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First of all my given name is Cindy and I love the Lord with all of my heart!! I am married to a man named Glen, who also loves the Lord with all of his heart. But it was not always so.
When I first met my current husband, I was still married to my 2nd husband. (The first husband I married because I got pregnant--I lost the baby and at least 2 more--then I met my 2nd husband) My 2nd husband was verbally and physically abusive and did not think that forcing me to have sex when I didn't want to, was rape. He ended up causing me to have a radical hysterectomy, they had to take everything (I had an 8 pound tumor, and due to his aggressiveness in bed, it started bursting). So, I was 24 years old and had no hope of ever having children! I knew that I could not continue on the way I was, but, I knew of no other options for me. It wasn't that I couldn't support myself or had no skills, because I did. I was afraid of him and of what he would do if I left him. BUT I knew I HAD to get out of this marriage for my safety as well as my sanity!!!
One night, May 29th, 1989, my friend invited me out to a bar, I was a heavy drinker and had been for years. So I agreed, though I was very scared about being caught by my husband!! We went to this little bar that I had never heard about, and it was a ways away from where we lived. As we were getting settled in with our pitcher of beer, I glanced across the dance floor and WHAM!!!!! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!!! There sat the man of my dreams!!
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To make that night a short story, I will be honest and tell you I had a one-night stand with him and I never thought I'd see him again, and to me it was worth it because I would be able to have that night's memory to hold on to through my dreary days. He ended up calling me the next day and we met and we shared with each other. I told him my situation and he was supportive of me and said that I deserved better. In the next week, I confronted my husband with my affair and told him that our marriage was over, he ended up pulling a knife on me and holding it to my throat. I escaped and ran upstairs to my friends apartment and she took me away. She called Glen and He came and got me. The next day I went back to my apartment and told my husband that I was serious, I wanted a divorce and that I wasn't going to live in fear any longer. He proceeded to take a punch at me, and if I hadn't ducked my face would be a mess today, his fist ended up going through the wall. But he called his brother and his brother came and helped him move out. When Glen found out about what my husband tried to do, he came and stayed with me in my apartment to protect me.
The first 2 years of our relationship were spent partying, doing drugs and basically just living in the flesh. But during those first 2 years, in December 1989, my parents, who had become born-again Christians about a year earlier, (We all called them Bible Thumpers) invited me to a Christian concert, Don Francisco. I had accepted the Lord, I thought, but it wasn't until I went to this concert that I really, really knew, that the Lord was my Savior. I didn't have a "radical" conversion. My salvation came to me with much weeping of a sorrowful heart at the sinner I was and that the Lord had bled on a cross for what I had done in my life.
Within 2 years my whole family (except Glen) had accepted the Lord as their personal Savior. Glen continued on in his drinking, (I was continually praying that he would hit a brick wall and come to the cross.) I thought my prayers were in vain, until one summer day in 1990, he fell asleep at the wheel of his van, drunk, and hit an oncoming car. (When I prayed for a Brick Wall, I had no idea it would be literal!)The Van steering wheel was ripped out of Glen's hand and drove over to a cliff and stopped before it could plunge over the edge. The van was still in drive, and the motor was still running. No one was hurt, Praise God! He was arrested, of course, for a DUI and ended up going to court, in January of 1991, facing 2 years in prison and a $2500.00 fine. The outcome was that Glen spent 48 hours in jail and paid a $900.00 fine.
Well, the Lord was working mightily in Glen's heart. He quit drinking and put his money into a race car (drag racing). We married in March 1991 and bought a home. We decided in the last part of August, to go up to my parents property for the weekend. I can't tell you WHAT a BATTLE it was trying to get there, we fought the whole way!! We almost turned around 3 times. But the Lord had something in store for Glen and His will would be done. We arrived there and we met a new lady named and her kids, who had come up with my brother. They were new Christians just saved a couple of weeks. The woman was leaving her unsaved husband who was involved with drinking and drugs. We had some major prayer times, of which Glen wanted no part!!
We woke up on the morning of September 2, 1991 to see a new arrival in camp. It was the husband of the lady!! He had travelled all night to get there, got lost, and had a serious meeting with the Lord, on his knees, in fear. But the Lord led him to our campsite and he spent the night sleeping on a log, right inside the GATES!!! His heart was ready to receive the Lord. Glen, made eye contact with this man, the minute that we got up, and Glen knew that this man was in bad shape. He got into my brother's truck with him. Within minutes they came out and we could all tell by the look of pure joy and peace on his face, that he had finally met and surrendered to Christ. Glen finally realized that this was the real thing--that this was not a joke, it was true and that he wanted it too. Later that day, after much witnessing to Glen, the whole group gathered around the fire and we held hands as Glen accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior!!!!!! The Lord was so much at work this day that our parents, struggling to come up to the property, surrendered to the fact that they weren't going to get there. My brother and His family, had truck problems all the way up. AND, out of the blue, our Pastor and his wife, who were "just out for a drive" (a 2 hour journey) showed up at the property and the Pastor was able to share with Glen about what it is to be a Christian!! (Glen recalls not coming down from the clouds for 6 weeks!!!)
Well, I wish I could tell you that since the day we were saved, life has been rosy!! NOT!!! We have had to be strong in the Lord with many things! And the Lord has ALWAYS seen us through. Jesus never promised walking the Christian walk would be easy, but HE promised that it WOULD be worth it!!
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