My Salvation Story & Why I Still Believe in God Over 45 Years Later

When I was a young girl we went to church every Sunday at a church that was about six blocks from our house. They often had social occasions in the evenings, such as ice cream socials or a pot luck in the basement. I believe we were at some sort of Sunday evening social when I started talking with an older girl. I don’t remember how it came up, but we started talking about Salvation and how you could ask Jesus to come into your heart.

She told me that believers in Christ would be taken up in the rapture. I was sitting there thinking about this when she also said that it was kind of like having a second birthday. I perked up at that idea. To me, a birthday meant a party and presents. That’s when I decided to become what is called a “Born Again Christian.” So, she prayed a sinner’s prayer with me.

I don’t remember feeling any different, but I do remember being excited to tell my mother. She was happy for me. While I never did get a second birthday party to commemorate that day, I’ve never regretted the decision I made that night.

A couple of years later, we changed churches. Mother would later say that everywhere she went, she would meet someone who went to that church. That it was like God was riding around in her hip pocket telling her that she needed to go there.

I hated it! The service was noisy, there were no hymnals, and worst of all, people prayed out loud! In other languages, no less! What was this all about? Why were services so noisy? Eventually, I realized they had something I didn’t. It was called the in filling of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues. (Acts ) Then I asked for prayer to receive the Holy Spirit myself. It took a while, but it happened. From then on, I didn’t mind the noise so much. I also learned that the lack of hymnals was so that God was free to move and change the music as He willed.

We attended that church for several years before it imploded.

After that church imploded, I didn’t go to church for a long time. In fact, I had quit attending several months before the implosion due to things I saw, but could do nothing about. I knew they weren’t God’s fault, so I never blamed Him.

So, there are several reasons outside of church that make me believe God is real.

First, when I was a little girl, about 20 months old, I fell head first down some cellar/basement stairs in my grandmother’s house. The floor at the bottom of those stairs was pure concrete. My mother was very pregnant with my younger brother, so she could do nothing, but watch in horror. If she tried to save me, she risked herself and her unborn child. She says that about three or four steps from the bottom, my little body turned and I safely rolled down to the bottom.

For years, going down those stairs made me uneasy. Once mother told me that story, I knew why. She also tells me that for months afterwards, I would stand at the top of the stairs shaking my finger like you do at a naughty child with a scowl on my face.

The next incident I’m aware of, occurred in my teens. I had joined Junior Achievement. In my case, this meant a two bus ride to and from the location. I was in high school, so being out one night a week on the bus was no big deal.

One night as I was waiting for the final bus home at a stop that was fairly safe as there were people around, I noticed a man in dark sunglasses. The kind with lenses that reflect you, so you can’t see the person’s eyes. I suspected he was watching me, but wasn’t sure. The stop was in front of a well-known department store, so I started looking at displays.  I walked around the corner, still looking at displays, then turned to walk back. As I did so, the man who had followed me around the corner, suddenly leaned against the wall and started whistling.

Now here’s where I made a mistake. I should have headed straight for the McDonald’s restaurant across the street and asked to borrow the phone to call my mother for a ride. Instead, I didn’t want to “panic” and went around the corner with the intent of walking to the other corner to be sure I was being followed. Along the way, I saw a cute young man with two other guys and turned my head to admire him. He turned his head too. We walked towards each other and started a conversation. After a minute or two, he had to go catch up with his friends. I started to walk back with him. He asked me about where he thought I was headed. I started to explain about the man who’d been following me, only to discover that he’d disappeared. To this day, I believe that young man was an angel sent to protect me.

There was one other incident that happened in downtown. While working at a temporary job, I’d worked on some personal files as I had time. I accidently left my disk there. I happened to be working another job close by, so on my lunch break I walked to the other office to retrieve my disk. As I was walking to the previous job, I had to stop for a light. For some reason, I thought it turned green and would have stepped out, except that I physically felt someone grab my upper arm to stop me. Had I stepped out as planned, I would have been hit by a bicyclist and a big car from the 1970’s that were running the light. I turned to thank the person next to me thinking it was him, but he looked at me funny. It wasn’t until sometime later that I realized that one of God’s angels had to have stopped me.

Last but not least is the car accident I was in back in March of 1987. I was a Domino’s pizza driver at the time. I had made a delivery at the edge of our territory, then stopped for gas. As I was leaving the station, I remember seeing a car go by with its lights on, which reminded me that I needed to turn my lights on. Especially since it was a dark, rainy night.

I got about four blocks from the store I worked at when I thought I saw a reflection of light in front of me. There was no one behind me, so I hit the brakes. The next thing I knew, there was rain coming in where my driver’s side window should have been and an ambulance about 100 yards down the road coming my way. I looked at the steering wheel and realized it was in my lap. The column had broken off. For some reason, I “shut” the car down and took the keys.

A minute or so later, an EMT got in on the passenger side and checked me out.  He told me they were going to take care of me and get me out. I told him I could slide over and started to do so. He told me to stop as they didn’t know if I’d broken my neck or back. So, I stayed.

They tried opening my door, but only ended up rocking the car like a cradle. The man with me hollered at them to stop. Then he told me that I was going to have to trust him because they were going to have to cut the door off and it was going to be noisy. I said, “Okay.”

I mean, what else could I say. They started the saw up, then the next thing I knew it was being shut off and my door was being removed. I only realized much later that I must have fainted.

It was several years later when I learned that the EMT’s and all other emergency personnel had not only expected me to be dead, but were surprised when I was alive and conscious.

My then boyfriend used to joke about God sending angels to stand between the cars to protect me. I never understood that till we had a conversation several years later in which he told me that even though I’d worn my seatbelt that night, I should not have survived. I know God was watching over me then as He does now.

Now you know why I still believe in God, despite the way some “Christians” behave.