There’s something different about someone who is deeply in love with Jesus. It’s not how they dress, or the things they say. There’s this chemistry or attraction that seems to draw you towards them because of their heart.
Because of an unstable, emotionally-abusive family situation, I moved to South Carolina as a teenager to live with my brother and his new wife—and that's how I met my sister-in-law’s aunt and uncle, Kristi and Henry. They would do things I hadn't experienced before, like call me everyday just to ask about school, my life, and the new transition.
They began taking me to church with them. They taught me about prayer, and for the first time ever, I prayed. I prayed for God to let me live with them. God answered my prayer!
"Honor your father and your mother" had always been such a difficult command for me to embrace in the difficulties of my stepfather's addiction to drugs and alcohol, and a mother that never found fault in him. But God prepared Kristi and Henry to soften my heart to the truth of how precious I was in God's eyes. God showed me the love of a mother in love with Jesus and, for the first time, tangibly, the love of a father.
Rebellion
But my heart was still drawn to what the world had to offer, and I didn't yet have the power to resist. When I went to college, two years of rebellion in sex, drugs, and rock and roll followed. After being raped twice, getting a DUI, and living with a controlling boyfriend, things were looking very familiar to the lifestyle my biological mother and stepfather were living.
That was when a friend invited me to NewSpring. I was serving in KidSpring, our children’s ministry, while living this "double life" when I heard Pastor Perry preach a sermon on the Prodigal Son from Luke 15. I recognized he was speaking to me. I was eating among the pigs, and needed to return home to the love of the Father. I prayed to receive Christ that night!
Redemption
I saw that Kristi and Henry had loved and pursued me unconditionally the same way Jesus does. In time I learned that Kristi and Henry had prayed many years for a child, and that Kristi believed God clearly answered that seemingly impossible "sun stand still" prayer with me.
Jesus also helped me understand how I was supposed to love and honor my mother and stepfather. And during two occurrences that took me back to Virginia, I spent time with them and shared the gospel and the love and forgiveness of our heavenly Father. Both of them have now accepted Christ as their Savior, realizing they can’t do life alone. Jesus used me to reach my parents!
It is in my role serving volunteers in NewSpring's [student] ministry, the Lord has used His dramatic answers to my prayers the most. I am so thankful for a God who never stops pursing us for His glory, using each of us in such beautiful ways.
