was increasing and I continued to try and ignore it and put it behind me.
In April of 2016 a young man in our church went public with his call to ministry. After listening to his testimony and comparing things that had happened in his life to things that had
happened in mine, I realized that I had no excuse. The Holy Spirit spoke to me once again and revealed to me that I was still being called into ministry. Every excuse that I had, God had
an answer for and could eliminate it. Every doubt that I had, God had reason to disprove those doubts. After years of running from it, through the divine spirit of God, I let go of my
pride and stopped making excuses. In May of 2016 I went before my church and made the public confession that I had been called into ministry and that through the will of God, I would answer
the call.
I attended Foothills Baptist Bible College beginning in August of 2016. I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Theology in June of 2020. During that time I have served as a Youth Leader
at Bethlehem Baptist Church, the Youth Pastor at Temple Baptist Church, and most recently I was ordained and licensed to be the new Pastor of West Marion Baptist Church.
I feel like my life serving God has just begun. My testimony is still being written each and every day. I know that God has a plan for my life and that it won't be easy. But I also have an
everlasting promise that God will always be with me and that there is NOTHING that I can not do as long as I keep Him first in all that I do.
Philippians 4:13