A Texas Teen's Testimony

Dear Stanice Anderson,
Hello, my name is V_____ I'm 19 years old. I am fixing to turn 20 in a few weeks. Anyways, I am writing you this email to tell you what a wonderful and touching book you wrote. I SAY A PRAYER FOR ME. It's outstanding.

You see, while I was growing up, I was molested by an older cousin. I was only 5 years old. When I got older I found a way to forget about that happened to me by using and experimenting with drugs. I believe I was 12 years old when I began a slow start to destruction. Then I started going to a place called Palmer's Drug Abuse Program. It was fun. There was many kids my age and older who where trying to get off of drugs, but I thought, "Hey I just started why do I want to stop". Soon I started to use cocaine.

Then when I was 15 years old I got raped twice. Anger and bitterness filled my heart. Now I wasn't a 15 year old cocaine user, I was a 15 year old heroin user. I loved the way it felt. I soon forgot about how my parents loved to help everyone out but their own daughter. I forgot the pain I felt when I asked my best friend to tell the guy who raped me to leave and she said, no. Pretty soon I was stealing just to get a fix. I dropped out of school in the beginning of my 11th grade year. I was always running away from everything.

Then in January a few months before I turned 17, I was outside of a friend's house trying to unlock her car because she locked her keys in the car. The person who never ever talked to us came out and helped and he looked at me, not her, but me and said, "_____, what are you doing with your life? You're so young. Jesus loves you and has something great for you. Why are you messing up your life hanging around these people?" I didn't say anything. I just stood there for a second and then rolled my eyes. I heard a voice in my head that said, "Yeah right. How can that be? I'm useless to this world."

Then in March of 2003, I got a wake up call. Me and my best friend went to steal some DVDS. But when I was done and waiting for her outside, a man followed her and said she had to come with him and I as well. She got taken to jail and for some reason the cop just gave me a ticket and told me to go get some help for my friend. So I left with her car. I found someone to get her out of jail. We couldn't go back to our house, so what did we do? The only thing we knew how...we ran away again.

Finally on March 23, 2003 we said enough was enough and went home. She dropped me off down the street from my house instead of in front. As I was walking, I thought, "What do I do now?" Then, I walked to the door and before I could even lift my arm to open it, to my surprise, my mom flung the door open, came out, and hugged me. I didn't understand why she, my dad, and my brother were being so emotional about it. After all, I ran away many times before.

Then, that night I was walking in my room and I thought I heard a voice say my name. Then, I heard it again and ran out my room. I started to think it was the devil himself coming after me. So I walked into my room one more time telling myself that there is nothing there, but this time I heard my name louder and I screamed. My dad came running in my room with a bat. He turned on the light and there sitting on the floor behind my TV was my best friend. My father said we only had 5 mins to talk and we decided to run a way again.

So that night i left my parents a note and took off down the street and waited for my best friend. After waiting a while, I realized she wasn't coming. When I was about to get up, a cop stopped me and asked what I was doing sitting alone on a street corner at 1:00 in the morning. He said, "go home."

That morning I lay on my bed and thought of how my life wasn't so great and fell asleep. I woke up to my mother screaming and running into my room. All she kept saying was, "show me your arms! show them to me." Right then and there, I knew that everything was about to come out. I told my parents everything I was doing. When I saw the look on my parents' faces and in their eyes, I could see their hearts breaking. After I finished confessing, I fell to my knees and cried.

The first person my dad called was a lady named _____ from the Palmer's Drug Abuse Program in San Antonio Tx. All she said was send her some where to detox her and I'll do the rest. But before I got to detox I had to get a blood test done to see if I had AIDS, HIV, or HEP C. It turned out I had Hep C. I cried the whole time I was sent away.

When I stated doing my 12 step program, I felt a way I still can't describe. But everyone loved me there. They all had known me since I was 12 years old and here I was 17. Oh yeah, you're right, they do like to hug alot--lol.

Anyways. while I was there I meant a guy named ______ who bugged me to death, but one day we sat down and really talked. He told me about Jesus and no matter how much I pushed this guy away God kept pushing him into my life--so i surrendered. I surrendered everything I had in November. I asked Jesus into my heart at my aunt's church. As I sat there crying like i have never cried before, it was wonderful. I finally felt free.

Then, the blessings started to fall from Heaven. On January 7, 2004, I was healed from Hep C. Then a few weeks after that ________ became my boyfriend. He keeps me on my toes. I finished high school. I am now in college. Me and ______ are still together. I help out in his Father's church with the children. My relationship with my parents is wonderful. They aren't Christian yet but I am working on it. Me and ______ are planning to get married in about 2 years.

Now reading your book made me see me ... if that makes any sense. You went down the same road as I. You over came the impossible. Your dreams came true and you got your books out. I bought your book about a year ago and I would pick it up read a few pages and put it back down and that's about it but this last time was different. Something just wouldn't it wouldn't let me put it down. My dream is to preach the word of God to the troubled youth and tell them my story. Reading your book has made me see I can do that and when the time is right God will provide.
Thank you for writing this book. May God bless you
© 2006 V_____, San Antonio, TX. Used with permission from V_______.