FROM DEATH TO GLORY LIVE Story of Shelia Holcomb

Before I begin my testimony
I feel it is important to give you some information on my childhood,
so you will be better able to understand some of the decisions
I made in my life, however stupid they may have been.
But every decision I have made during my lifetime good
or bad is what has brought me to where I am now and
I am very thankful for the mountains and the valleys.

When I was born my mother was only fifteen years old
and now years later and after I went through the process of
forgiving her and working through many things,
I am now able to look at her life through her eyes to try to
better understand how she must have felt.
Someone gave me this advice
when I was really struggling with all of this,
I was told that maybe I could forgive easier
if I try to see her life through her eyes
and not the eyes of a hurt child, you know what,
it worked, I can understand her more clearly now.
She was not mature enough to take care
of herself much less a baby.
So she would send me here and there to whomever
would willing to take me at that particular time,
most of the time it was my grandmother,
several times throughout my life she would decide
that she wanted me back and she would come and
uproot me again. I never really knew any stability in
my life and I always felt as if no one really loved me or wanted me.

Then at the age of nine she came and got me
and took me away from my grandmother which,
really at this point of my life, was the only mother
I had ever known and I was very attached to her.
Anyway, my mother came and took me to Illinois
where she lived, by this time she had remarried and
she had two more children by her new husband.
He hated me and the only reason I could figure out
was simply that I was not his child. Now this was not my fault,
although I did blame myself for many years.
He started just physically abusing me,
but at the age of nine that changed, he raped me
and this abuse went on until I was thirteen and I finally told my mother,
she didn’t believe me, actually no one believed me.
Finally I just let it drop and I buried all of those feelings
of anger and hate for years, that has now all been dealt with
and forgiven and now it is all under the precious blood of Jesus,
Praise God. I told my mother that I wanted to go back to Memphis
to live with my gran! dmother and she consented just because
she felt I was causing so much trouble
and she did not want to be bothered.

Now my grandmother was now also remarried
and I resented him for taking her away from me too.
You must remember I was only a child and I felt like
she was all I had and now I had lost her too.
I was very hateful to him and caused so many problems,
he was very kind and loving to me but I just could not accept
what he was offering to me. My grandmother finally
after a long struggle went to the courts and told the judge
that I was out of control and they just could not handle me any longer,
so they removed me and placed me in a foster home,
the home I went to was wonderful, but at that time
I could not see things clearly,
all I could see was that the only person who should love me
had now turned her back on me as well,
I just wanted my grandmother so, I ran away.
The courts then really called my bluff,
so as a ward of the State of Tennessee
I was placed in a Catholic all girls reform school
for three and a half years. Now as I look back,
I can honestly say it was one of th! e best things
that ever happened to me. But at that time all I could see
was that I was totally alone,
unloved and unwanted in this great big world.

Now I will jump ahead some. In 1987
I lost my three children to their father and I totally lost it.
I turned heavily to alcohol and eventually that turned into crack and cocaine.
By this time I had lost everything including my dignity
as I had turned to prostitution to support my drug habit.
I was arrested several times on various charges,
but I was never convicted and I never served any time,
I know that God was taking care of me even back them in my sin,
He saw what I would be one day in Him.
I give GOD all the PRAISE, HONOR AND GLORY
for all that I am today and all that I will be.

The drugs and my roaming had taken me to many places
but on December 20, 1990 I came across a man
that told me about Jesus and how He could deliver me
and make my life an example to others.
I had not eaten in a couple of days and he asked me
if I was hungry, so he took me to a restaurant and bought me something to eat.
The entire time he shared about Jesus Christ with me.
He told me Christ could and would set me free if I was willing,
and how He (Jesus), would give me a new life
without all the pain and turmoil I was living in.
Of course being a Christian does not eliminate us from pain,
trials and tribulation but with Christ in our hearts
He will give us the strength to overcome and withstand
even in the worst times. I began sharing my life story
with this man and he still said Jesus is the answer,
and boy was he right. Right there I gave my heart
to the Lord and I decided to live for Him
and serve Him for the rest of my life.

I had been singing for many years
and I had destroyed my voice through drug abuse,
I just abused the gifts that God had given me.
So I prayed and told the Lord that
if He would heal and restore my voice
I would use this gift for His glory for the rest of my life.
Now, God has done exceedingly and abundantly above all
that I could ask or think. The songs that I sing and others
that I have written they are all His I am only an instrument holding the pen.
It does not matter where you are,
Christ will come to you and meet you if,
you are willing to let your life go and
let Him be God of and in your life.

I have had so many miracles in my Christian life
as I am a walking miracle myself.
One of these miracles really stands out to me
and I would like to share this with you as well.
About four or five years ago
I was diagnosed with an incurable bowel condition,
the doctors were not real sure what it was exactly,
but they had come to the conclusion that with ulcers
all through my body and many in my bowel system,
they said they wanted to do surgery
and remove some of the bowel.
My reply was that I wanted to get prayer for this
and that I believed that God was going to heal me
and I will not need the surgery at all.
They went ahead and scheduled me for another scope the following week,
just a few days after Christmas.
Then on Christmas Eve I placed a long distance call
to a minister friend of mine and asked him to pray for me,
he said no problem but he would need to call me back in a few minutes.
While waiting for him to call back I got about ten bibles
and placed them opene! d on the floor in a circle and
one opened in the middle of the circle.
When he called me back I knelt on the bible in the middle and said,
“pray”. When he prayed for me the fire of God hit me and went through me,
I had such a peace come over me.
I went over to my bed and fell asleep
(now Adam was put into a deep sleep in Genesis
when God removed the rib to create woman)
God did the same for me as I lay there sleeping
He performed surgery on me to heal my body.
I slept for seventeen hours and when I woke
the bleeding had stopped and so had the pain,
I knew without a doubt that I was healed by the precious hand of the Master.
I was on about $400.00 worth of medicine a month
and I went into the kitchen and threw it all in the trash.
I did go back for the scope when I was scheduled
and the doctors were amazed there were no ulcers anywhere
and I just praised God for His healing power.

I am now an ordained minister
and I am married to a wonderful man who is also a minister.
We know God has put us together for a ministry
and we are enjoying serving the Lord together.
I am now a southern gospel singer\songwriter.
The Lord has blessed me and I will continue on this road
He has placed me on for my desire is only to serve Him.
I will travel anywhere I am invited to give my testimony or to sing or both.
God is wonderful and it is to His glory that I am writing this,
if one soul is reached in any way then this is worth everything.

Again I cannot stress enough that this is for the glory of God
that I am here and that my life is what it is today,
for without Christ we are nothing,
but through Him we are joint heirs with Him.
He is our Deliverer, Savior, Helper,
and Healer and any problem we may have is never to great for Him to help us,
we just have to take it to Him and leave it at His feet and in His care.
I thank God for His power is still healing,
still saving and still delivering. He is good all the time.
I have made my mistakes but His grace is sufficient.
God loves us and if we truly repent and confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we can help anyone out there,
please contact us at the information provided below
and we will do our best to help in any way we can.
If you have questions about loved ones
who may be on drugs or other addictions
we will try to answer your questions,
if we do not know we will do our best to find the answer for you.
If you have loved ones that you need prayer for
we will gladly join you in agreeing for that person for the Kingdom.
Please always remember we are human and we will make mistakes
but just confess to God those mistakes
and get them under the blood of Jesus as soon as possible,
God still loves us and He will help us in all of our situations.

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Jerry & Shelia Holcomb Feel free to email us at:

rainbow@imws.net