SHARE YOUR STORY

There have been times in our marriage when our budget was extremely limited, and God provided for us in unexpected ways. One time an unexpected reimbursement check came in the mail. Another time we found a gift card tucked in a drawer that we'd forgotten about, but needed at that moment.

Zach and I were in the process of adopting our youngest, Bella, when one of her relatives appeared out of nowhere and also wanted to adopt her. She had been with us for over a year and we considered her our daughter, but we had to take her to supervised visits with this other family during the process. It was extremely difficult emotionally and we prayed a lot. On the day when the decision was going to be made, we went to church and sang praise and worship music together, reminding ourselves that God is in control no matter if Bella got to be part of our family or not. The state ultimately chose us and we were able to formally adopt her, which was a huge answer to prayer. But not only that, we reached out to the other family who had also wanted to adopt her and invited them to be part of Bella's life. They asked if they could be aunt and uncle to all of our kids, not just Bella, and we became dear friends. They ended up being foster parents as well and adopting a special needs teen, and Zach officiated their wedding a few years later. It's a beautiful testament to the power of God's love and the reconciliation that is possible through Him.

I haven’t struggled knowing who God is there was a time I did not know. I have been in church my whole life. I was even dedicated to him there. I was born premature and when I was two I also had my lung collapsed. The doctors thought I would not live. I had major bleeding but my mom said there are people praying. My blood disappeared as if it did not happen. The doctor was so shocked he had been working at the hospital where I was born for more than 25 years and had never seen that happen. I have shared my testimony with many people over the years. Some have even been saved because of it which is amazing to me.

n

A little under a year ago I was wandering aimlessly, I had never given up on my Faith but I definitely was not living Christ like as we are called to. After experiencing tough life lessons and church hurt I was living stubbornly as a "believer" with a decent prayer life. I was full of anger, pride, profanity, and thc addiction. A friend of mine told me about Men's Encounter and I immediately said yes as that seed had been planted years ago when another friend described to me how awesome, uplifting, and eye opening his experience there was. A week before I went my Grandmother said how she hoped it would help me help my brother, who I pretty much disowned due to alcohol abuse and neglect of his children. I replied I don't care much till he prioritizes his relationship with those boys and God, plus I'm going for myself. Well within 30 minutes of being there I felt Satan trying his last chance to get me out of there but I prayed and stayed. Within a half hour of that, the first scripture they had us look up was Luke 15:11-32, the parable of the prodicle Son. Before we got all the way through it I was in a pool of tears and felt the Lord telling me if my brother didn't know my forgiveness and Love how would he know that of our Heavenly Fathers. When I reached out to my brother the next morning I was met with much Love and apology followed with him saying he was getting ready to take my nephews to church! Praise God!!! Since then profanity, anger, and addiction fell immediately from me like the bad habits they were and we found our amazing church family at Revolution which we are forever grateful!

After suffering some church hurt in my teen years I wandered. Most of my twenties were spent living life the wrong way. I never lost faith in God, but I was not living like I was a believer. I was doing all I could to numb the hurt and pain of life's tough lessons and searching for love in any place I could. I found myself in a very abusive relationship feeling stuck and unable to find hope for the future. I would pray for a way out every night. I would pray to die just so I could be free from him. But instead of taking life away from me, God decided to plant life in me. I found out I was pregnant and that was when my world flipped. It wasn't immediate that I got the strength to finally walk away...but one day, after a very physical altercation, I found the strength. Not for me...but for her. I didn't even know she was a her yet. But God got me out and gave me the strength to never go back. Had he not blessed me with this little one, I don't know that I would have found the internal strength to walk away, and I don't know that I would be alive today to tell the story.

I will say a lived a charmed version of the Christian life. I was raised in church from the day I was born. Though the churches I was raised in weren't always those that preached salvation, I never went a day without God as a constant. I was saved at a very young age, so I never had a before Christ version of my life. But as many of us do, I found myself in a cycle of church hurt. Those lessons of inadequacy started early but didn't manifest until I was old enough to remove myself from that church and that lifestyle. Though I was secure in my foundation, I thought the only thing I could do was cut ties with God. I let myself wander, even if I tried to live as a good person. I was in a pattern of self- neglect and self- harm that was headed in a serious direction. I hit a breaking point, and finally, I turned to God as a last resort. I begged him to change me and give me a way out of where I had gotten myself. Within a month, I had a job offer that moved me to a different state. It also brought someone into my life that was able to be genuinely themselves while still seeking God. I saw how anchored they were in their faith and craved that stability. Thankfully, the faith of that one person was strong enough to pull someone else out of the storm... God gave me the man that is now my husband. He saw all my struggles and loved me through them until I was able to stand on my own. I have been able to grow beside him and find my own anchor, because even when I gave up on God, he never gave up on me.

God has loved me,delivered me and has been my saving grace from day 1! I'm a survivor of child rape,I'm a survivor of domestic violence, I'm a survivor of drug addiction, I'm a survivor of being human trafficked, I'm a survivor of being held captive and raped while he was digging my grave out in the desert of California. I'm a survivor because of God!! Jesus is my Lord and Savior! He has never left my side, in the past it was always me leaving him behind losing my faith or trust. But yet he was always there guiding me back to his love and light. Getting me out of dangerous situations or helping me survive them. Yes I struggle with worry and anxiety allot and honestly I don't know why because he has helped me overcome the unthinkable the most traumatic things that most don't survive from or able to tell their testimonies...Yes it is all by the Grace of God that I am still here living and breathing and having another chance to show others how good God really truly is... Thank you Jesus I love you so much!!!

My grandpa was 92 when he passed away; he’d been a doctor in rural Kansas all his life. He expressed feeling like he’d done his time and was ready to go, he stayed with us a couple more weeks but grew angry and bitter because everything but his mind had given up. One night I decided to stay at the hospital, it was the night before I had to go back home for college; we were essentially saying our goodbyes and he told me, “the only important thing is your family and a loving type of love.”

nAs I was laying completely alone in the next room I was asking God why he hadn’t taken him out of his misery when I very clearly heard the deepest voice say, “because you haven’t met me yet.” I felt a wave of warmth and I’ve never experienced it since. I said out loud, “ok, I hear you, I believe”.

nMy grandpa passed the next morning.

n

nI know death feels so heavy, but it doesn’t have to be dark. The beauty and light that came from that moment is what I have held onto many years later.