Healed Of Scars And Abuse

My Testimony of God’s Amazing Grace

By: Shelia Holcomb

Before I begin my testimony I feel it is important to give you some
information on my childhood, so you will be better able to understand
some of the decisions I made in my life, however stupid they may have
been. But every decision I have made during my lifetime good or bad is
what has brought me to where I am now and I am very thankful for the
mountains and the valleys.

When I was born my mother was only fifteen years old and now years
later
and after I went through the process of forgiving her and working
through many things, I am now able to look at her life through her eyes
to try to better understand how she must have felt. Someone gave me
this
advice when I was really struggling with all of this, I was told that
maybe I could forgive easier if I try to see her life through her eyes
and not the eyes of a hurt child, you know what, it worked, I can
understand her more clearly now. She was not mature enough to take care
of herself much less a baby. So she would send me here and there to
whomever would willing to take me at that particular time, most of the
time it was my grandmother, several times throughout my life she would
decide that she wanted me back and she would come and uproot me again.
I
never really knew any stability in my life and I always felt as if no
one really loved me or wanted me.

Then at the age of nine she came and got me and took me away from my
grandmother which, really at this point of my life, was the only mother
I had ever known and I was very attached to her. Anyway, my mother came
and took me to Illinois where she lived, by this time she had remarried
and she had two more children by her new husband. He hated me and the
only reason I could figure out was simply that I was not his child. Now
this was not my fault, although I did blame myself for many years. He
started just physically abusing me, but at the age of nine that
changed,
he raped me and this abuse went on until I was thirteen and I finally
told my mother, she didn’t believe me, actually no one believed me.
Finally I just let it drop and I buried all of those feelings of anger
and hate for years, that has now all been dealt with and forgiven and
now it is all under the precious blood of Jesus, Praise God. I told my
mother that I wanted to go back to Memphis to live with my grandmother
and she consented just because she felt I was causing so much trouble
and she did not want to be bothered.

Now my grandmother was now also remarried and I resented him for taking
her away from me too. You must remember I was only a child and I felt
like she was all I had and now I had lost her too. I was very hateful
to
him and caused so many problems, he was very kind and loving to me but
I
just could not accept what he was offering to me. My grandmother
finally
after a long struggle went to the courts and told the judge that I was
out of control and they just could not handle me any longer, so they
removed me and placed me in a foster home, the home I went to was
wonderful, but at that time I could not see things clearly, all I could
see was that the only person who should love me had now turned her back
on me as well, I just wanted my grandmother so, I ran away. The courts
then really called my bluff, so as a ward of the State of Tennessee I
was placed in a Catholic all girls reform school for three and a half
years. Now as I look back, I can honestly say it was one of the best
things that ever happened to me. But at that time all I could see was
that I was totally alone, unloved and unwanted in this great big world.

Now I will jump ahead some. In 1987 I lost my three children to their
father and I totally lost it. I turned heavily to alcohol and
eventually
that turned into crack and cocaine. By this time I had lost everything
including my dignity as I had turned to prostitution to support my drug
habit. I was arrested several times on various charges, but I was never
convicted and I never served any time, I know that God was taking care
of me even back them in my sin, He saw what I would be one day in Him.
I
give GOD all the PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY for all that I am today and
all
that I will be.

The drugs and my roaming had taken me to many places but on December
20,
1990 I came across a man that told me about Jesus and how He could
deliver me and make my life an example to others. I had not eaten in a
couple of days and he asked me if I was hungry, so he took me to a
restaurant and bought me something to eat. The entire time he shared
about Jesus Christ with me. He told me Christ could and would set me
free if I was willing, and how He (Jesus), would give me a new life
without all the pain and turmoil I was living in. Of course being a
Christian does not eliminate us from pain, trials and tribulation but
with Christ in our hearts He will give us the strength to overcome and
withstand even in the worst times. I began sharing my life story with
this man and he still said Jesus is the answer, and boy was he right.
Right there I gave my heart to the Lord and I decided to live for Him
and serve Him for the rest of my life.

I had been singing for many years and I had destroyed my voice through
drug abuse, I just abused the gifts that God had given me. So I prayed
and told the Lord that if He would heal and restore my voice I would
use
this gift for His glory for the rest of my life. Now, God has done
exceedingly and abundantly above all that I could ask or think. The
songs that I sing and others that I have written they are all His I am
only an instrument holding the pen. It does not matter where you are,
Christ will come to you and meet you if, you are willing to let your
life go and let Him be God of and in your life.

I have had so many miracles in my Christian life as I am a walking
miracle myself. One of these miracles really stands out to me and I
would like to share this with you as well. About four or five years ago
I was diagnosed with an incurable bowel condition, the doctors were not
real sure what it was exactly, but they had come to the conclusion that
with ulcers all through my body and many in my bowel system, they said
they wanted to do surgery and remove some of the bowel. My reply was
that I wanted to get prayer for this and that I believed that God was
going to heal me and I will not need the surgery at all. They went
ahead
and scheduled me for another scope the following week, just a few days
after Christmas. Then on Christmas Eve I placed a long distance call to
a minister friend of mine and asked him to pray for me, he said no
problem but he would need to call me back in a few minutes. While
waiting for him to call back I got about ten bibles and placed them
opened on the floor in a circle and one opened in the middle of the
circle. When he called me back I knelt on the bible in the middle and
said, “pray”. When he prayed for me the fire of God hit me and went
through me, I had such a peace come over me. I went over to my bed and
fell asleep (now Adam was put into a deep sleep in Genesis when God
removed the rib to create woman) God did the same for me as I lay there
sleeping He performed surgery on me to heal my body. I slept for
seventeen hours and when I woke the bleeding had stopped and so had the
pain, I knew without a doubt that I was healed by the precious hand of
the Master. I was on about $400.00 worth of medicine a month and I went
into the kitchen and threw it all in the trash. I did go back for the
scope when I was scheduled and the doctors were amazed there were no
ulcers anywhere and I just praised God for His healing power.

I am now an ordained minister and I am married to a wonderful man who
is
also a minister. We know God has put us together for a ministry and we
are enjoying serving the Lord together. I am now a southern gospel
singersongwriter. The Lord has blessed me and I will continue on this
road He has placed me on for my desire is only to serve Him. I will
travel anywhere I am invited to give my testimony or to sing or both.
God is wonderful and it is to His glory that I am writing this, if one
soul is reached in any way then this is worth everything.

Again I cannot stress enough that this is for the glory of God that I
am
here and that my life is what it is today, for without Christ we are
nothing, but through Him we are joint heirs with Him. He is our
Deliverer, Savior, Helper, and Healer and any problem we may have is
never to great for Him to help us, we just have to take it to Him and
leave it at His feet and in His care. I thank God for His power is
still
healing, still saving and still delivering. He is good all the time. I
have made my mistakes but His grace is sufficient. God loves us and if
we truly repent and confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive
us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we can help anyone out there, please contact us at the information
provided below and we will do our best to help in any way we can. If
you
have questions about loved ones who may be on drugs or other addictions
we will try to answer your questions, if we do not know we will do our
best to find the answer for you. If you have loved ones that you need
prayer for we will gladly join you in agreeing for that person for the
Kingdom. Please always remember we are human and we will make mistakes
but just confess to God those mistakes and get them under the blood of
Jesus as soon as possible, God still loves us and He will help us in
all
of our situations.

GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL. I GIVE FULL PERMISSION TO ANYONE WHO CAN USE
THIS TESTIMONY TO COPY IT AND GIVE IT OUT OR TO SHARE IT PUBLICALLY, BUT
PLEASE GIVE ALL THE GLORY AND PRAISE TO GOD. THANK-YOU. WE ARE YOUR
BROTHER AND SISTER IN CHRIST JESUS.

Jerry & Shelia Holcomb

Feel free to email us at:

[email protected]


www.rainbowoftexas.org