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~My Spiritual Testimony~

I was nine when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was so deeply touched by a movie I had seen of His life that I couldn't stop crying when it was over. My mother answered many of my questions and led me to the Lord.

I was baptized by the Holy Spirit at fifteen. I believe in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and I believe the Holy Spirit has the same power today as he had back in the time of Acts. My family has attended Baptist, Pentecostal, Non-denominational churches. At fifteen, my family attended a small Pentecostal church down the street where we lived. At this time I began praying for a husband with Godly qualities. God answered my prayer right away. It was during this year that I met Dwayne, but I didn't realize he would be my husband until several years later. We went out a couple of times and did not date seriously until my senior year of high school. In May 1993 I graduated Elon University with a B.A. in Communications and we were married in July.

In 1997 we had a beautiful daughter. Celina was born with a life-threatening seizure disorder. Medications controlled her seizures. When she was 10-months-old they tried to take her off her medicine, but she began seizing again. They put her back on her medicine and tried again two years later. I took her to church where we had her annointed with oil and prayed for. This time when they took her off her medicine there were no more unprovoked seizures. I give God the glory for this healing.

In August 2000 I was laid off after we had just purchased a new van three months earlier. We decided I would stay home with our daughter and I began freelancing from home as a writer and marketing consultant. I spent this time researching our family tree and writing the novels I had always dreamed about writing.

In September 2002 my husband left his job of 12 years and decided to start his own fire safety company. Once we made this decision, it was too late to turn back. I helped him for the first 6 months until it became clear that we could not survive on his income alone. I tried to go back to work, but at first all I could find were temporary jobs that paid poorly with no benefits. I learned the hard way, that a degree and ten years of experience would not necessarily land you a good job.

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The next three years were a hard challenge. A lot of sacrifices were made. We cleaned our van and drove it back to the dealer. I cried all the way. We didn't know what we would do. All we had was Dwayne's work vehicle with only two seats in the front. We couldn't safely transport a family in it. Three weeks later the church gave us a 20-year-old Crown Victoria. I learned to humbly hold my head up while driving it. I pretended that we had air condition during the summer months. It was awful. I was afraid to drive it further than work or the grocery store. We gave up other things like cable TV, Internet service, home phone, medical insurance. We learned to shop for off-brand items and if it wasn't a necessity, we didn't buy it. If we weren't sick, we didn't go to the doctor for the luxary of a well visit. I learned to live without my allergy medications, make up, hair salons - things I had always taken for granted.

In October 2003, I was offered a job at the church where I became their Publications Coordinator. During this time the Lord brought me to a new spiritual level and taught me so much. In spite of all the pastors around me, the Holy Spirit became my true mentor. Working in a church gave me extensive experience in spiritual warfare. I witnessed more power struggles, pride, and arrogance between Christians than I had seen in the secular world. I was thoroughly disappointed and hurt. I refused to blame God for the behavior of Christians who should have known better.

In May 2004, I was offered a job as a Marketing Coordinator with another agency. After four years, the Lord finally restored me to my former salary before I was laid off. This was a year of restoration. The Lord slowly began to restore our finances in both my job and Dwayne's business. He began healing me of the hurt I had experienced on staff at the church I no longer attended. God also gave me a desire to write again. This time I would not be writing for myself. I would be writing for Him.

My debut novel, Highland Blessings, will be released by Abingdon Press, May 2010!