“I Was Molested as a Young Girl and Held That Pain Inside of Me”

Read Erica's Impactful Story

He took advantage of the opportunity that I was young, and we were left in the room alone that day. He exposed himself to me, and I couldn’t understand what was happening.

Before, I was going there all the time as a little girl and happily playing with the other kids. After the abuse, I stopped going there, and my mom and his mom noticed something was wrong. But I never spoke about it to my family.

That caused me to be very closed off. I didn’t like talking to people and opening up about my problems. As a young girl, I was very to myself. I was not the type of girl to want to have friends and talk to people.

I started wanting to see things on TV that were inappropriate and became addicted to pornography. When I was 15, I was already drinking alcohol.

I met my husband when I was sixteen. We ended up getting married when I was in my twenties. We already had one child.

I was drinking almost every day to the point of going to work still feeling intoxicated from the night before. I was going out and partying every day. I wasn’t taking care of my kids, my marriage, and my husband wanted a divorce from me.

Things got worse when I started working in the hospital and started dealing with a lot of people who were sick and dying all the time. That brought on a lot of stress, and I began to have these spiritual attacks at night.

I didn’t want to be with my husband anymore. I wanted to be by myself. I didn’t want a family. I just wanted to work and provide for my children.

My parents brought me to The Universal Church, and I started attending the Chains of Prayer. It was when I first heard about people being healed. I had severe depression because of what happened to me as a child, and I was freed from that. So, I was happy coming to The Universal Church.

Then I wanted more. I decided to come on Wednesdays and Sundays because I heard about the Holy Spirit. I wanted to have this peace that they were talking about. They would say that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of peace and joy, and that God will come and heal you, and you will become a different person.

I still had doubts. And that is what I needed to surrender to God: those doubts. I needed to surrender my entire life to God. After doing so, I received the Holy Spirit and was filled with peace and a genuine love flowing from within me more and more. So I knew that something was different for me from that day forward.

I am in love with my husband again, and I have love for my children again. I have a sincere desire to talk to other people and be helpful to them. I was able to forgive others, and I forgave that person who hurt me in the past, and today, I invite him to come to church and seek God.

Only God has empowered me to do that. I am so happy with what I received and continue to receive every day that I come here. I am so very happy about it.

—Erica