I was brought up in church ever since I was born. My entire family went to church; my mom taught a Sunday School class, my brother had decided to become a preacher. I knew everything about Jesus and all the classic Bible stories. When I turned 11, I decided I knew what I wanted to do, and that was to be saved. I went before the church and was baptized a few weeks later. I thought my life was going to be so simple from then on. But only a short 4 months after my baptism, in April of 1995, I found out I had a rare form of cancer called Osteosarcoma. I couldn't understand why God was letting this happen to me... I was a new Christian, wasn't life supposed to be perfect? However, I knew that if he led me into it, he could lead me out of it.

During those 10 horrid months of treatment, I had more than 1,000 people all over the United States praying for my recovery. I didn't know most of them, but they prayed for me without even knowing who I was. I thought that was amazing. My doctors, friends, and family were all supportive and told me God had a plan. My mom constantly reminded me that "God never gave us anything we couldn't handle," and in February of 1996, I was released from the hospital for good, in complete remission.

I've been in remission for 5 years now. I know that without God's unconditional love for me, I would have never made it through those trying times. I don't think anyone can make it through a time like that without some divine beliefs. If you're one of those people who says, "I've never seen God do anything, so I don't believe He exists," I've seen him work, because I'm living proof, and if it hadn't been for Him, you wouldn't be reading this right now. So that's my testimony... if you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.

--Ashley

My Commentary

I like Ashley's testimony because it reminds me of God's raw power and those ways that He works that we just don't understand. While most of the other testimonies I have posted deal directly with the deap spiritual issues in salvation. Ashley's is at the heart of testimony also in that she simply gives testimony to God's power, and for his glory.

We often question why hard things happen, even to the point of leading ourselves astray with questions like "Why did God let this happen?" or, "Why did God take my dad away?" The reason is this: we had it pretty good at one time, but then we sinned. God's perfect plan went awry when sin entered the world. My personal view on hardships like Ashley's cancer is this: If you will glorify God best acording to his will as a blind person, God will make you blind. If you can come out of poverty singing praises to God, God will make you an example to testify to his glory. Read the book of Job. Or perhaps in our hardships we have an unparalelled mission field, and can reach out to people in the places we would not have been otherwise; in a hospital, or in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, or in a jail cell (see 2 Corinthians 11:24-31).

--Kevin