I did not grow up going to church, but I occasionally went to Vacation Bible School and visited church with some of my friends, even throughout my high school years. I never minded going to church at all.

Growing up poor in a small town in S.C., I was shy, made good grades, and behaved well in school. As I got into my middle school years, I began to believe the lies of the world by thinking that what I had was who I was.

I began to live pleasing peers and trying to be someone that I was not. In my teenage years I played basketball and was a football cheerleader. When I was 15, I got involved with the wrong crowd, lying to my parents, began using drugs, and excessively using alcohol for about a year. I was self-seeking and rebellious.

At 16, I went back to my old friends, but continued to drink and was in the center of the party scene and then went through my college years in Dental Hygiene School living for myself. It was all about me and I didn’t care what my parents thought and I still did not go to church.

After college, I got a good job as a dental hygienist in my hometown. I continued to party every weekend, searching for something to fill my emptiness by drinking and occasionally using cocaine on weekends.

One weekend in 1984,at Edisto Beach with my family, I fell 15 feet backwards off of a deck because the rail broke that I was leaning on. I thought at that instant that I was going to die. When I awoke from the impact, I was surprised that I was not only unhurt, yet I was still alive!

For some reason, I began to think about where I would have gone if I had died, Heaven or Hell? It was about 2 months later that I, at age 30, decided to go to church that Sunday with my sister, and that day my baby sister walked forward and got saved.

I was shocked because I always thought that she was perfect. She never did anything wrong and was always a good kid and if she had to do that what did I have to do? God began to deal with my heart and 2 weeks after that, listening to a sermon about the disciples being in the boat with Jesus during a storm, I got saved.

When I met Jesus, life began to make sense. It’s been a fascinating journey with God. He introduced me to my husband shortly after I was saved. Riley was a Christian, but was backslidden until his brother became ill shortly after our marriage and needed a liver transplant.

God healed his brother and Riley rededicated his life to the Lord. Riley and I began to serve God wholeheartedly together and in 1998 became involved with missions in Africa and India. We adopted a daughter in India a few years later.

In 2003, when I was 48 years old, God called us both to become full-time missionaries for the country of India. We work with orphan children and native missionaries.

I am living proof that God is merciful and that He can make something out of nothing. He has never forsaken me and never let me down. He has always loved me with an everlasting love. He has a divine plan for my life and I am having a blast! It beats any party I ever went to! Praise His Name!