GROWING UP

Growing up was a fun time for me. I grew up on a dead-end street, with our house being directly opposite the park grounds, which had open fields and bike tracks. In our street and surrounding streets lived kids our own age. We introduced ourselves and became friends. All of us grew up together, and we would often go over each other's houses and play games like soccer, volleyball, cricket, and tennis. We would fly kites in the open park and hang around each other and talk. At this stage, life was a breeze, and I didn't have a worry in the world.

During my childhood, my sister, Sally (real names are not used in this book), and I decided to visit a friend who lived a few doors down from us. Some of the neighbourhood kids were over too. As we were inside their garage, they secretly brought out a Ouija board, also known as a spirit board. Sally and I didn't participate in this game. However, we hung around and watched. Our friends sat down in a circle around the board and brought out a glass cup. They all breathed into the glass cup and placed it on the board. I saw how the glass lifted off the board while each person placed a finger on it. A spirit had entered the glass, causing it to hover over the board game. When they asked the spirit questions, the glass would hover over "yes" or "no" or move to each letter and spell out a word. At this stage, I didn't know what this game was. This game is from the occult, and being a Christian from birth, I had decided not to join in. This was the first spirit I ever encountered.

One morning, when I was seven, my father was heading off to work when he saw me standing still and foaming at the mouth. I could not comprehend anything. He immediately called an ambulance, which rushed me to hospital. They said I had had a seizure. My grandmother, May, sat by my bedside at the hospital and told me that I had been walking around the hospital, unaware of my surroundings or who I was. After I came to my senses, I ended up spending one week in hospital. I remember waking up and coming out of the darkness. Suddenly, I became aware of my surroundings, and my comprehension returned.

The doctors put me on medication. However, it hindered my ability to study. As a result, my year 2 teacher decided that I should be held back. My mother intervened in the school's decision and asked them to see how I would do in the following year. They accepted her request and allowed me to enter the next grade. Once I was taken off the medication, I was able to study well again. You see, if I had repeated the year, I wouldn't have met Joshua, my husband, and had our two children with him. My high school friend introduced me to him, and we ended up getting married.

When I was a young child, my parents, Emily and Luke, decided to put a cartoon on the television for us to watch. They thought it was innocent and did not see the underlying storyline of the film, which was filled with sorcery and evil. The cartoon was about a young boy who was possessed by an evil spirit. This young boy was evil, and the good guys stopped him by casting the demon out of him. As a result, he became good. I remember how annoyed I became at the end of this cartoon. I hated it and wanted the evil character back. Something about this boy made me like evil. He had power, and his mannerism was controlling. As a result, I was drawn towards him.

Our family grew up in a Christian household. We were of the Pentecostal faith until my father converted to the Message Believers. This church held the teaching of William Branham. These people claimed he was a prophet, and my father started following their doctrines. We attended a church every Sunday; my uncle Tim was the pastor. It was the smallest church I had ever seen. It only had a handful of members, and we were basically the only children attending. We were bored at church as children. Deep down, I wanted to attend my grandmother's church. It had children my own age, and I found it more interesting. It was one of the true churches, and God was present there. When I did attend my grandmother's church, a person would stand up and give prophecies. This person would speak out the prophecy as she received it, which edified the church. This fascinated me. However, one day, my grandmother's church closed down and the congregation separated into other churches. Some of the members of this church started to attend a Slavic Assemblies of God church, which was where my grandmother also decided to attend.

I rarely prayed as a child, but one night I prayed, "Lord, could you give me wisdom like Solomon?" I don't know why I asked the Lord for wisdom. However, as I was growing up, the Lord opened my eyes to a lot of things. I even tried hard to avoid entering the world, until Satan drew me away from God.

In the early 1990s, my mother was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. She was in her early thirties when she became sick. My parents began seeking deliverance through prayer meetings and healing services; one day, a Christian brother prayed over her and received a vision. He told her that he saw an open grave and saw her being in the resurrection. She wanted to live out her life and did not want to pass away at such a young age. She hoped that God would heal her from the disease, but in 1993, my mother passed away at the age of thirty-two.

Grandmother May, was a big help to my parents. While my mother was sick, she often came over and took care of my father and three siblings. One morning, I woke up early and walked into my parents' bedroom; I lay down next to my mother as my father went to work. Shortly after, I woke up and walked out of the room, without looking at her. I didn't speak to her or say anything and just left the room; the only thing I can recall is looking at the clock, which read 6:00 a.m. This was the day she died.

I believe the Lord pulled me out of the room that day. I would've been extremely afraid to witness my mother's death. I got ready for school earlier than I normally would have. Usually, I would wait for my grandmother to wake me up, but that day was different. When my grandmother went to check on my mother, she yelled out in pain, and it shocked me. I remember running into my bedroom, covering my head, and crying out to God, "Please, Lord, no, no!" I knew my mother had passed away.

It was a horrible time for all of us, and it took me a long time to get over her death. For some unknown reason, I started to completely lose my memory. I can hardly recall anything of my mother now, and this worries me. My memory loss is like amnesia. I can recall some events, but a large part of my memory seems to have been completely erased. I just can't recall them at all.

As a child, I loved the Lord with all my heart, and I used to sing to the Lord. One of the songs I would sing was "In the Name of Jesus." I never listened to secular music, and my father taught me that evolution goes against God. He would give me creation magazines to read and showed us documentaries on creation versus evolution. The Bible teaches that the Lord created everything in six days and rested on the seventh day.

We once rented a movie with evil content throughout it. It was a very dark film for kids at the time, and I remember how the scenes shocked me. These types of films led me down a darker road in my life, and I started to watch horror films and supernatural television series. When I was a teenager, I...