Testimonies

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This is the day the Lord hath made in which we should give thanks for all he has given to us
and does for us. The Lord is so full of love and grace not only that he shows favor to us
when we are strong in faith and obedient to him. I speak with truth in what I say the lord
has shown favor upon myself and my husband for many years my husband and I have struggled
from paycheck to paycheck and the lord has always seen to what our needs are and he has always
met our needs not once in awhile but always.
I have to give God all the credit for all the many blessings that he has bestowed upon us for with
out him we would have nothing. I have so many things to thank God for its really hard to just
pick one thing to thank him for as everything good in our life comes from him oh he's such a good
daddy and what a blessing it is to have such a wonderful daddy in this life a daddy who never leaves
us never stops loving us even when we seem to loose our way a daddy that gives to us always without
any limits. I never had a real father growing up because my real father chose to not be apart of my life
and my real mother and him were never married so my wonderful grandparents whom I adore and consider
them as my parents raised me all my life. But I always new that one day I would find my real dad and when I
did I would have a lot to say to him but when I did find him when I was twenty-two year's old I wasn't as
eager to speak my mind to him I had thought I would tell him just what I thought about him but I never did
because it was the Lord who led me to him with just one phone call and within that same phone call I found all
my other half siblings but to this day we have only spoken a few times but it's okay because I have had the
satisfaction and the privilege to have found them sadly to say my dad is no longer with us as a few years’ ago
he passed away I never actually met him from the time I found him we had only spoken on the phone a few times.
My mother is no longer with us either as she passed away when I was fifteen due to poor health conditions.
One thing I have always had was a very caring and supportive family I had a stable life a loving home when I was
growing up I had family members who loved me and always did things with me and always treated me like a sister
rather than a niece. For my grandparents in which I am so blessed to have they took me as a small child when my real
mother couldn't care for me as she should. It was April, 19 1981 the night my mother took me to my grandparents
as my mother and I were living with a very abusive man he would beat me and he would occasionally hit my mother
but I always got the worse end of the deal for my mother worked nights and she left me with him. When I was a small
child I was abused and beaten on a daily basis and I was starved to death as well. It was not a life a child should have ever
had to live but the lord was always with me as a small child these things I say are true and I can honestly say it is because of Jesus
Christ our Lord and Savior is the reason I am here today and alive and very healthy. When my grandparents took me they adopted me
and when they got me Mom had taken me to the doctors and the doctors were very shocked that I was even alive for I had a very
weak heartbeat and I was very skinny because of being starved I can not begin to tell you how awful it was for me in that time
of my life I recall so many things from my childhood at that point in time. My mother did not start out raising me in a cruel
manner for the first few year's of my life she took excellent care of me then she met this man whom she met seemed to be a decent
man came into her life but underneath was a wolf another word he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He started brainwashing my mother
and me I was made to believe I was a bad child and they took things from me they never allowed me to play with any of my toys
I was not allowed to eat I was made to pick up tiny pieces of paper torn up and thrown all over the floor in each room of
our apartment and if I stopped for any reason I was hit. The thing is when all this was going on the lord was watching over me
he could have easily taken me home to be with him but he protected me and he saved me. While living with my mother and this man
I wasn't allowed to even sleep in my own bed instead they made me sleep in the bathroom in the bathtub without any pillow
nor cover nor clothing it was because this man told my mother I was a bad child and I didn't deserve to have my own bed nor
should I be allowed to sleep in my bed and she believed him. Sadly she was under the influence of drugs most of the time.
You got to remember that back in the early eighties child abuse was over looked a lot and it was hard to get any kind of
help from the law. I recall one day it was the middle of the winter there was snow on the ground and it was bitter cold
my mother had come home from work and this man told her I was being bad in which I wasn’t she got really angry with me
and she yelled at me and she took a sock and tied my hands together and she stuffed one in my mouth and I was only in my
underwear at the time and this man told my mom put her outside the door let her freeze to death and she did it. I had been standing
outside maybe for about ten minutes shivering and crying and the place we lived thank god was full of young people and college students
well this young college girl had rode up upon me on her bike she had just come home from school and she stopped and looked at me
an she asked me if I was okay now come on it's the middle of winter and you see a five year old standing outside naked
hands tied and a sock stuffed in their mouth something is wrong so this girl got off her bike and quietly came down my steps and she
took me by the hand untied my hands first and then she picked me up an took off running with me as fast as she could she took me
to her apartment where she had another room mate and they called the police and told them that they had found me standing outside
another home naked and that I was black and blue in which I was I was beaten all the time. While I was there they asked me if I was
hungry and I sure was they asked me if I liked waffles and at that point I didn’t care what it was I ended up eating twelve waffles.
I don't recall this girl's name but I know she was my guardian angel she came to my rescue that day and I know that she will be blessed for
doing a good deed I wish I new who this girl was because if I were to have the chance to meet her and talk to her I would tell her
how much I love her and how much it means to me to know she took a risk in doing what she did I thank the lord for this girl everyday.
Well the cops came and took me back to my moms and the cops filed a report on the abuse and soon after that other people
started coming around frequent checking on me and they abuse had stopped so finally on the night my mom had taken me to my grandparents
she and this man got into a fight in the car an it was dark and he started to choke her and he told her he was going to kill her
and me and the rest of my family I don't know what they were fighting about all I know is that he was drunk so finally when
we got back home and he passed out my mother gathered me up and took me out of the home and over to my grandparents house in the middle
of the night it was April 19,1981 the day I went to live with my loving grandparents in which I consider my mom and my dad.
But before I went to live with a few nights before that something happened to me in which I will never forget I was alone and still
being made to sleep in the bathtub the door was closed there were no lights on I looked up and all of a sudden there was this radiant
light appearing and a man appeared to me it was Jesus he was dressed in a white robe and a purple sash he had long brown hair
a beard and he was wearing shoes and he spoke me that night he told me "I am going to get you out of this hell hole" he smiled at me
and made me feel so happy and at peace and low and behold a few day's later I went to live with my grandparents. So this is why
I have so much love and so much to give thanks for in my life for the lord has truly shown favor upon me all my life he's given
a wonderful husband and three beautiful children in which I love dearly and they are all blessed as well as I am. In growing up
I have never forgotten that night he came to visit me as it has stuck with me all my days it seems like it only happened yesterday
but it was back in 1981. The lord saved me for a purpose in this life and I believe it is my job to tell my story to other's for
I am living proof of our god because if it were not for him I wouldn't be alive today. I am a survivor and I have stayed strong all
my life and I have never had any mental problems from my childhood growing up with the abuse I endured for one year of my life.
Thank you Jesus for showing me favor and love all my life. This is my true life story and let it be a blessing to those who read it.

Heavenly Father, I ask you today to bless each person who read's my life testimony and may it give hope to other's that
may be in similar situations and allow them to have faith and trust in you and give them strength and power to over come
Satan’s power over them in Jesus name I pray thank Daddy for always loving us and for always taking care of us.
Amen.

Kristi Stotler
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

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