(By: Sandra Fonoti)

From as far back as I can remember until I was age fourteen I was sexually abused almost daily by an uncle, and I wasn't the only one who was being abused. While it was happening to me I didn't really understand it. Too a large degree, I was actually brainwashed to believe it was normal.  

I've lived in Australia most of my life. I married young at the age of 19 and had our daughter just before my 21st birthday. 

When I was in my early 20's - when my eldest daughter had turned age 1 -  I had an incident with my uncle that brought me to, "Enough is enough!"  and decided to press charges. I put this pedophile, who took away my childhood innocence ... behind bars. 

My dear sister Lorna was there the whole time we went through the court process. Along the way we lost a lot of family support, but we had each other. My sister has always been my rock even when I thought I didn't need her. 

By the time I was 23, I was a divorced single mum. At the age of 25 ,I was a mum again to a guy who I thought was a nice guy. But again at the age of 27, I found myself a single mum of two kids. 

When the trial date finally arrived, after a long few years of waiting, my uncle received a convicted sentence of 5 years,  but was released for good behavior after only serving 15 months behind bars. 

This put me in a place of complete darkness we all call depression. Even more so as I still hadn't dealt with my past traumas. The enemy had a strong hold on me. So I delved into a few things I shouldn't have. One being New Age spiritual things. 

I always knew I had gifts but didn't know how to use them the right way. So I just did what my friends were doing. I joined a paranormal group and I was the medium/psychic and tarot card reader for the group. We went on ghost hunts and did things I know now I shouldn't have been doing. 

That lasted a few years until I met my now husband Taia just before my 30th birthday. Even though I wasn't in the paranormal group anymore I was still searching for a way to use my gifts I believed God had given me. So I studied Reiki and became a Reiki therapist and regularly did Reiki healing on clients. 

I also facilitated meditation classes at my local crystal shop and enrolled and studied Holistic counseling and metaphysical studies. Even through I was acing all my exams and getting breakthroughs for my clients ... I knew something was missing. 

However, I did not know my true purpose for being created. I did not know God's path that He had laid out for me was still out there for me to discover.

Through all of this my husband had been going to Parklands Church -- taking our children there while I stayed home, not wanting to go. (Taia and I since being together have had two beautiful children who are now 2 and 4 (as of 2017) and I am truly blessed that I have found someone who not only loves our children but considers my 10 and 15 year old daughters as his own). 

I was brought up a Catholic so I had preconceived ideas of what church was and didn't want anything to do with religion. I did go to Parklands on two occasions but the whole time I didn't want to be here. I thought I knew God and didn't want to be a Christian. Well - God had other plans, thankfully!

On April 12, 2017, for some reason, I decided to go with my husband to the Tent Of Hope. (I know now it was Holy Spirit that was leading me to go). Well - I walked into the Tent the old spiritually dead; spiritually blinded and in bondage Sandra ... and walked out a new spiritually born again; spiritually ALIVE Christian!  

I don't know who was more shocked -- me or my family! 

The next night - April 13th, 2017 - whilst putting my son to bed - I laid on the bed next to him. I could feel the Holy Spirit all over me so I spoke to God and said 'God I know You're here to teach me something.  What is it you want me to know?' 

I then heard God speak to me Isaiah 2:1-3. (I must add at the time I didn't read scripture; only what my husband had showed me and didn't own a Bible. Even growing up as a Catholic, I never read the Bible. So I had no idea who Isaiah was or anything about it. I didn't even know there was such a thing as Isaiah 2:1-3). So I Googled it on my phone while lying in bed. When I looked it up - to my amazement - it was actually a passage in the Bible about the Lord's future reign. It reads: 

'In the last days, the mountain of the LORD's house will be the highest of all - the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob's God. There He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' 

To me Holy Spirit was showing me that passage as an acknowledgment that how the night before I had gone to the Tent Of Hope and had wisely chosen to walk correctly with God by His truth -- by becoming spiritually born again, as God says we MUST BE in John 3.

Then I asked the Holy Spirit again:  "Is there anything else I need to know?" 

Again I heard God's voice respond this time with John 6. I Googled it again because I had no idea what it was. I found this passage in the Bible: It was Jesus feeding the five thousand and the part God was highlighting to me was John 6: Verses 14-15: 

'When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, 'Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!' When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.' 

In those words, God was communicating to me that it didn't matter how many times people had been telling me to be a Christian and were trying to get me saved ... I wasn't ready or willing, so He walked away. He was waiting for me to be ready myself - not when I was told to be. That's when He came - when I was ready. (The people were RIGHT however: I DID need to get saved - get born again, so God was using them to prepare me for the time I was ready; God was using them to plant and water spiritual seeds of wisdom in me:  I now understand that). 

Then once more I asked God what I needed to know. Then I heard the word: "Apollos." When I heard this word I had no idea who Apollos was or if it was even a name. I even replied to Holy Spirit:  "Do you mean Paul?"  

And He replied,  "NO. Apollos." So I started Googling it. Mind you - I didn't even know how to spell Apollos, so I asked Holy Spirit to spell it as I was typing it into Google and He did. Sure enough ... Apollos was someone in the Bible and God showed me Acts 19: Verses 1-5: 

'While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul travelled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. 

'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?' he asked them. 

'No,' they replied, 'We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.' 

'Then what baptism did you experience?' he asked. 

And they replied, 'The baptism of John.' 

Paul said, 'John's baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.' As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.' 

In those words God was confirming to me that in the Tent Of Hope the night before, I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and He came upon me that night when Nathaniel laid hands on me, for I started talking in tongues. I was amazed at the things I had heard from Holy Spirit and how it was related to the previous night. 

Looking back at my life today, I know God allowed me to go through those bad things with my uncle for a future reason. He didn't allow it for me to live in self-pity or be owned by fear and kept in bondage by Satan ... but to help others who are going through dark times of their own, and to let them know that there is a way out and that is through the limitless transforming power of Jesus Christ. 

Since going through the court process, I self-published my own book about being a survivor of child sexual abuse for the purpose to help others. I also cancelled my student enrollment as soon as I became a born again Christian and no longer study dangerous New Age curriculum. 

I must also say one last thing before I end. Every born again Christian has a testimony of how God has been the brilliant light that shattered their darkness, and how living in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is an amazing gift. And God has given this gift to every person living on this planet ... yet what good is a gift from God that doesn't get unwrapped?  Be wise -- unwrap His priceless gift of Eternal Life.

PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU SHARE THE BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON BECAUSE...

JESUS DID IT! and...

YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity.
(Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)