The following testimony was shared after my enrolment as a soldier of the Warrnambool Corps:
December 12th, 1999
It has been two years since I first came to the Salvation Army. I had been a Christian for many years, but my faith was to undergo an extreme test when my marriage fell apart at the end of 1997. The sense of failure and grief was overwhelming. I was facing a life on my own with 5 children and just surviving each day. I was so dissolutioned by religion. Divorce was not part of God’s plan, it was certainly never part of mine.
I contemplated “giving up my faith” during this time, I remember wondering what there was for me without God in my life. The alternative was too devasting ...there was nothing; no purpose, no life. But I was to learn that it was God who put that faith in my heart and He was going to pull me through.
I was desperately in need of family support, especially housing, and this is how I first came in contact with the Army. I met Lindsay for the first time in his office and poured out my need. I remember the box of tissues. The words “we might have a house for you” were the words of God to me. God had not abandoned me.
I was living in a tent with 5 children and I had been told I was going to be “made destitute”. I met with Harrison to finalise my emergency housing and he told me “we are not about to let that happen”. Simple words but ones which gave me such hope for a future.
The long road of rebuilding our shattered lives was about to begin. I began attending the Army’s Sunday services out of gratitude. Now I know, it was God who was directing my path. He was going before me I just needed to follow. My children and I were accepted immediately and I never considered going any where else. We had found our new spiritual home.
It has taken two years to get to this day. It has been my desire to beome a soldier for some time now. There has been sin in my life that had to be dealt with and I have felt at times I was never going to be good enough to become a soldier and be worthy to wear the uniform and I was right; I will never be good enough! But by the Grace of God I AM SAVED. I became a Christian believing that on the cross, Christ payed for the sins of my past...now I know that it was also for the sins I was going to commit in the future.
Being a soldier, for me, is about sharing Christ with others and serving God with my whole life. It is not about being perfect; or some kind of “elite” Christian; or a member of an exclusive club. There have been times when my “walk has become a crawl” and there will be more times to come, I’m sure, when I will stumble and fall .........but there is forgiveness to be found. When you turn your life away from sin and look to Jesus the blessings can flow. He really wants to shower us with good things.
There is always a second chance. There was for me. God brought love and happiness into my life. He just had to get it from the other side of the world! Mark showed us what self-sacrificing love was. He showed me and the children the love of Christ.
My prayer is that as sin decreases in my life Christ will increase. When I have been truly empty of myself then Christ has been able to fill me with everything I need.
He has been faithful in my life and that is my testimony today. He has never let me go. “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” when we become Christians. There is nothing you can do that will make Him stop loving you. If you do not know the love of Christ in your life today don’t stop until you find it. You just have to seek Him and you will find that Jesus is waiting for you.
Just some thankyou's:
I am so proud of my children. They have been such a blessing to me. My
life’s decisions have always affected them and they have always supported
me.
Baby Arthur Joseph has taught me that God is continually blessing me.
Dad & Mum who have loved me unconditionally
.........and my husband Mark
I am so thankful that we are sharing our life together and that you are
standing with me here today with the same desire to serve God wherever
that leads us.
In Christ's Love, Maree O'Neill
