Newspaper Article

Who is the real Christian? Series: Faith: Lost And Found

Redford, Jan

2007

Overview

I couldn't bring one sheep to the Lord. I felt like a complete failure, so I threw myself harder at God's feet. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit; I knelt and babbled in tongues with tears of joy streaming down my face, until someone carried me back to my seat because I couldn't straighten my legs. I belted out songs of praise, sobbing and waving my arms in the air. I lay my hands on a boy with a dislocated shoulder at a healing session, and yelled, \"Praise the Lord!\" when he took off his sling and held it above his head. [Laura] attended a few meetings, but it dampened my style having her around. I couldn't get into praising the Lord in my typical fashion, because I suddenly saw myself through her eyes, and it looked weird. I started to resent her, until one day, sitting on the floor in the hall by our lockers she made me swear to God not to tell, then blurted out a secret. Laura's father had raped her. Repeatedly, since she was in Grade 2. Not just Laura, but her sister Cindy. He had stopped a few years earlier, but now her youngest sister was going into Grade 1, and Laura knew her father was watching her. We sat side-by-side, and cried behind our hair. We were 14 years old. So I prayed. I tried to get Laura to pray with me, but she'd lost all interest in having her soul saved; her needs were more immediate. When God failed to swoop down from the sky and gather my friend in His arms, and the secret became unbearable, I confided in my mother. She immediately went to Social Services, got the three sisters out of their home and Laura moved into my bedroom for the next two years. I found out years later that Mom put the money she received for foster parenting into a bank account for Laura.

• Publisher: Postmedia Network Inc
• Subject: Bible / Christianity / God / Hell / Meetings / Rape / Redford, Jan