I grew up in foster care at the age of three. We had a lot of things happen in that home. The caretaker would force us to sit in front of a TV and watch pornography. Whenever I didn’t clean or anything, my punishment was to go into the room naked. He would videotape me. Then there were times where he would make us do things to one another. If not, we would be whipped with a belt.

Foster care. Is it like how it is today? You’re in a home for only about two years before you have to go to another one because those in charge of the foster homes don’t want you to develop any form of attachment. I think in one year I went to six homes and at one point I just wouldn’t fight it. I wasn’t in school that year because they had me bouncing around. I couldn’t get any medical attention for the same reason. Emotionally, I secluded myself. I separated myself from people because my mentality was that if you got close to people, it would only hurt you in the end. So it was hard for me to open up to people. And if I ever did open up to anyone, they would use it to hurt me.

I just wanted a normal life. That “normal life” that we classify as normal; having a mom, a dad, the picket fence. That fantasy world that everybody depicts to you.

There were moments where if there were pills around, I would want to take them. If there was a knife, give it to me because I wanted to slice my life away. I didn’t want to endure any more pain.

My biological mom was really strong with me and would always tell me, “Just come to church with me.” And I would always judge her instead because I was so mad at her. I thought, How can she be so holy and how can she want to go to church and present herself in this way when she herself abandoned me?

I remembered then that there was this person who told me, “You know what you need? You just need a cleansing. Come with me. I know a lady.” And I remember talking to my mom about it and my mom would tell me, “Anything that you want, any type of cleansing that you need, you could get that at church.”

She insisted for a whole two years. After that, she actually stopped asking me and it was me who asked her instead. I said, “Mom, where is this church?” She told me, “I'm telling you, you just have to go.” But despite that, I ended up going to the lady instead because I felt like my mom wasn’t hearing me out. Once I went to the lady, I asked her to do some cleaning and she did. And I remember in that moment as she started to do something, my heart just dropped. I watched as she pulled out a chicken and cut it. And my heart dropped and all I could think was, Jesus. It was instant. I thought, Jesus, forgive me.

After that, I told my mom, “Mom, I need something different.” So I went to the church with her and my grandmother and the pastor made the calling. I didn’t know what they were calling for, but I saw people start to go up. So I went up and I was asked, “What do you want me to pray for you?” I told her, “Man, I’ve been in this abusive relationship. And even though I’ve come out of it, like the physical portion, the mental portion is still haunting me. It’s still haunting me.” And she asked me, “Do you want to receive Jesus?” And I immediately said, “I’ll do anything for Jesus. I want to.” At my answer, she started to do the prayer of salvation with me and then she prayed for me and delivered me.

You know, Jesus was the answer that I needed to live again, the fight that I had in me to fight people off of me. Now I see how God has prepared me. He’s prepared me to fight in the spiritual realm, to fight and believe through prayer. When I look at myself now, I see myself as a woman of prayer. When anything happens, when I confront situations like I do through prayer in Jesus’ name, I can’t help but be thankful. The current Sandy is thankful for the past. Because if it wasn’t for the past, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be glorifying His name everywhere I go. The Sandy of today lives for Jesus!

Hey, my name is Albert and this is who I was before I came to church and met Christ. In the world, I used to deal drugs. I struggled with anger, greed, and a lot of independence. I had a lot of lack of identity because my real father left me when I was young and I just grew up angry my whole life. I would listen to music that I could relate to. I remember just always being out, finding my friends on the streets, finding ways to release my anger, and be accepted. My parents were saved and they were the ones who used to pray for me. My mom would always come into my room and pray and I used to think that was so annoying because she would always cut into my time of sleep. But that is what really started clearing the way for my encounter with God.

I remember I was at a gas station one day and one of the pastors of the church found me there and started to evangelize to me. I remember listening to him preaching to me and thinking, Man, he's crazy. People were trying to talk to me. He ended up prophesying things about my life that I kept secret. Things that not even my parents knew about. And I remember at that moment just knowing that God was real. I was definitely not ready but I knew. God was real.

I used to go to college in Tallahassee. One day, I remember sitting in my living room and feeling empty, as if I’d hit rock bottom. At that point, I had done everything. I had tried to find my way to parties through people and relationships. I was just so fed up.

I was in Gainesville and I made the decision to drive from Gainesville all the way to youth service on a Friday. I remember getting to the service and listening to the preaching. I felt like it was just speaking to me. I remember that encounter with God that night was amazing. I've never cried so much. I've never felt so filled, so light, and so many things that God was doing. All in one service. It was crazy how God could just erase so many years of pain in just one moment. That very moment.

That night, I gave my life to Christ completely. I realized that I wasn’t a victim of who I was before, a person with no identity, dealing with anger, loneliness, and rejection. I didn’t have to cling onto other people to mold who I was. I remember that whole process. I went through so many things, thinking I was going to find what I was looking for, a new life, but none of it worked. I went through sadness, anger, loneliness, gangs, drugs, dealing, hustling, greed. I even experienced the lifestyle of the rich. Still, I was never able to find what I was looking for. And yet, with just one encounter with God, it happened.

After my real father left me, I never thought I would have another father. When I gave my life to God, I found out that He has always been my father and I his son. That changed my life and I’m so thankful.

If you're watching this and maybe you can relate, I'm telling you right now that God can use you no matter what. No matter what age you are, no matter how much time has gone by, no matter who’s left your life, it doesn’t matter. I’m a product of that and I’m thankful. God has really blessed my life. This is who I am now. A leader, a believer, saved, restored, delivered and hungry for more of God. This is who I am now.

I was home that day, it was just me and my mom, the TV was rolling and they were giving a commercial was October was a breast cancer awareness month. We were watching a ten minute commercial about how to check yourself, examine yourself for breast cancer to feel any tumors. And so I did it because why not? And when I felt it, I went to my mom and I was like, mom, feel this immediately. Everything it was so fast. We went through the emergency because we didn't know how to go about it.

We got the results about a week later. I remember I was sitting with my mom. It was the doctor. And they told us, you know, you have breast cancer. At the moment, when it happened, it didn't dawn on me until I went outside that we were leaving the appointment. One of the nurses hugged me and she said, it's going to be OK. And they hit me like, oh, my God.

And I just sat back on the bench that I was in and I put up my legs and I put my head down and I just started crying and crying and I was thinking, I'm going to die.

Moving on, we get the treatment, we get the diagnosis. Everything happens right away. They tell us we're going to do the bilateral mastectomy, which is a removal of both breasts. About three weeks after the surgery, I started the chemo and I started the treatments with the hormonal treatment and the chemo itself also. And I was 22 years old.

You look down and you see this insane looking thing, the pain that you have to go through months of therapy just to learn how to move your arms up to here again, because everything here is so connected with your core, you need it completely.

It was frustrating to look to the side and you see your brother get up easily and you see your mother get up like nothing and you need help from three different people to stand up.

Because of how thin I was from the Depression, I can just I lost so much weight like this.

After all of that. I had a friend that was he was evangelized to at school. He invited me maybe like three times. I was kind of like it took me some time to go. I'll never forget in that moment at the House of Peace when the leader said the most beautiful prayer, that at that moment I had ever heard.

And even before he said the prayer, I was already in my heart and in my spirit, I had already found something

I started weeping and I didn't even know why I was crying. My hands started to shake. My body started to tremble. My eyelids were trembling.

I remember thinking, you're real, you're real. This is real.

This is amazing because when I first felt the love of God at that house of peace, when it covered my entire body and I fell on my knees and I was getting delivered at that house of peace, that was never the same for me again. In my head. All I can think of was your real it was God. It was the one, the person that you hear of when you're a little kid, the person you hear all the time and that people easily take, thank God.

And this was the God that showed up at the House of Peace and healed me completely from breast cancer.

So now it has been seven years and I have been completely healed from cancer. I have been sharing what God has done, sharing the goodness of God, showing the love of God, the mercy of God, the kindness of God, because a lot of people don't notice these things. And I have had so many tears from the women that lay on the bed when I'm working on their eyebrows. God is real. And we go through this thing and we have full on conversations about their lives and what they are going through. And I have something to give them.

I have something to share with them because what God has given me, I'm just forever eternally grateful for what God has done and I wouldn't want it any other way. I am now prospering in a way that I have never had. My finances don't stop. I have never seen what I have now financially. God has been amazingly good. God has been perfect, even through the hard times where you can't see he's been perfect. He's been so good.