When I think of the goodness of Jesus,
and all He has done for me,
my soul crys out Hallelujah,
Praise God, for saving me!

You know, God saves us inspite of ourselves! I stand amazed when I think of where I was, and how Jesus loved me anyway!

My testimony begins sometime during the summer of 1972, when a cousin of my dad's, Vera, came to visit us. I was 14 at the time. I had been raised Roman Catholic and loved God, for what I knew of Him. I was always fascinated when I went to church. I always dreamed that somehow I would be special in God's eyes and do things for Him.

Anyway, when Vera was visiting with us, she began to share how she and her husband were the only ones in the family to leave the Catholic church. They had been very criticized by the family. She showed me in her Bible how and when they had been baptized and received the Holy Spirit in their lives. You could tell there was something special about her walk with God. I never saw it in any Catholic! After her talk with me, she knealt down at a chair to pray. She began to pray in a language I had never heard before. I knew Italian somewhat because of our family (all my grandparents were born in Italy) and I had already had some Spanish and French in school. We talked about her praying in this language a while later, and she explained that this was God's way of blessing her for speaking to me about Him.

Move to April of 1982. 10 years later, I am now an R.N. for almost 4 years. The things I experienced during these past 10 years were less than "pristine".

One Saturday morning, I was sleeping in, as I was accustomed to working the night shift. I was having a dream that is still very real to me, even as I write this. In the dream, I could see nothing except the purest, white light, a golden white. I heard only a host of people softly but steadily calling out the name of Jesus over and over again. I made two comments during this dream. The first was: "I thought you don't get a second chance." Evidently I realized I died and was before God. The second was: "I thought there would be a nuclear war first before I died." No comments were made back to my statements. The host of voices just kept repeating the Name of Jesus. I awoke from this dream because there was a knock at my front door.

At the door were two ladies from a United Pentecostal Church. They stated they were in the neighborhood to see if there was anything their church could do for anyone. Of course, I hid behind the "I'm Catholic" phrase. They just smiled and talked a bit. One said she had a questionaire about the Bible that would take a few minutes. I agreed to the questionaire and invited them in! (I never do that!) After a few minuted there was a question regarding the Holy Ghost. I had never told anyone about my experience with cousin Vera before this time. When I mentioned to them about her and the different language, they knew what I was talking about! I then knew that I had to talk with the ladies some more!

A few weeks went by and I went on a cruise and told people about the dream and the meeting of these ladies. Everyone all agreed that someone was trying to tell me something!

I came back home and knew I had to get serious about finding out what God was trying to tell me. On June 14, 1982, I went to call the one girl and her husband about a Bible study. As I walked to the phone, they knocked on my door. I always worked evening/night shift doubles in Philadelphia and I was rarely home in the evening. That evening we did an impromptu Bible Study that was only designed by God. They went over how we were all sinners due to Adam and how Jesus was the sacrifice for everyone's sin. They showed me in the Book of Acts (the fifth book of the New Testament), chapter 2, how the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2 verse 38, they showed me how one can have their sins remitted by being baptized in the Name of Jesus. I was so convicted of my sins, I asked if I could get baptized that night. They called the pastor and we met him at the church. At midnight I was buried in the lovely name of Jesus for the remission of sins after I repented at a simple altar. When I came up out of the water, God had filled me with His Spirit and I began to speak in tongues as the Spirit of God gave the utterance. (Just as they did on the day of Pentecost!)