Having grown up in a very dysfunctional home as many people do I lost all hope in God at the age of twenty when I realized the world was worse than my home had been.  I could not understand how God could be so good and everything in my life so bad. My mother was mentally ill due to abuse and I determined that would not happen to me so I made a decision that I would not believe in anything that I couldn't see, feel or touch. 

 

     I spent the next twenty-three years in total darkness.  My own marriage and family problems were very difficult.  I had a sick child with a life threatening illness, a very difficult husband who had his own problems due to abuse as a child, and I did not know I had anywhere to turn.  No family, no God, no one to turn to. 

 

     Our home was in the mountains of North Georgia where I made wheel thrown pottery selling it to tourist.  My daughter, the sick one was living in Athens and supposed to be going to school.  She was working in a department store part-time when one of the employees told her about Jesus and prayed with her to be saved.  She used to ask me when she was little, "Mama what about God?"  And I would have to tell her I did not know.  She became a believer that day and a little later came home to live. 

 

     Someone asked her to go to church with them and I LAUGHED!  She played guitar and sang and I had heard they had a lot of music so I said go ahead but don't take them seriously!  She continued to go on a regular basis and I noticed her life was getting better.  One day her Dad said, it's a shame for her to go to church alone so I said "Go ahead, but I'm making my money today." Sunday was the best day for sales in the mountains.  Later on I began to go with her and I could feel love from the people. 

 

     That was something new for me.  I really didn't know what love was.  I got to where I almost believed in God but I didn't understand anything that was going on in church.  I just kept feeling that love.  One day the Preacher was shaking my hand at the door and he said to me,"I believe you believe sister." And I responded, "Well...I....I....I....believe in God."  He then stated you need to  profess your faith in Jesus Christ." At that moment GOD PUT A TECHNICOLOR PICTURE in my mind of people going to the altar at Whitefield United Methodist Church in Savannah, GA that I attended as a child.  I never understood what they were doing down front and I never asked but AT THAT MOMENT GOD PUT THE PICTURE IN MY MIND AND GAVE ME UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY WERE PROFESSING THEIR FAITH IN JESUS. 

 

     I thought about it for several weeks then one night I got up from my seat in the back of the church and went down the aisle to the altar FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE AT AGE 43.  My daughter was with me and she started praying OUT LOUD, "O GOD HELP HER QUIT SMOKING!"  I was so embarrassed.  When the Preacher came by I told him, 'I JUST WANT TO PROFESS MY FAITH IN JESUS, I DECIDED TO BELIEVE!". 

 

     The next day, I went to my shop and lit up the long brown cigarette that I was addicted to and it didn't taste very good.  The second one tasted worse.  The third one was the nastiest thing I ever put in my mouth and I NEVER wanted another, and that was twenty-five years ago.  Who knows if the next one would have been the one to set up disease in my body?  God was so good to me, I didn't even know that he could do such things.  That was just the beginning of my walk with Jesus Christ.  God also knew I had heart breaking things that were coming upon the horizon of my life. I would not have survived if it had not been for JESUS. 

 

     Through the years God has blessed me with prophetic revelations that have helped me to navigate that rough sea that was ahead of me.  He has anointed me to "Preach the Good News!"  I have not only been supernaturally delivered from the twenty-five year addiction to cigarettes but I never wanted another drink of acohol either.  Jesus healed my mind of all the pain from my childhood and brought me through many other things giving me a sound mind and emotional healing. He has also renewed my strength like in Isaiah 40:31. "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."  The Lord has blessed with dreams, visions, words of prophecy and called me to minister to others in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

    

 Coming out of the world as I did, I can understand where people are today with so much dissolutionment and confusion.  I know where they are coming from, and God has given me the answer.  HIS NAME IS JESUS!  My only desire is to help people find Christ and the healing that He brings to the broken-hearted, the bruised, the lame, and the blind.