My family did not attend church. I felt like I was always trying to survive all that was going on around me. My parents fought viciously all the time. My mother abused me physically, and both of my parents abused me emotionally. It got to the point where I just wanted out. I decided to kill myself. Every time I went to the medicine cabinet intent on taking enough pills to take me out of this world, it would go through my head that if I did I would go to hell. I didn’t know a lot about hell but I knew I didn’t want to go there, so I would just go to my room and cry. I felt like I had no hope.
My Grandma had told me that Billy Graham was a good man, so I watched him on TV. It felt like I was the only one he was talking to, and when he shared John 3:16 which tells of a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for our wrongdoings, my heart was broken. I realized He must love me a lot to do something like that. I was around nine yrs. old and that night I asked forgiveness for all I had done wrong and asked Jesus to come into my life. I would like to tell you that things started going great in my family life but they didn’t. Nothing changed in that area but something marvelous had happened in me. I now had hope.
A lot of years have flown by since I was that little girl. Life had some tough things in store for me, but God says in His word that He will never leave nor forsake us, and He has kept all His promises. He has made all the difference in my life. My mother thinks I am a zealot because I go to church so often and still puts me down. I used to need her approval. The only approval I need now is from the loving Savior who gave me hope, strength and a new life. I would have never have made it this far without Him. I can never thank Him enough.
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I grew up going to church. From the time I was a small child I went to church, sunday school and VBS. When I was ten years old my father was murdered. A couple of years later my neighbor committed suicide. When I was fifteen my cousin died. I became very angry. I quit going to church, my grades dropped and I started drinking. During my college years, I all but forgot about church and God. I was very angry at God and myself because I knew I was wrong.
In college I started dating Dee, my wife. She encouraged me to go to church. I attended for a while but was only there for show. Then one day the pastor preached a sermon about forgiveness. How could I ask to be forgiven if I could not forgive. I thought, prayed and read passages from the Bible. Shortly thereafter, I accepted Christ and joined the church.
Since accepting Christ, I have been truly blessed. I have been able to let go of the anger that was weighing me down. I have a much stronger relationship with my wife and daughter. I now look forward to every day, knowing that I am forgiven and can forgive.
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My name is Autumn McAbee. I am 18 years old. I grew up in a loving Christian home and always went to church but my life was never been “normal.” My mom battled cancer all my life! I dealt with her sickness pretty well to be a young child, but one day I realized I could not do it alone!
I was in church one day and really felt the need to go down and learn more about accepting Jesus. I was only 6 years old so I told my mom and dad I wanted to go down and they came with me to talk with my pastor. He explained to me that Jesus loved me and died for me. He read my John 3:16 and I knew I wanted Jesus in my heart! I was always up close and personal with death, seeing that my mom was on and off of chemo and treatments for her brain tumor. I knew that if I died I wanted to go to Heaven so I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me from my sins. I wanted Him to help me through the huge things I was facing at home!
Things have not gotten better with my mother’s situation since I asked Jesus in my heart. Actually, she passed away from a brain tumor a couple of months ago, Feb. 3,2007. The beauty of it is, God was there to get me through all of it! I am not angry with God for my mother’s death, I have only gotten closer to Him through it all! I could have never gotten through the long years of watching my mother suffer without His divine power! I definitaly miss my mom and her love and company, but I know that she is so much better off where she is! IN HEAVEN WITH MY JESUS! I live daily with the comfort that I will see her again one day in Heaven, but better yet, I will meet JESUS!
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My story is a little different from most. I was 76 years old, had recently sold a bar that my wife and I owned, hadn’t stepped inside a Church in years, even though my Mama made sure I was there when I was young. I had always considered myself a “good person”, always looking out for the other person and trying to do what was right by them. My life had no real direction, just work, pay the bills and enjoy life to its fullest. But on December 18, 2006 I was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and from that moment on, my life began to change. While on the ventilator for almost two weeks I had dreams of being tormented by bugs that grew and of people standing by my side, wanting me to go with them down a corridor.
Then I remember seeing a pen light that continued to grow bigger and stronger and was shining down next to me. I rolled over into the light and was pulled up into an opening that was beautiful, full of twinkling lights. It was then that I started getting better, because it was then that God gave me a second chance. After the hospital I was admitted to a nursing home for rehab and then shared my story with my wife. I asked her to purchase a Bible for me, but our friends Bobby and Judy Moss sent me my first Bible and asked Pastor Mike to visit me. After sharing my story with Pastor Mike, he shared God’s story with me. And there in the nursing home, I gave my heart to the Lord.
I know that there is a Heaven and a Hell and I know that God has given me a second chance. A chance to share my story, a chance to Praise and Worship Him. Before Christ came into my life, I let things worry me that I had no control over. But now, I am able to let God deal with my problems. Money worries, we all have, but with God in my life I know that he’ll take care of them. He’ll take care of us, He’ll see us thru. I’m not afraid to go to sleep, because I know that one day I’ll wake up in Heaven.
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I grew up in a church, so I knew about God and all the stories in the bible. I just had never asked Jesus into my heart.
I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was 8 years old. I dont remember if anything had occured in my life that made me want to, but I never doubted the choice I had made.
About 2 years ago, when I was 13, I was in a car accident that changed my whole life. I was on a church trip with 9 other girls and we were on an interstate at like 9:00 at night. During the course of switching lanes we hit another car and by trying to correct it we ended up flipping the car multiple times. I wasn’t buckled up and was thrown from the car. I was in a coma for the first two weeks while in the hosiptal. I sustained a brain injury, lost sight in my left eye as well as the feeling in the left side of my face and my sense of smell. For the longest time after all of that, I was angry with God. I didnt understand why He had chosen me to go through all the pain that I still deal with to this day. After going on church trips and having people pray for me and some prayer for myself, God began to soften my heart. I never understood what I was supposed to do with this story of mine until a resent mission trip where I got to share the story for the first time. And for the first time since the accident I understood why my life was spared.
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