| I was saved at 17 years of age and was raised by a very abusive Father, also we just happened to be the poorest people in town. We lived in 3 very small rooms and there were 7 of us. At night, 3 of us had no place to sleep so, we would go to our grandmothers for beds. This was so hard but not nearly as hard as Father. We never knew when he would explode. My dream, my whole life was to have a beautiful loving family and home. When I was seventeen, I gave my heart and soul to Jesus and things started to change. But I kept hearing people say that people usually married people like their Father, and for me that was very scary. But I was and still am, so thrilled by Jesus. I remember going to the back room and getting on my knees and I told Jesus how very much I loved him and I wanted so much to give him something but I didn't have anything at all. So I told him I remembered the Bible said that Jesus was on the right hand of God. I then asked Jesus to turn and bless God for me and then I asked God to turn and bless Jesus and let that be from me. All of a sudden I felt something like warm honey start at the very top of my head and slowly go all the way to the floor. It was like a covering. Then I knew in my spirit that he was asking me, "Now, what can I do for you?" I've thought of a thousand things I could have said but I know this was really the closest thing to my heart. I said "I want someone to love me for myself and love God with all his heart." I wanted to be around people who prayed and read their Bible. At the time I had just taken a job at a bank and was finally feeling an ease to some of the home pressure, My father still drove me to work each day and picked me up. He never allowed me to learn to drive, date, spend the night with friends or even my girl cousins, who lived in the same city. God started placing it into my heart to apply to go to college. I didn't know where, or how, because my Father would never allow this, I was sure. But I applied to a college and told only my mother. My pastor told me of a college in another state that was Christian and said why don't you apply to both and put a fleece before the Lord and ask him to have the college he wants you to attend to accept you. This I did. The only thing was that the Christian college was in another state. Needless to say the Christian college accepted me. Things started falling into place. I received a loan on my signature. This was a miracle of it's self because my family refused to help me. At this point my mother did not want me to tell my father. She said to leave everything in her hands, she would take care of convincing him but, whatever , not to say anything to my father about this. It came the day to leave and I still didn't have my fathers permission to go. I loaded my things in the car and was so surprised when he came to get behind the wheel and drove me all the way to Texas and still had not said a word. When he dropped me off at the college he gave me $20.00 and hugged me. I was in heaven.
I met so many wonderful people and for the first time started dating and being normal
Like other girls I, eventually, started to work for a professor and came across a name of a young man that intrigued me. His name was Will. On the weekends we would go and work with a youth group and witness on the streets of major cities. We would meet in a room and prepare by praying before we left. One day I was praying and a young man walked thru the door and saw me praying and later introduced himself to me afterwards. You guessed it, his name was Will. He later asked me to go to a church service with
him . He had to be the nicest young gentleman I had ever met. We dated all year and one afternoon Will asked me to marry him. We had never held hands, kissed or anything and yet I knew he loved me for me and he kissed me for the first time. All of a sudden a still quiet voice, the same one that asked me what I wanted most in the world, said "This is my gift to you." We have been married for 29 year and have 4 of the most wonderful children and 2 grandsons and another on the way. And I love my gift with all my heart because God chose him just for me. Oh, yes I never heard from the other college.
Betty Hutchinson
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