I grew up in Central Florida where my home life was very difficult and I did not attend church. My mother was an alcoholic single parent; very bitter due to my father leaving her for another woman. She withdrew and while she still managed to support me economically, provided very little parental support. I had no rules and no accountability. By the time I was a teenager, I lived the way you might expect a teenager without restrictions to live. I did very poorly in school, got involved with the wrong crowd, and did things I’m now too embarrassed to admit. By the time I reached my early 20’s, I was on the verge of imploding.

Shortly after coming to South Carolina to take a job, I met Sonya, the unbelievable woman who is now my wife. Early in our relationship, she invited me to visit her church. I was crazy about Sonya, so it was a “no-brainer.” After many months of dating her and visiting her church, I decided I wanted to become a member. When I met with the pastor, however, he first asked me if I had a personal relationship with Christ. It was at this moment, in December 1988, at 22 years old, I made the decision to receive the free gift of salvation available by admitting I am a sinner, repenting, and being saved from Hell by Jesus taking my place in death.

At that moment, when I first believed that Jesus was God, that he died for my sins, and that he lives so I can live, is the moment I truly became a new creation. While I’m hardly perfect, God has found ways to use me in the last 18 years that I would have never imagined. I cleaned up my life style, but more importantly I became involved in teaching God’s word and serving him boldly. I now teach college students in Bible Fellowship hoping to impress upon them the potential they have in Christ and not to waste it like I did when I was their age.

My life before Christ was one of confusion, no peace, and lacked purpose. I was not raised in a Christian home. Both parents were alcoholics. My family was very poor and we had few clothes to wear. I remember being made fun of by my peers at school . I started working fulltime at the age of 15 to support myself. I moved out with my older sister when I was 16 and was married with a child at 18. I was not prepared to be a wife or mother and wasn’t good at either one. I did alot of things in my late teens and early 20’s that I am very ashamed of. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful Christian woman who lived in Mississippi and visited us every couple of years and I knew she had an inner peace, love, and joy that must have come from the Lord.

In August of 1982, I didn’t feel that I could live another day in the lost and miserable world I was living in. I was sobbing and cried out to the Lord. I confessed my sins and begged for His forgiveness. I asked the Lord to come into my life and he did so immediately. I asked God to show me a sign so I would be certain Satan wasn’t playing a game with me. He revealed a very small bright light for just a couple of seconds and it disappeared. I was overwhelmed with joy and innerpeace. I knew I had just died to an old life and was beginning a new one.

After joining a church and being baptized, I was happy and at peace. I attended worship service, read my Bible and prayed. Then in 1991, I backslid when I was faced with divorce, my dad with terminal cancer and my mother not expected to live but a few months. I became angry with God and turned my back to him. In 2004, I developed an auto-immune disorder that prevented me from working and ended my nursing career. I became more angry. On Sept. 3rd, 2006, 15 years of being away from God, I rededicated my life and joined First North. My life is better than it has ever been even though I have an illness. My life has meaning and direction. I have an inner peace. I have what I saw in my Grandmother! I love the Lord and all my hope and strength comes from Him.

My Father was born in Pennsylvania but was stationed at Camp Croft while in the military. He then met my mother. He was Italian and was raised as a Catholic. Apparently, drinking wine or other alcoholic beverages were “common” in his family; however, he apparently abused the use of alcohol, which also caused him to abuse my mother. They divorced when I was an infant so my mother and I lived with her parents, and my father returned to PA. I do not remember my earthly father, but I was blessed to be raised in a loving, Christian home where Jesus was lived and taught. We had family devotions and prayer in our home, as well as being active in church.

God blessed me with excellent spiritual teaching at home as well as at church. When I was 10 years old, I began asking questions about becoming a Christian. I had been in church every time the door was open, but I realized that being saved is a personal relationship with Jesus that EACH person has to make for themselves. With guidance from my mother and from my grandparents, I prayed for Jesus to come into my heart and to forgive me for my sins. As a 10 year old, I was not delivered from a life of drugs, alcohol or crime, but I realized that I was a sinner who needed to be saved. Jesus did save me, as He promised to do.

In college I played in several bands, one of which became very famous AFTER I left. I was the only non-drinker in the group and also did not use drugs, even though my hair was very long. Narcotic agents thought that I was selling drugs until they followed me to church on a Wednesday night. God now allows me to play the piano, sing and to write music to honor Him. I married, believing it was for a lifetime, but learned that the other person does not always believe that. When my two sons were temporarily taken from me, I was devastated. I had to depend upon God in a different way, which resulted in me eventually obtaining custody and for visitation to be modified, so my sons would still be with me on Sundays to be in church each week. People may disappoint us, but God is always faithful.

I was very blessed growing up to have a mom who trusted in God for everything. My dad was an alcoholic. He had a great heart but he allowed alcohol to place him in a defeated life. Therefore my mom had to work two jobs to provide for our family. My mom never panicked when she couldn’t make ends meet. She always told us that God would take care of all of our needs. She not only took us to hear God’s word, she showed us in her life that she believed that He would. You know what? He always did.

Even with seeing her faith I didn’t have that peace in my heart. I knew all about who Christ was in other people’s lives but since I had no real relationship with my dad I found it hard to believe that God could love me that much. At the age of 13 my Sunday school teacher shared with me her story of how Christ changed her life. She had grown up in much the same life that I had. That she didn’t see how God could love her but that once she accepted Christ and His promises she knew a great peace in her life. That day I accepted Christ into my heart and life and that peace most certainly came into my life.

Could I possibly know that having that peace and having seen God always prove faithful in His promises to my mom would take me through the two darkest seasons of my life? At the age of 30 I lost my twin sister in a tragic car accident. Seven years later my marriage and dreams of a family ended when my husband chose to live a homosexual lifestyle and end our marriage. Though my heart was broken as a result of these two things in my life, that Peace of Christ never left me. He was my Rock and my Joy. He promised me that He would never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). He also promised me in Jeremiah 29:11 that He knew the plans that He had for me and they were plans to prosper me and not to harm me. That HE had a future and hope for me. Unlike any human, He has always kept His Promises to me. Now He has blessed me to serve Him in ministry and share with others my story of what He has done in my life.