My story of faith.

My story starts many years ago as a little girl in the "Pinkster Protestante" (Pentecostal Protestant) church in Silverton, Pretoria. I was about 7 years old when I decided to answer a pulpit call to give my life to Jesus. Now many of you might think "wow" but that was not where it stayed.
The following year my parents got divorced and my beloved grandfather died. With the divorce also came a change of church to the Nederduits Hervomde Kerk (Dutch Reformed) and all of a sudden the fact that none of us (my 2 sisters and I) were chrisened became a problem. Lots of confusion caused me at that tender age to not care much about church for the next 2 years before my mom married my stepdad.
After the wedding we started going to to yet another church and what I call my "Spiritual Home" (AGS Apostolic Faith Mission) Pretoria West. While my sisters and I suffered under this man for 10 years we found escape in going to church. Slowly but surely my faith began to grow, but still there where so many questions. Like WHY the Lord let this man abuse us if He loves us so much? And WHY is He making my mother look the other way? Nobody could give me an answer. After I finally managed to get out of that house and moved to Cape Town, (January 1995) I stayed as far away from churches as I could manage. It had taken me 9 long years to get back on track and back to the Lord.
What I have not mentioned to anybody before, was that in this time, while I was living away from God, I was diagnosed with bi-polar mood disorder. This was a hard blow to take. For starters, I was put on a regimen of meds that would make a drug addict blanch! I recall an afternoon when I came to after a black-out sitting with all of my pills popped out of it's packets, and a glass of water, getting ready to swallow the lot! This was 5 different types of anti-depressants, enough for a month's dosages!!! After this illness nearly destroyed my marriage (got married September 2001) and my life, and I ended up in the phychiatric ward of our local hospital, I decided to go off the medication, which had began to rule my life. I seriously began to doubt the validity of the docters' diagnosis. Within a few months of me having left the meds, my head began to clear and though I still from time to time suffer the most horrific moodswings, it is nothing compared to the hell I went through while I was on the meds. I am now off the meds for more than 5 years.
One fatefull winter's morning in 2004 caused me to re-think the whole "God-isssue". When I was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain, a routine x-ray revealed a spot over my left hip. Being part of a family were every second person has been diagnosed with some or other form of cancer, you can imagine what went through my head! I was told to report to Grootte Schuur Hospital for a more detailed sonogram of the area. On the morning of the test, I was driving along Ou Kaapse Weg. Those of you that know Cape Town, will know just how beautifull the view over Constantia valley is from up there. On this morning, however there WAS NO VIEW! At the top off this mountain pass all I could see below me, around me, above me was clouds! Layers and layers so thick I couldn't see 5 meters ahead of me. The answer to my very worried prayers (prayers I wasn't even aware of praying) about the outcome of my hospital visit was in the form of the most wonderful sunrise over the tops of these clouds! All the colours! I can only begin to try to tell you how glorious it looked. I have seen some really beautifull sunrises before but this was absolutely astonishing! With that majestic display of the God I thought had forsaken me for all of those years, I knew right there at that moment that I need not fear that hospital appointment. That nothing was going to be wrong. This was not one of those "I just have a feeling" moments either. This was a 100% guaranteed "YOU ARE FINE" from the Lord Himself. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it just like the powerfull God we serve to give such a CLEAR answer? I had to stop my car and thank God. And yes, you may have guessed it: I WAS INDEED JUST FINE!!
At the end of that same year I moved to Langebaan with my husband and two children. At a parent teacher conference in January 2005 a woman out of the blue just came up to me saying: "I don't know why, but I feel compelled to tell you that Jesus loves you." I was flabergasted! I didnt know her from a bar of soap! Little did I know that this was God's way of preparing me for something BIG. One year later this lady walked into my place of work. She didn't recognise me, but I immediately remembered her. She was reading a book that looked interesting and I asked to borrow it a bit to see what I was about. It was called 'Appolion" by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. She told me that it was part of a series of fictitious novels written by these men to better explain the Book of Revelation. I went to the library that same day to get the first book in the series. The series inspired me to look for more explanations regarding End-time prophesies and so I stumbled onto a book called: "Are we living in the end times?" written by the same writers. In this book they looked at some of the things happening in our world today and shows by means of scriptures how it is indeed possible for us to be living in exactly those times Jesus Himself prophesied about in His Sermon on the Mount. At last this lady's (I just know her as Mrs Martin) reason for crossing my path became clear to me. My mother-in-law has a saying: " It's not co-incidence, it's God's INSISTANCE!" That INSISTENCE is what is causing me to study Bible prophesy so intensely that I am absolutely convinced (and I'm not the only one) that my generation will be the generation to bodily experience His second coming. And I am spending my time making sure I tell as many people as will listen about this so that they may be prepared.