My mother was very beautiful; at the age of 55 she turned heads. But her beauty was her downfall, inside; she was also filled with so much hurt. I’m not sure what happened in her life as a young girl that made her feel the way she did, but it affected all four of us girls.

Rejection as a young girl and not knowing how to love or care for someone. I found myself in a forced marriage at the age of fifteen. I was a little girl, trying to be a woman, which didn’t work. I was extremely broken and unhappy. I was filled with so much confusion inside.

One day I received a phone call telling me my husband was killed. I was two months pregnant and already had a little boy two years old. I found myself again rejected. I was looking for love yet never finding it. Without the Lord, everyone searches for something or someone, to fill the void, but only Jesus can fill the void of the heart.

One day, a young lady took time out of her life and shared the gospel message of Jesus with me. I was coming out of a 7-11 store with a cigarette in one hand and a gram of cocaine in my pocket, the gospel message was planted in my heart. I didn't receive Jesus that day, but about seven or eight months later, those words she told me outside that 7/11 store echoed in my heart, “Jesus loves you and has a plan for your life.” I walked into a little church for the first time on a Sunday morning. That day Jesus became my Lord and Savior. I share more in my book, “A Mother’s Story.

I do not blame my mother for all that happened. I truly forgave her. I loved her dearly; she went to be with the Lord on November 9, 1999.

I had the wonderful opportunity to share Jesus with her; she gave her heart to the Lord two days before she died! I remember that day so well! It was the day our TV program, A Touch From Above was going to start airing on television in Colorado Springs, for the first time. I remember laughing with her on the phone two days before, telling her, “Bring all the people you know into your hospital room and tell them, this is my daughter, the wild woman preacher!” But my mother died the morning our program was going to air.