I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, but my Mom took me to church every Sunday when I was little. When I was seven, we started camping and Mom totally stopped going to church. When I was around eleven or twelve I started going to church again because I was old enough to be a part of the youth group and my grandmother told me that if I was going to go to youth meetings I should go on Sunday mornings as well, even though she didn’t go to church. That church held week to two week revival meetings every fall and spring and in the fall of ‘69 I went to those meetings and really was convicted. That evangelist has always held a special place in my heart, because a few weeks later, I have my heart to Christ and wrote to him letting him know of my decision. He wrote back and also suggested Romans 8:31-39 and that has remained one of my favorite passages of Scripture. In my early 20’s I backslid and totally turned my back on God. Looking back I realize that there were two reasons, one was a guy, and the second most important one was that I was dealing with issues of having been sexually molested as a small child. My feelings were that I was trash and said guy actually only made those feelings worse. (Love isn’t just blind, it’s also deaf and dumb.). The fact that I couldn’t go to my parents about this didn’t help matters any. In fact, they went to their graves not knowing about my molestation. My life sank deeper and deeper into promiscuity. I stayed away from drugs and alcohol because they scared me and I think I knew I have an addictive personality. Looking back, sex was my addiction. This went on for about seven years. I was taking a class in dental assisting at our local tech school and like always I was running late. I nearly hit a concrete bridge and that shook me up. My Mom lost a friend when her car hit a concrete bridge and she died. And most importantly, it was as if I heard God saying that He would not continue to be patient with me. It wasn’t an audible voice, but I knew God was speaking to me. I had always had the feeling that I wouldn’t live past 28. I was 27 at that time. I met with a friend and rededicated my life to God I went to her, because every time I saw them they would tell me they were praying for me. I got back into church, not the one I grew up in, met my husband a few years later and in October we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. We have one son who is 25 and is engaged to be married. He is backslidden, but thankfully he’s not involved in drugs or alcohol and lives up to the meaning of his name. When I was backslidden, the evangelist I was convicted under cane back for revival meetings again, and I felt shame at where my life was. After I came back to the Lord, I let him know, that like the prodigal son, I had come to my senses. My molestation was a constant struggle leading to years of depression. The best part? God is using my depression and molestation today. I have led a depression recovery group at my church, we are revamping it now, so I can’t wait to start it again. I was one of the ones who helped our pastor write the material and create our recovery group for those who have been affected by sexual abuse/assault. Our book is even on Amazon! Every time I walk in and lead a group, I am giving the devil a black eye! I also work as a liaison between our Overcomers program for sexual abuse/assault and our Teen Challenge program. My son cheers me along in all I do. He won’t go to church, but he wants to make sure I’m there. And since I’m now legally blind, that sometimes means dropping me off and picking me up. I can say along with Joseph when his brothers realized who he was in Egypt, “What you meant for evil, God used for good.” Sorry this is so long, but I am so thankful to God for His love and mercy.
Thanks so much for sharing your story! Love your videos (SirWillow ones too!) It's amazing how God always brings us back to him when we've wandered off
God is so good! Your story is so compelling. He saved your life for a purpose, and you are fulfilling that purpose not only by being a pastor, but by being Sir Willow too. You reach people through your Sir Willow TH-cam channel that you would not reach as a pastor in such positive ways. You have really touched my heart and my soul and made me want to be a better person. I grew up in a Christian home. I went to church and sunday school every week. I was in the youth group and sang in the church choir. God always came first in my life, and I wanted to be a pastor myself. That's not to say that I was always good. I did some things that I still feel bad about. I had two very loving parents and a large and loving extended family. I ended up marrying a Jewish man instead of becoming a pastor, but realized later that I would not have been a very good pastor. It wasn't God's plan for me I guess. My daughter was raised as a Christian, but my son was raised as a Jew. I taught myself Hebrew to help him get through his Bar Mitzvah, and even though I couldn't touch the Torah the Rabbi said that I was the one to make the parents' speech and hand the Torah down to my son. I felt so honored. I continued in the church until I moved away for my health and lived at the beach. I started out going to church at the beach, but then things happened that made me spend more time back "home" than at the beach and found that my friends turned their backs on me literally and figuratively. It broke my heart, and I tried to go to church and ended up leaving in tears. I felt like if so called Christians would act that way then I didn't need church to believe in God. It made a huge hole in my heart. Now I go to church on Christmas and Easter. I found that these people took my low self-esteem and made me have negative self-esteem. They broke me. I still pray and talk to God in my own way because my heart is still too broken to want to be around other people who could hurt me. I'm starting to heal now. I've forgiven them for hurting me so badly, but I'm still too broken to want to try church again. Right now is a very difficult time, and I'm praying and asking others to pray for us, and I'm thinking about trying church again. I know that things were a whole lot easier when I did go to church. Problems came up, but my church family always helped me feel better even when they didn't know something was going on. Just being in church and worshiping every week was comforting.
I was born in a Christian home, went to church on Sunday, it wasn’t till about 7th grade that I started cussing (quietly). I kept doing it more, and I was so ashamed of what I did. I knew what I did was wrong. It wasn’t till Christmas Eve of 2017 when I confessed my sin. Then in March, I started to read the Bible, and my whole life changed. I have the Bible app and I am doing the Bible in one year plan and so far, i have been blessed. I think God is calling me to the Ministry
Thank you for this. it has definitely made me think. My situation with salvation and Jesus are about the same; but, the two differences are the upbringing in a Christian home, and currently struggling today with my salvation and Jesus. This is a good start to a new channel.
Loved hearing your story. Thank you for sharing. Would also love to know how you became a pastor. Maybe it’s my ADHD kicking in but I think you should keep these around 10 minutes. No longer than this one.
![HIWWHEE | OHM [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OJJLtTLqLag/mqdefault.jpg)
Amen so thankful for HIs amazing mercy and grace to draws to Himself. Thanks for sharing!
You saved all of us....for that im thankful😀
Thank you for making your videos.
Thank you!! Your story is inspiring!
I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, but my Mom took me to church every Sunday when I was little. When I was seven, we started camping and Mom totally stopped going to church. When I was around eleven or twelve I started going to church again because I was old enough to be a part of the youth group and my grandmother told me that if I was going to go to youth meetings I should go on Sunday mornings as well, even though she didn’t go to church. That church held week to two week revival meetings every fall and spring and in the fall of ‘69 I went to those meetings and really was convicted. That evangelist has always held a special place in my heart, because a few weeks later, I have my heart to Christ and wrote to him letting him know of my decision. He wrote back and also suggested Romans 8:31-39 and that has remained one of my favorite passages of Scripture. In my early 20’s I backslid and totally turned my back on God. Looking back I realize that there were two reasons, one was a guy, and the second most important one was that I was dealing with issues of having been sexually molested as a small child. My feelings were that I was trash and said guy actually only made those feelings worse. (Love isn’t just blind, it’s also deaf and dumb.). The fact that I couldn’t go to my parents about this didn’t help matters any. In fact, they went to their graves not knowing about my molestation. My life sank deeper and deeper into promiscuity. I stayed away from drugs and alcohol because they scared me and I think I knew I have an addictive personality. Looking back, sex was my addiction. This went on for about seven years. I was taking a class in dental assisting at our local tech school and like always I was running late. I nearly hit a concrete bridge and that shook me up. My Mom lost a friend when her car hit a concrete bridge and she died. And most importantly, it was as if I heard God saying that He would not continue to be patient with me. It wasn’t an audible voice, but I knew God was speaking to me. I had always had the feeling that I wouldn’t live past 28. I was 27 at that time. I met with a friend and rededicated my life to God I went to her, because every time I saw them they would tell me they were praying for me. I got back into church, not the one I grew up in, met my husband a few years later and in October we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. We have one son who is 25 and is engaged to be married. He is backslidden, but thankfully he’s not involved in drugs or alcohol and lives up to the meaning of his name. When I was backslidden, the evangelist I was convicted under cane back for revival meetings again, and I felt shame at where my life was. After I came back to the Lord, I let him know, that like the prodigal son, I had come to my senses. My molestation was a constant struggle leading to years of depression. The best part? God is using my depression and molestation today. I have led a depression recovery group at my church, we are revamping it now, so I can’t wait to start it again. I was one of the ones who helped our pastor write the material and create our recovery group for those who have been affected by sexual abuse/assault. Our book is even on Amazon! Every time I walk in and lead a group, I am giving the devil a black eye! I also work as a liaison between our Overcomers program for sexual abuse/assault and our Teen Challenge program. My son cheers me along in all I do. He won’t go to church, but he wants to make sure I’m there. And since I’m now legally blind, that sometimes means dropping me off and picking me up. I can say along with Joseph when his brothers realized who he was in Egypt, “What you meant for evil, God used for good.” Sorry this is so long, but I am so thankful to God for His love and mercy.
Great video 🙂👍❤
I remember the night that happened. So glad for the influence you now have with others.
Thanks so much for sharing your story! Love your videos (SirWillow ones too!) It's amazing how God always brings us back to him when we've wandered off
God is so good! Your story is so compelling. He saved your life for a purpose, and you are fulfilling that purpose not only by being a pastor, but by being Sir Willow too. You reach people through your Sir Willow TH-cam channel that you would not reach as a pastor in such positive ways. You have really touched my heart and my soul and made me want to be a better person.
I grew up in a Christian home. I went to church and sunday school every week. I was in the youth group and sang in the church choir. God always came first in my life, and I wanted to be a pastor myself. That's not to say that I was always good. I did some things that I still feel bad about. I had two very loving parents and a large and loving extended family. I ended up marrying a Jewish man instead of becoming a pastor, but realized later that I would not have been a very good pastor. It wasn't God's plan for me I guess. My daughter was raised as a Christian, but my son was raised as a Jew. I taught myself Hebrew to help him get through his Bar Mitzvah, and even though I couldn't touch the Torah the Rabbi said that I was the one to make the parents' speech and hand the Torah down to my son. I felt so honored. I continued in the church until I moved away for my health and lived at the beach. I started out going to church at the beach, but then things happened that made me spend more time back "home" than at the beach and found that my friends turned their backs on me literally and figuratively. It broke my heart, and I tried to go to church and ended up leaving in tears. I felt like if so called Christians would act that way then I didn't need church to believe in God. It made a huge hole in my heart. Now I go to church on Christmas and Easter. I found that these people took my low self-esteem and made me have negative self-esteem. They broke me. I still pray and talk to God in my own way because my heart is still too broken to want to be around other people who could hurt me. I'm starting to heal now. I've forgiven them for hurting me so badly, but I'm still too broken to want to try church again. Right now is a very difficult time, and I'm praying and asking others to pray for us, and I'm thinking about trying church again. I know that things were a whole lot easier when I did go to church. Problems came up, but my church family always helped me feel better even when they didn't know something was going on. Just being in church and worshiping every week was comforting.
I was born in a Christian home, went to church on Sunday, it wasn’t till about 7th grade that I started cussing (quietly). I kept doing it more, and I was so ashamed of what I did. I knew what I did was wrong. It wasn’t till Christmas Eve of 2017 when I confessed my sin. Then in March, I started to read the Bible, and my whole life changed. I have the Bible app and I am doing the Bible in one year plan and so far, i have been blessed.
I think God is calling me to the Ministry
Thank you for this. it has definitely made me think. My situation with salvation and Jesus are about the same; but, the two differences are the upbringing in a Christian home, and currently struggling today with my salvation and Jesus.
This is a good start to a new channel.
Loved hearing your story. Thank you for sharing. Would also love to know how you became a pastor. Maybe it’s my ADHD kicking in but I think you should keep these around 10 minutes. No longer than this one.
that seems to be the pattern I'm falling into. I doubt that I'll go longer than this unless it's a really detailed story or something.
What was the first thing, god helped you with, if you do not mind sharing (Minute 3:48)
Delivered me from alcoholism as well as some other things I was involved with.