I realized after posting yesterday’s podcast episode that I missed Witness Wednesday. I was away for the weekend, and coming back on Monday must have thrown me off. However, I didn’t want you to miss out on Witness Wednesday, so I am just doing it a day late this week. Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Salvation Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies. We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or click here. It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music:"Adding the Sun"fine us. It is not fun, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I realized after posting yesterday’s podcast episode that I missed Witness Wednesday. I was away for the weekend, and coming back on Monday must have thrown me off. However, I didn’t want you to miss out on Witness Wednesday, so I am just doing it a day late this week. Today’s witnesses are from Matthew West’s website called popwe.org. If you don’t know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose two testimonies from the Salvation Category. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else’s story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, also. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your situation, He can help. I hope you enjoy these testimonies.
My name is Cyndi. My broken story started before I was even born. I was the last of my bio mom’s seven kids. Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic who drank during her pregnancy, so I have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
When I was born in 1971, I weighed about 3 lbs. I was adopted at age 1. Unfortunately, the family I was adopted into was dysfunctional. I suffered all manner of abuse, including sexual abuse. This hurt me so bad that I wanted to die for many years.
I was diagnosed at twenty with Bipolar Disorder. But I didn’t take the medication because I just didn’t want to. I got pregnant at twenty-one. I literally had my son on my twenty second birthday. I married his dad four months later.
But my husband was abusive, mentally, emotionally, and verbally. And because I had never dealt with my previous abuse, I believed his abuse was my fault. Not only did I stay with him and raise my son, but I also had another child, a daughter, when my son was six years old.
Even though I thought our problems were my fault, I still knew how ridiculous that sounded because I knew I didn’t really want to live like that. I separated from him when my daughter was three and tried to take the kids.
He used lies and insinuation to get them back. I ended up being divorced and having visitation with my kids. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to survive. You may wonder about my faith throughout all of this. Don’t worry, I’m getting there! I was raised Catholic but got into the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1996. I stayed that in that group until November of 2022, when I learned it wasn’t what I had been led to believe.
I was a lost soul for a little while but came back to Christianity the next November and have been loving it since. I’m quite happy these days. I do take meds. I have two spectacular kids and a wonderful granddaughter. I’ve been through more therapy than I care to admit and I’m still in it. But I’ve learned that it’s okay to not be okay sometimes.
Because I spent twenty-seven years not doing any holidays or birthdays, I take care to do them all and really celebrate them. I really appreciate and enjoy my friends and family. So, I guess I have a pretty good ending to my broken story.
But it’s all because of Jesus. I do wish that my kids would love Jesus like I do, but they have to get to know him from a different perspective now. Just like I did.
Ben: I grew up in a Christian home going to church every Sunday, being involved in AWANA and Youth Group, and going to Bible camps based on the Bible. The broken chapters of my life started before age 14. I was a Christian then. I believed hard on God, He was my Savior and He loved me. In 2017, when I was in the 6th grade, the garage of my house went up in flames. That was really tough for me and my whole family to go through. I hated God through that. It was about a year of moving around, and not being in my own neighborhood. Further into my life starting around age fourteen is when I fell apart from God. I got introduced into pornography. That was my biggest struggle. A lot of changes happened. I hated God and felt like I didn’t belong with Him. Satan took me over and I felt what he could do to me. Just to be living through that, though, is how I saw God. I became an addict to pornography and that was really harsh. Going though that, plus still going to church was a struggle. I believed that God didn’t want me and that He left me. I hated God for writing my life like this. And yet, I prayed almost every day for Him to bring me out of this hell, out of Satan’s world.
Skipping forward in my life, I am now two months from my 16th birthday. In late February 2021, I moved from my hometown of Naperville, IL to South Nashville, TN. This was the biggest move of my entire life. I was confused and scared of moving so far away, but during this time I was doing better with God. I felt Him closer to me and with me more often. As life moved on during February, I came to realize that God has made my life for a purpose and He has drawn my path. So I just had to trust God that He knew what He was doing in my life. In June 2021, me and my family took a trip back up to my hometown to see friends and family and the community. About halfway through the trip, I was fishing at one of my favorite lakes and started to talk to God. I fished there that day for about 2 1/2 hours and during that time I was having a conversation with God. I felt really close to Him and loved Him. I poured out my fears and thoughts.
During week three of the trip, I was in bed one night thinking of my strong fear of death. It scared me so bad, something happened between me and the Lord that I fell apart again. That time was one of the closest times I came to taking my own life, but I never did because of God. He came into my thoughts and blocked that idea. I was so scared of death, I couldn’t do it.
In week 4 of June, my family and I made our way to Gull Lake Ministries, in Hickory Corners, Michigan. The Friday of that week, I was out on the fishing dock at night about 10:30pm and was listening to my Christian music playlist and the song ‘Way Maker’ came on. I poured out my heart to The Lord Jesus Christ asking for forgiveness. After that night, I asked God to come back to my heart. I prayed and I cried happy tears knowing I had been saved.
The week before school started, I joined my school’s marching band…lots of hard work balancing that with my studies and with God. A month later, I was greatly in line with God. A month after that I met this girl who was in my instrument section for marching band. She is a very strong believer and a true Christian. She is one of the main people that brought me back to Christ. We prayed together and we both shared music, verses and Bible plans to know Jesus more. Finding a church is one of the harder struggles along with finding a youth group that can be of fit for me to be more connected. One week, she invited me to her youth group and I liked it. I was able to become closer to the Lord and know that community.
Two days later, the thought of killing myself and hurting myself came back. I fell apart from God again. I talked to my friend about this, and she seemed really worried. She tried to talk me out of it. She talked to her parents and gave me music and Bible verses about how God wants me, loves me, and knows me. This lasted about two weeks which is the longest I have had in my life yet. The struggle with the aftermath –going through that was the hardest. Reconnecting myself with God, I found this song by Matthew West called ‘The God Who Stays.’ I put this song on repeat and listened to it about 100+ times. The lyrics of the song are really powerful and meaningful. After about a week, I grew closer to Christ, and during worship in a church service, I poured my heart out to the Lord. I felt him right next to me and knew that He was with me. Over the last couple months, I have been in line with Jesus, asking for forgiveness, talking openly to friends about Him, and being involved with church leaders. Now I see and consider myself a Christian, after three years of on/off with God. I am back.
I got baptized on February 18, 2022. I love Jesus and I never want to lose Him again. Amen!
Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your stories. You have both had such a hard journey. I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing your story so that others know they are not alone. It also shows them that if God got you through it, he will get them through it too! Thank you so much for sharing!