My Testimony

It began on a stormy night. The thunder outside could not compare to the storm inside me. I am the youngest of six and, by God’s mercy, the bloodline breaker in my family. After my parents divorced when I was eight, fear and chaos marked my teen years—domestic violence, running away, and trying to “fit in” where God had called me to stand out. By sixteen I was a young mother and repeated the cycles I had judged, enduring abuse and trauma.

In my late twenties, I tried to fill the emptiness with drugs and alcohol. On the outside I looked “together,” but inside there was a war for my soul. Violence continued to touch my family deeply. My mother survived horrific attacks and long recoveries, and I feared one day I would be killed by the hands of a man. In that darkness, God kept pursuing me. At a pregnancy center visit—when I expected only baby supplies—God gave me something free and priceless: salvation in Jesus Christ. I prayed the prayer of salvation and began Bible studies.

Even then, I stumbled and landed in jail for bad checks and probation violations. My father died while I was incarcerated, and grief crushed me. In the county jail God spoke to me through Zephaniah 3:14–20—promising rescue, restoration, and a homecoming. I thought it meant freedom from court, but I was sentenced to prison. There, I threw myself on the Lord—reading the Word, worshiping, and serving. Though I was in prison physically, Jesus set my spirit free.

Jesus located me in the county jail and spoke to me in a dream: “Save souls! Repent, repent—the Kingdom of Heaven is near!” That call has marked my life ever since.

By God’s grace I came home a changed woman. Today I walk in freedom and purpose. I now serve in prison ministry—including at the very prison where I was once incarcerated—proclaiming freedom to the captives and hope to the brokenhearted. I am an ordained minister, Christian author, business owner, and I mentor women throughout Florida. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned for good—for His glory and for the freedom of others.

Isaiah 61:1–3 (NIV)

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor … to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death

Revelations 12:11