Christina - United States Of America

Nickname: chrysdav

My life before Christ can be summed up in one word, scary! Before I was 12 years old, I had had my first street drug, attempted suicide 8 times and without knowing it dabbled in witchcraft for several years. When I was 14, our family moved to Georgia, and my parents began attending a spiritually dead church, filled with liturgical and traditional facades but with no focus on the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or how to get one.

By this time, I was into ‘leaving my body,’ anything to try and escape my life and the abuse I had known as a child. The rebellion inside me just kept growing.

Then a family moved close to us. For a while they went to the same church as my parents, but they ended up leaving it for on an on-fire, spirit-filled church. They began to grow spiritually, and the more they came in contact with me, the more I turned into a mean, contemptuous and vicious person. Little did I know or understand what a grip Satan had on my life.

One day I asked the woman in this family if she thought I was demon possessed, and she said, “Well yes, but I wasn’t going to say it!” At that moment, I asked for help. She bound the demons up in the name of Jesus. A week later, I met her and two other Christians at a restaurant. After lunch, the three of them asked me if I would like to say the prayer of salvation. Of course I said, “Yes,” after all, that is why I went to the restaurant. After so many years of pain and fear, I wanted it over.

Well about two words into the prayer, all I could hear were multitudes of deafening screams, “No! No! No!” and I could not hear the prayer. In fact all I could really do was shake my head.

Seeing me and hearing the Spirit of God, the three of them knew something was wrong. They immediately began binding the tongues of the demons in the name of Jesus, and I could hear and think clearly again. I prayed the prayer and received God’s FREE gift of salvation. A week later, I was baptized in an apartment complex swimming pool. Incredible! There has never been anything in my life that ever came close to that feeling and has not been since.

It would be great if my testimony ended here, but it doesn’t. When I received salvation, I made a vow to God that I would abstain from sex until marriage, but I didn’t keep it. I was so ashamed and thought that God would not forgive or love me any more, so I ran away from Him and from home. Rebellion returned to my life. I got involved in drugs again, but this time worse than ever. I started smoking crack, yes crack. It was an ugly time in my life!

One night, my so-called friends and I took ecstasy and drank a lot! Six weeks later at the age of 17, I learned I was pregnant. When I realized new life was growing inside me, I quit everything, all the drugs and the drinking. Moreover, it was only by the grace of God that this was possible, you do not just quit crack!

Since I was a high-risk pregnancy, I had a lot of time to lie around with my feet up so I read my Bible and talked to God. I believe God gave me this time to come back to him, and oh, by the way, He welcomed me with open arms!

My life since then has been nothing short of miraculous. God has blessed me with a growing and intimate relationship with His Son. I have a wonderful husband and three beautiful children I home school. Two of my children are old enough to make their own decisions and have given their lives to Christ.

Throughout my life, the enemy has tried to fill me with fear and doubt, but God is faithful. To God Be the Glory!

Now, how I started photography. My grandfather is an artist of many media, and in addition, God gave me the talent with an eye to see His beauty. I can drive down the road on a rainy, foggy cold day and see the beauty while everyone else around me says, “Yuck.”

Everything God creates is beautiful.