Judy was Healed of a Broken Heart After her Son Passed Away

I grew up in Adelaide and joined the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service. I met a sailor, married, had 2 children and moved back to Adelaide in 1974 when Terry left the Navy. Over the years we had a fairly normal life, except for Terry’s health, with two major breakdowns, PTSD from Vietnam and many other problems. These problems also affected me but at that time it was not recognised that they had possible effects on our children. At age 29 our son Stephen started to have psychiatric problems. He was married with two small children & probably worked in the wrong employment for his condition. After a year he could not stand the torment of hallucinations and visions that accompanied his illness. One Wednesday he left his place of work and went home and took his own life. Everyone was devastated of course... others supportive... incredulous. Steve was a champion at many things; 2nd in South Australia at fishing (10th in Australia), a Tri- athlete, an artist; a beautiful... maybe fragile, person. His widow found out she was pregnant 3 weeks later; that dear little girl is now 13 years old.

I guess this is when I started to search for the truth... why did our son die? I looked at all sorts of different religions - Eastern and Christian mainline groups. We decided to move to Queensland for a new start. The young couple buying our house brought a parent with them. He invited us to his church. Why would he do that... I knew I was going... I wanted the truth... I had to find it... On the morning that we were to go to that church meeting my husband’s new car was stolen. He became very low and said he would come with me that Wednesday night. (If his car hadn’t been stolen maybe he wouldn’t have come; we wouldn’t be where we are today.) Everyone at the meeting seemed happy to be there. Someone asked “Would you like to have prayer... someone will pray with you”. Terry wanted his new car back - NOW TODAY! So he went to the prayer line. The Police phoned just before midnight; his car was found, safe and intact! I wanted the truth... could a Christian church have it? They asked if we wanted to be baptised, just to be obedient to the Bible; I thought, if Jesus did it, it can’t be wrong. I got baptised and I felt so clean, relieved, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We were shown directly from the Bible in Mark 16 that believers will speak in new tongues. The Lord had already started to heal my heart... I had found the Truth. One Monday evening a couple of weeks later I was in the kitchen and just started to quietly speak in a language I had never learned. I knew this was the proof of receiving God’s Holy Spirit, of Salvation, this was the promise of eternal life.

I cannot change the past, no one can bring Stephen back, I must go forward. Life is different now. I have a hope, an assurance, a confidence that we will rule and reign with Him [Jesus] forever and I thank God that He has saved me. Praise the Lord

Judy is a member of The Revival Fellowship - Adelaide, South Australia