Girls’ Home Testimony

My name is Krista and I am seventeen years old.  When I was about two years old, my mom and my dad split up.  My mom remarried a guy who wasn’t very good and didn’t treat my mom good, so she left him when I was five.  A few months later she met my step dad a the church we were going to.  They got married when I was in first grade and my life was pretty good then.  We went to church all the time.  I couldn’t listen to worldly music or watch bad stuff on TV.  I had a pretty good family except my dad wasn’t there.  My dad would come get me sometimes and we would go fishing at my uncle’s or something, and everything would be fine.  But then sometimes he would come get me and you could tell he had a hangover and he would be really ill, and it would scare me.  I can remember one Christmas he promised me all this stuff and I didn’t even hear from him for a while.  I was really hurt inside because I wanted my dad.  When I was about ten, my mom sat me down because she had to tell me something, and she turned on the TV and my dad was on the news being arrested for murder.  I was so angry and hurt inside.  At school I would just laugh about it, but really it wasn’t funny to me.  My dad got out of jail and went to prison when I was eleven. 

For a while everything was okay, but by the end of the sixth grade I started smoking.  That lead to drugs and then to drinking.  I would just do that stuff when someone else had it, but after a while I couldn’t live a day without getting messed up.  That’s all my life revolved around.  I wasn’t happy with anything in my life.  I felt like my step dad didn’t love me and my dad didn’t care, so when I was thirteen, I went on antidepressants.  Then from that I was put

on antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and stuff for panic attacks all at the same time.  I didn’t even act right; I was so out there, and they still didn’t make me any happier. 

In ninth grade I got caught with some stuff and got expelled from my school and put on probation, which didn’t help anything.  I was looking for love and ended up getting in a bad relationship.  All we did is party and get messed up.  We argued and fought all the time.  On my sixteenth birthday, he got put in jail, so that was my opportunity to get away from him.  It didn't work because as soon as



 

he got out he found me.  The only way to get away was to find another guy. 

When I turned sixteen, I rebelled against my family even more and ended up getting kicked out of my house with someone I hardly knew.  They ended up being really bad on drugs, so I got even worse.  A month and a half later I moved back in with my parents and went back to the same guy.  Three weeks later I got kicked out again and moved in with him.  My life was in such a mess.  I couldn’t get out, but I wanted to.  I was miserable and hurting.     The drugs and boyfriends didn’t

satisfy me, but I didn’t know how to make my life better.

In October 2005 I got in a bad fight with my “boyfriend” and the police were called and I almost got arrested.  My parents showed up, and I got my stuff and went to live with them again.  I thought I was happier there, but there was still something missing.  About three or four weeks after I moved back in with my mom, she told me we were going to hang out as a family.  It was one week before my birthday, and I was mad because my step dad was there and I didn’t want to be around him.  I just wanted me, my mom, and my sister to do something.  They told me we were going to the mountains and ended up bringing me here.  I was really mad at first, but I was glad to be away from the people I had been around. 

About a month after being here, God showed me I was lost.  God started putting me under conviction and after I was here for about three and a half months, on February 23, 2006, God saved me.  He has changed my life so much.  My worst day being saved is better than my best day being lost.  I use to try and make my life better, but since I’ve been saved I don’t have to try because God has done it for me.  I can’t ever imagine going back to the life I use to live.  God hasn’t only helped me, but He has worked in my family since I have been here.  My parents are faithful members of a church now.  I also want to thank God for my mom.  She has been the only one to stick by me through everything, and she just wants me to live for God.  All I can say is God is good!  He took someone like me whom everyone had lost hope in and changed my life so much.

A Word from Krista’s Mom

My husband, my other daughter, my mother, my step dad, and myself knew without a doubt that God had a special plan for Krista’s life by the time she was thirteen.  I won’t go into details, but in August 2002 she told me, “Mama, I didn’t know that Jesus loves me, but now I do.”  Since that time Satan has launched an all out attack on Krista’s life.  Our lives were in so much turmoil that we got discouraged, and everything was a battle.  I sought help for Krista, knocking on every door and turning over every rock, but nothing seemed to help.

Finally, there was one door open where she could start preparing to be what God wanted her to be, and that was at Victorious Valley Homes.  I knew this must be where God wanted her because it was the only open door.  One week before she turned seventeen, I left my baby daughter in someone else’s care, trusting it was the right thing to do.  It was the only thing to do to keep her alive and out of jail.  There God began transforming her into the beautiful creation she was she was meant to be.

I greatly thank the Lord Jesus Christ for what He has done and will continue to do. I also greatly thank the McGills and all the workers at Victorious Valley Homes who gave their lives to the call of Jesus Christ.

Krista’s mother,

Lynn Dellinger

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