This is Amy’s testimony during the Easter service. (April 20, 2025)
Amy’s testimony
Amy’s testimony (Easter service Apr 20,2025)
When pastor Marcia asked me to get up here on Easter of all days, to tell you about my resurrection. My mind went instantly to the 3 different times I was declared dead I sat down with every intention to tell you the stories of violence and addiction that stop my heart 3 times It wasn’t until recently that I understood why God chose not to let those moments be my last, I know today that the same God, who numbered my steps had a plan for my life and my merciful father sent his son to die for girls like me so that not one would be lost at the time of these miracles I was unsaved and not qualified for heaven, so tonight, I prayed and grabbed a pen. I began to write my resurrection testimony. I was convicted that I was while those stories speak volumes of God’s life savings power and he’s unfailing mercy. They aren’t the stories of my miraculous resurrection.
I googled resurrection and Obviously, Jesus raising from an empty tomb was the first definition. But a little further down, I found the words coming back to life and I knew exactly why God let the amazing, Ms. Marcia to ask me of all people to stand up before you on this holy day. As many of you know, the majority of my life was spent wandering in the wilderness unsaved drug-addicted, comfortable with violence chaos from a at very young age, I was exposed to the things of this world that we describe as evil and demonic . As a child. I was taught early that the world is scary.
and unsafe full of big, dangerous people who will hurt me in ways a child shouldn’t know about, these people taught me to fight battles a scared little girl shouldn’t be exposed to let alone experience daily – to say, I was raised in battle is understatement. Survival mode is a hard way to grow up, but I stand tall on this stage proof that I What the enemy intends for evil God will use for good.
Everything I went through makes me uniquely qualify to speak life into those the world holds captive. I know terrain and I speak the language of the lost, it wasn’t long ago I sat freezing. in a, windowless abandoned car.
beat up, miserable, begging for the blackness of myself. I was trapped in a daily circle of addiction. Every waking moment spent obsessed about substance that brought brief the moment of relief, I despise my life and gave everything.
I have to support a habit that brought oblivion. Nodded out meant that even for a moment, I was free from suffering and reality, everything I would come to felt like harsh punishment.
Most of the time, I was alone, an hopeless bitter tears and cries for help became the norm, my heart was shattered. My soul was sick, my body was broken. My mind was tormented.
I was actively dying and had accepted that death would be the only thing strong enough to bring me any relief from my tortured existence. I remember not only not caring if I lived another day but welcoming death. I used to beg God I didn’t believe in to just let me die over and over again.
I cried into the night for the pain to end, I improve that God loves his kids so much. He not only heard my cries for help, he answered prayers I didn’t even know I was praying. He not only showed my brother in a dream where to find me,
He gave me the strength to crawl up the stairs to detox, where the nurse would take my vitals and call the ambulance moments And before the internal bleeding would have taken my life, the doctors and the ER I would later tell my family they were amazed I hadn’t had a stroke or slipped into coma, as they had never seen blood levels this critically low in a conscious person before. As i lay in the bed in the ICU receiving life-saving blood transfusion. God sent my loved ones one after the other.
They sat beside my bed and begged me to get help… for days this went on my brother was calling detox. After detox, looking for an empty bed, and was was told that a girl had left AMA is minutes ago opening a bed for me. I still pray for today.
Had she not made a choice to return to the cold that day, I may not have stuck around long enough to get clean. With tears in his eyes he begged me to go- I will never forget how much it hurt to admit, and my choices were responsible for the tears of my loved ones how guilty I felt for forcing the ones that I love the most to lose sleep, and live in fear of late night phone calls from the coroner: in that moment, my shame and guilt overweighted my addiction.
I couldn’t justify it anymore. I agreed to go with nothing left to my name, I stumble into detox with hours. Everything I needed from clothes and hygiene products to fuzzy blankets showed up.
God opened doors and made the path. Easy. One thing to the next I ended up in Yakima for treatment, far enough away in 3 feet of snow to not leave. Slowly, but surely the dark clouds over my head dissipated, the ash in my gut subsided, my tears slowed and I wake up with just enough hope to do the next right thing.
During my first week, I called home and asked Christine to send me books. I was bored to death and in need of destruction, she sent me a recovery recovery Bible. I vividly remember rolling my eyes as I carried it to my bed, anyone who knows me knows how much I crave books. They are my escape. My second favorite place to hide. night after night, I would lay in my bed and with a light from the street lights just outside my window, I would read late into the night of a loving merciful God whom I had spent my entire life avoiding and blaming for my broken childhood. I read of a God of justice, love and grace, passage after passage, night after night, chapter after chapter what started as me in search of distraction became me being comforted by a God, I didn’t know, love I didn’t understand. I kept finding encouragement and peace.
I found verses that gave me strength, not My own that helped me complete treatment and came home to Tacoma. RJ and Christine, let me stay on the couch, mama Cindy, knowing the I had nothing productive to do, started to drag me, along with her everyday, a different church activity classes or services. It was a woman’s Bible study that I started to ask questions.
I began to realize I was starving for answers, those amazing women (Many are here today) spoon fed me the truth, my prayers then where simply that God showing himself in my favorite seat, right there in the fourth row.
I watched sweet Kimmy worship while her daddy sang amazing grace. And in the instant, walls, I spent a lifetime building crumbled. I saw God clearly in that moment with tears of joy streaming down my face.
I stood there in awe, for the first time in my life, I knew it was God, I had been searching for all along. The feeling that washed over me was the best high I ever felt, and like a good addict I wanted more and I began to chase it , day after day, book after book, sermon after sermon, I chased God.
the feeling of safety in arms of Jesus and his church family become the only thing I craved in this very sanctuary, my addiction fell away 37 years of hell gone in an instant. Every time I walked through the doors of this church, I became stronger and I walked in more freedom. During living free class, Pastor put names on the curses that have tormented my family for generations no longer will violence against children incest or addiction plague my bloodlines. It stops with me. My original design tells me that, like I like Lazarus, I was raised from the dead to bring glory to God, the undeniable proof to the believer of the life-saving power of our heavenly father, I take that responsibility, personal. And I wake up every day and go to God before the world has a chance to get to me.
I thank Him for my countless blessings and ask Him to guide my words and steps, and let me be a walking testimony of what only God can do. I have been divinely appointed to a position that puts me in a place where I get the privilege of holding the hands of captives as they begin their journey. To the freedom. I get to pray over and speak life and love the Gods kids every single day, I am blessed to say, God has given me a job and a life.
I am made madly in love with the call to service is way louder than the call of the street these days. I work in freedom from addictions, I am no longer blind to joys and pleasure of a sober life. The chains are broken.
I have been set free my life today is a proof that only God’s love and grace can free anyone willing to take his hand let my resurrection story be a testimony that turning to God means death, losing its grip, no matter how long it’s hold on.
