Christie
Samaritan Women Testimony
Hello. My name is Christie. I praise God for bringing me this far. I have been
fighting with God since my parents got saved when I was 13 years old. Up until I
was 13, I was raised around drugs, alcohol and violence.
When my parents decided to change I thought it was a joke, so I continued to
progress in my life of drugs. During my teen years, my parents forced me to go
to church. I felt God pulling me then, but I ignored Him. Instead, I became
involved in drugs and alcohol. I was also involved in gang activity for about
six years.
I’m 23 years old and I have been to jail, prison and in and out of programs
since I was 17 years old. I was unable to successfully complete the various
programs in which I was involved due to lack of support and learning life
skills. What always got me was having to wait, wait to get a job and learning
patience. I would end up getting distracted before I was able to make something
of myself. The last time I relapsed, I don’t even know why I did it, but it made
me realize that I was so tired of living a life of sin and was now ready and
willing to be who I’m supposed to be, a child of God.
Everything was easy to drop out of my life except for men. That’s what lead me
to Samaritan Women. I wanted to get out of my head the head games I played with
men, and the sin I couldn’t get rid of; so on March 26, 2004, I became a
resident of the TLC Home. A few weeks later I found out I was pregnant with my
daughter Jamie Starliza Cole. While at the TLC Home, I did learn for the first
time how to pace myself, setting practical goals and completing them one at a
time. I learned how to have a schedule, how to plan meals, how to budget my
money.
I soon began attending school at Heald College, preparing for my future.
Attending school and being pregnant too was a real challenge. I’d get up at 5:30
every morning to start my day, and each day was long and filled with many
activities and responsibilities.
When I first started attending school, I thought I would have a hard time
understanding the instructions for the school work and the homework. I didn’t
think I would be able to do my homework on my own without a tutor. But about a
month into school, I realized that I am capable and that God could and did give
me the strength to do it all, and to understand my school work. One of my
favorite scriptures is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.” I know that God is who got me through all the challenges that
came my way.
While in the TLC Home, I feel I was able to help the others by living and being
an example in showing them that they can do it too, with God’s strength. On
November 5, 2004, I graduated from the TLC Home.
Now every day when I wake up, I continue to make the right choices in my life,
not just for my relationship with God, but for the precious gift God has blessed
me with, my daughter. Now I’ve done things I thought I would never do like going
to college and getting straight A’s. But most of all, I’m steady in my
relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!”
Samaritan
Women
