My Testimony - Lora Sanchez
Most of my childhood was spent going back and forth between Oklahoma and Texas, or being in the hospital sick. As a toddler, I watched my dad beat my mom; then, when I got older, he beat me also. Life wasn’t a "bed of roses" for me. But, somehow, I still found a way to make myself happy, through all the mental and physical abuse of my parents and the abuse of others.
I was only 4 when my parents separated. After that, we lived with our mother. Often she would send the three of us girls to church to "get us out of her hair" for a little while (boy, we must have been brats!). Mom loved us and took care of us the best that she could, the best she knew how. Well, we went to all sorts of churches, but Mom didn’t go. One day when I was old enough to halfway understand–I was about 8–my sisters and I got baptized at a church in Wynnewood. There, they told me that all I needed was to pray the sinner’s prayer and be baptized into their congregation and I would be saved. Fully believing it to be so, my little boyfriend and I got our Bibles and set out to save the world...or so we thought.
About a year or so later, a man began working at the station next to the restaurant where my mom worked. He started "bugging" me, always asking me about my mom. I didn’t even know how he knew who I was. Well, I’m very thankful that he didn’t give up, because this man, Bryan Abney, led my family into this church and it changed all our lives completely. (Thank you, Brother Bryan!)
Mom got hold of this glorious truth and was baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost. It took me longer because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t be just as I’d always been. Then, one night at church I felt really sad, trying to imagine eternity without my mother. That’s when I set out to get the Holy Ghost, which I did on December 3, 1995. I got re-baptized in the Name of Jesus. It changed me and I learned that whenever I didn’t understand, all I had to do was ask the Lord and He’d give me understanding.
Being a teenager, with all that entails, I left the Lord and fell into drugs, alcohol, you-name-it, I probably did it. The result: I LOST! I lost custody of my son, lost my home, my mother’s trust, my family and friends, almost lost my life. I lost my will to live; I was dying inside and most people didn’t even know it. Somehow the devil used life and people to convince me I was stupid and that I would never follow through with anything, so I might as well give up, give up, give up. But this church kept praying for me when no one else would. And Jesus didn’t give up on me!
I’m here to tell the devil and the world: I WON’T GIVE UP! I’m back at Jesus’ feet, praying. That’s where I belong and that’s where I’m standing. Praise God! I finally know where I need to be. I’m 22 now. Some say I have nothing, but I say I HAVE IT ALL.
For prayer or a free Home Bible Study, contact the Paoli
Pentecostal Church at (405) 484-7200
