Alma Vanden Raadt Witness
The more he witnessed to me, the more I knew that I was not right with God
In April 1996, my husband and I, after 14 years of marriage were in serioustrouble financially. Also, years of infertility drained our emotional andfinancial resources. Fortunately, we were able to adopt a wonderful son whois now 4 years old. We adopted him at 3 weeks old. Anyway, we were both raisedCatholic and were practicing Catholics. Our relationship did not really haveGod as the center or for that matter, God was not part of our relationshipat all. Things went from bad to worse. In May 1996, we separated.
During this time my high school sweetheart telephoned me out of the blue(I am sure Satan had a hand in that!). I had not spoken to him for at least18 years. (I was 36 at that time, I am now 38). Anyway, he happened to bea Christian. He invited me to lunch and before long, we were into a relationship.I’m sugar coating this a little, I didn’t understand christianity fully backthen, but I did understand that what I was doing was wrong. I tried to justifyit in my mind because this man was a “Christian.” The more he witnessed tome, the more I knew that I was not right with God and the more broken I became.”
My situation went from bad to worse. Before long, I found myself thinkingthat my husband would never had treated me as poorly as this fellow was treatingme. Meanwhile, I had always listened to Greg Laurie from Harvest ChristianFellowship on the radio. One day in September 1996, I heard him and foundthat his church was not far from my home. I went there for counselling wherea lovely lady set me straight about my marital situation and that I did nothave biblical grounds for divorce. Well, after much work, talking to my husband,crying and depression, I got him to agree to come to church with me and goto counselling. We both acceptedthe Lord not long after that and we started “dating again”. My husbandmoved back home in June 1997 and after much work, prayer and a mighty workof the Lord, our marriage has been restored. God has restored what the locusthad eaten.
Yours in Christ,
Alma Vanden Raadt