Well, I almost waited until it was too late!
As everyone has shared, my one and only brother (Rick) was the first to get saved in our family. Then my parents got saved, and I was sort of expected to go to church with them. I did, but I can't say anything really sunk in. But every week, my boyfriend Jason and his sister Amy would pick me up on Sunday morning and we'd go to church. Singing, preaching, home again until next time. That's about how it went for me.
I'm in my last year of college, and a week ago I had a morning class and was planning to go shopping after that. I never made it. As I was getting off the elevator in the parking garage at school, someone grabbed me from behind. Books went flying everywhere and the next thing I knew, I felt my leg give in from under me. I had been stabbed! I felt that I was going to black out right then and there, but I know if I did that I was dead. So I hung on and fought to free myself from whoever this was. Then I felt extreme pain in my arm. The man had stuck the knife down to the bone and ripped the knife back out. I kicked, I hit and I screamed my head off. He turned loose and as I fell to the ground, I heard him run off.
I never saw who the man was, but he left me with two pretty bad stab wounds and marks around my neck where he had chocked me. Someone finally arrived, and I was taken to the hospital.
My family began to arrive and then my boyfriend, Jason. I could hear him out in the hall, pounding the walls and screaming that someone had to do something. Jason's pretty easy going, and this newly displayed temper was not the norm! When they finally allowed him to come in and see me, he was crying. Well, I have to admit that it felt good to see how much he loved me! We talked for awhile, and I confided something to him that I had never shared with anyone. I wasn't a Christian! And if that had killed me, I'd have been lost forever. Very scary when you look at it that way!
So Jason went out in the hall and brought my brother Rick in. We told him that we weren't Christians, but we were ready to be. I'll never forget seeing Rick, such a big strong guy, sitting there at my bedside holding my hand and smiling, even though tears were pouring down his face. He prayed with us, we prayed for ourselves, and Jason and I joined the family of God!
Immediately, Jason said he had to talk with me about something. Well, it's a little embarrassing to share, but we've been together intimately, and he wanted to let me know that we couldn't do that anymore because we're Christians now. Pretty big stand, I thought! When the Lord changed him, he really got changed! But I agreed with him. What we had done in the past was wrong in God's eyes, and it couldn't happen again. But let's face it, we're human! And I guess we both knew that the temptation would be too strong. So even though we're both still in school and we don't have ANYTHING, we got married within a week after I got out of the hospital! We feel that because we were obedient to what we felt the Lord wanted from us, He will look out for our future and we won't have to struggle too much.
My testimony brings up an important area. Waiting until it's almost too late to come to the Lord. I could have been killed in that parking garage, and if I had been, I'd be in Hell right now. A very sobering thought, to say the least. But God gave me the chance to make it all right. He might not give everyone the same chance. So if you find your way to this testimony page and you're not a Christian, you might want to consider where YOU'D be if something happened to you. Jesus is ready. He's ALWAYS ready. It's us human who are the ding-dongs and think we know everything and don't need anyone, not even the Lord! Once you reach out to Him, you won't believe how great it is, and you'll realize how really stupid you were for pushing Him away for so long. Snap to it! Time's just ticking away ...
I was born to what I lovingly refer to as "two ex-hippies". My parents were products of ther generation! Both had quit high school their sophomore years and had ran off to Colorado, where they lived in a commune-type arrangement. My Dad designed and made jewelry, and my Mom peddled it for him. Then I was born in 1978. I think Mom's parents thought this was no way to bring up a child, and they gave them the money to move back to California and set them up in a house. My Mom settled into raising me and taking care of the house, and Dad ... well, he never really outgrew his "hippie days". He drifted from job to job, sometimes he'd take a regular job like maintenance at a factory. But it never lasted long. And he continued to make his jewelry, but the demand for peace-symbol necklaces dwinded away after awhile! Life was never easy for us, but it was never boring!
In 1985, Mom and Dad gave me a beautiful baby sister, Amy. But when Amy was four years old, she and Mom were in a terrible car accident. Amy's severe head injuries left her "different". She was, what the doctors called, "mentally handicapped". They said she would never be the same, never mature much past the eight or ten year old level, and since then she's always been in special education at school. But although she's not as quick at some things as a normal girl her age (she's fifteen now), she's loving and fun, and my best friend!
Two years ago, my Mom went to the doctor because she had felt something near her breast. The dreaded tests came back ... breast cancer. After surgery to remove the cancer proved unsuccessful, it spread rapidly to other areas, including the brain. And last year (only one year after the initial diagnosis), Mom passed away. Immediately (only two weeks after we lost Mom), Dad announced that he was placing Amy in an institution and was moving to Hawaii. It didn't take a Master's Degree to figure out that for all those months that Mom was dieing, Dad was spending time at some Polynesian restaurant and had taken up with a waitress there. She was from Hawaii, and now he was going to move there with her. I was in college already and living in a dorm. I finally convinced Dad that since I was twenty-one, he could sign legal guardianship of Amy over to me. I just couldn't live if I thought of her in an institution! Finally, he gave in. He signed the papers, and I got a job and an apartment, and brought Amy to live with me. Dad took Mom's insurance money and went to live in the Islands with his new lady (I hear they have a new baby girl -- and maybe he can love this one more than he did his first family. For her sake, I pray for that).
Meeting Wendi at school, we had dated since our freshman year of college. Meeting her family was the best thing to ever happen to me, because they accepted me just like one of their own. I finally had a "real family", at least a normal one! Wendi's already told about her attack and how we came to Jesus right after that. THAT'S really been the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I asked Wendi to marry me, she said yes, and we were married. Wendi's great with Amy, and she's already told my sister that she'll always have a home with us. I couldn't have married her otherwise, but it's nice to know that she feels that way on her own!
I'm on a scholarship, so school is taken care of. And I have a job, so we'll do okay. I know the Lord will bless us and protect us with whatever lies ahead. He's even taken away all the resentment I had for my Dad. I always loved him, but I was real bitter about how he was after Mom died. That's all under the Blood of Jesus now, and I'm hoping that someday I will be able to go to my Dad and share the wonderful story of my life as a Christian now. And maybe, just maybe, he'll have grown up and will be willing to listen and receive it, too.
But until that day comes, I have been given a wonderful family to share my life with. Wendi and Amy and I ARE a family, and I have presented our home to the Lord. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" ... my sister-in-law (Rick's wife Kim) has a brother (Danny Stewart) who shared that verse with me, and it's my favorite now. I have everything I ever wanted ... a home and a family ... all dedicated to the Lord. Thank you, Jesus!
