I agree with the statement that some have said that the best testimony is of a child giving their life to Christ. I am giving this testimony as a hope and encouragement to others. I came to Christ, when I was 23-years-old after graduating from college having been delivered from drugs and alcohol and dangerous living, this is my story:

I was raised in a religious home with a private religious education. I am an American of Mexican ancestry; the daughter of a WWII Veteran who suffered from untreated post-traumatic-stress-disorder and was an Alcoholic. My mother was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and came to the U.S.; married my father in 1957; and became a U.S. Citizen. She was 37-years old when she gave birth to me. She had lost two children shortly after birth. I have one younger brother. I was named Gloria which means Glory to God.  My mother was thankful for a successful birth. I grew up speaking English to my father and brother and Spanish to my mother. As a result, I am fluent in reading, writing, and speaking in both Spanish and English.  My family and I went on vacations to Mexico, Canada and the continental United States. I also started playing the Clarinet at the age of nine.

At the age of ten, I started drinking at family gatherings--a little sip of alcohol here and a little taste there. I would steal my Father’s cigarettes and run and hide to smoke them until I got caught. I started using drugs at school and at the age of 14 I ran away from home. I hung around a Caucasian biker gang who dealt with selling and distributing drugs as well as grooming young girls for prostitution. I immediately became a crime victim and God sent a narcotics officer; a guidance counselor; a social worker and my parents to help me. I was told that if I continued on the path I was on I would end up in prison or dead. I took the advice and changed my path and went to college and graduated with two degrees.

However, I was still empty inside. I also suffered from tormenting screaming nightmares that no doctor could cure. During my college years I met a lady named Karen who told me that Jesus was coming back to judge the world and take his bride back to heaven. I knew that if I died that day I would go to hell. She invited me to church and I attended the “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting.” The Preacher stopped the service and asked me if I needed any prayer? I told him YES I need all the help I can get! I did not know that this was not part of the usual prayer meeting service. As I walked up to the pulpit I felt the power of God when the Preacher laid his hands on my head I involuntarily without any human aid went down to my knees and my hands immediately were raised up. I heard two voices in my head one said to get out of here and the other said stay. I stayed and for the first time in my life I felt peace.  About two weeks after, I was praying in my car and supernaturally received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

As a new believer in Christ I attended church on a regular basis. On this particular Sunday there was a special speaker who briefly shared his life story of being an ex-con and he told how the redeeming power of Christ changed his life. He spoke of a burden he had for the inmates as he passed by the prison grave site where he first heard the Lord say to his heart to return to minister to them. As he spoke, the Lord was also moving in my heart to pray for the prisoners; because I grew up near that same inmate grave site the speaker spoke of. As a child, I remember waving to the inmates as they were visiting their families out in the courtyard as we quickly drove by. I remembered often getting corrected by my earthly father for waving to the inmates; but my heavenly father was working in my heart from childhood to reach them for Christ.

My relationship to Jesus Christ has meant separating from people, places and things that supported my destructive lifestyle. As a new believer I became accountable to Christ through His Word the Bible; the Pastor and my Christian family. I give God the PRAISE for helping me remain clean from drugs and sober from alcohol for 24 years and counting. I thank God for being happily married to my husband Stephen of 20 years; the Pastor and the body of believers at Calvary Gospel/Cornerstone Church of whom I have been accountable to through the years. I am grateful to God for allowing me to play the Clarinet as part of Cornerstone Church’s Worship Team. By the Grace of Almighty God, I have been working for over ten years as a Volunteer Chaplain with other believers in Christ ministering to male and female prisoners in correctional institutions; jails and psychiatric facilities proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in both Spanish and English.

And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand! Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely (without pay) you have received, freely (without charge) give. (Matthew 10:7,8)(Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible)