Every Christian has a testimony that they share about the day that they got saved and surrendered their life to Jesus Christ.
A testimony is a personal story of how God has worked in someone’s life. It often highlights a person’s journey of faith, including moments of struggle, growth, and transformation through God’s grace. Sharing a testimony is a powerful way to witness to others about the love, mercy, and faithfulness of God. Whether it’s about coming to faith in Jesus Christ, experiencing God’s provision, or finding hope and healing, testimonies inspire and encourage others in their own walk with God. Every believer’s testimony is unique and valuable, reflecting the ongoing work of God in their lives.
If you are reading this right now, then you are about to know how I came to Christ as my savior and the day that I got saved. I will be sharing details about my past before I got saved to my current walk with God.
Early Childhood
I was born on October 19th, 2000. I grew up as an only child so I never experienced what it was like having a sibling in my household. On top of that, my parents divorced when I was two years old, and I constantly shuffled between living at my mom’s house and my dad’s house. It was tough for me growing up with divorced parents, as I saw the strife between the two people who I love and had a purpose to raise me as their daughter.
I was also not raised in a Christian household, as both sides of my family grew up Catholic. Whenever I would go to mass with my family, I would always be so lost during each service. I didn’t understand the bible, the gospel of Jesus Christ, or even who God was at the time. Throughout the rest of my childhood, I didn’t have God on my mind or even thought about where I would go after I die.
Senior Year
My senior year of high school is when my life drastically changed. In July 2018, shortly after I got home from my trip to Florida, I started getting sick out of nowhere. I woke up one morning feeling nauseous and with a throbbing headache, which led to me throwing up. At first, I thought to myself, thinking, “Maybe this is just a stomach bug. I’m sure I’ll be fine the next day”. I thought wrong. The nausea and vomiting were off and on from days to weeks to eventually about a month. I even went to my doctor about the symptoms that I was having, but I was not getting any answers to what was going on with me.
I eventually found out from my dad that his side of the family has a history of brain tumors. I went to get an MRI scan of my brain to see if I had a brain tumor. The results revealed that I was diagnosed with a form of stage 4 brain cancer called Medulloblastoma. I remember feeling shocked and horrified when my mom told me the news with tears in her eyes.
On that same day, I was transported to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and was an inpatient there for almost a week. While I was at the hospital, I was fearing for my life. The thought of potentially dying so young at 17 years old weighed heavily on me, yet at same time, I focused on fighting for my life. On the night before my surgery, I sat up on my hospital bed and prayed to God to heal me from my brain tumor so that I could continue to live a healthy and happy life.
Spoiler alert: my prayers were answered! I underwent a six-hour brain surgery where my neurosurgeon removed the entire tumor from my brain. However, I was told that I would need to undergo treatment since the tumor was cancerous. When being told the words, “You have cancer,” it hits hard mentally and emotionally. My seventeen-year-old self was heartbroken, devastated, and angry—all before I started my senior year of high school.
Winter Weekend
Around October 2018, I was starting radiation treatment up until mid-November 2018. I vividly remember how hard it was when my hair started falling out, not to mention how that started on my 18th birthday. A couple days afterward, It was falling out to the point where I made the toughest decision to shave my head. I was so emotional and insecure without my hair. Every woman’s worst nightmare when it comes to being diagnosed with cancer was hair loss, and I was one of those women who experienced it.
I started chemotherapy in December 2018. Chemotherapy was when I started to become sicker. Every chemo medication I received caused me to be sick or really fatigued. On the first day of my chemo treatment, I experienced severe side effects from one of the medications, which resulted in vomiting and feeling loopy like I was on drugs.
Thankfully, I was receiving treatment every four weeks so that I could still have a normal life, including attending school, running track, and have a social life. While I was on one of my breaks from treatment, a couple of girls from my cross-country team invited me to go to a retreat called Winter Weekend through a Christian organization called Young Life. I accepted the invite because I wanted to do something fun and normal, as any 18-year-old girl should be able to do. However, what I didn’t know is that Winter Weekend would be something that would change my life.
Myself and other high school students got to hear messages from a preacher about Jesus Christ. One of those messages was the Gospel. The man preaching the gospel was saying, “Jesus Christ died on the cross for us to live,” and then mentioned various names, emphasizing how Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for each of them. And then I heard that man say “Jesus died for Gabby to live,” I remember sitting up in my seat, thinking to myself, “Wait. Jesus really died for me?!”
After hearing the message, all of the high school students and I went out to separate areas of the camp to meditate on the gospel. I remember crying as I reflected on how Jesus died on the cross of Calvary to save me, a sinner battling with brain cancer. That was when I heard the gospel for the first time.
Season of Doubt
After winter weekend, everything started to go downhill. I was really sick from chemotherapy, to the point where I was missing school a lot and spent my sick days lying on the couch, feeling miserable. Additionally, I was unable to complete my indoor track season due to having the priority to take care of my health. I also found out that an old best friend was speaking negatively about me behind my back and gossiping to a group of people who I thought were my friends, but ended up being the wolves in sheep’s clothing. All of these led me to become depressed and doubtful about God.
I was in a season where I was doubting God’s love for me because of all of these trials that I was going through. I remember crying and talking to my mom late at night about how miserable and depressed I was feeling. I said to her, “I don’t think God loves me”. Her response was, “God does love you. He put you here for a purpose”.
A few months later, my friendship with my old best friend ended due to the drama surrounding the two of us. I was really hurt that day that I almost thought about calling my mom to pick me up from school. However, I didn’t and continued throughout the school day, as I had already accumulated many absences from being so sick from chemotherapy.
I came home from school that day and decided to attend Campaigner Night for Young Life. That was one of the decisions I didn’t regret because I was surrounded by a group of high schoolers who wanted to know Jesus Christ and learn about the truth of God’s word. Looking back at that situation now makes me think about how God pulled me out of a toxic friendship and guided me to a community where I can have a fruitful fellowship with.
College
After I graduated high school, I attended Young Life campaigners and club throughout the summer and even went to Young Life camp with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I must say, when the leaders at Young Life tell you that camp is the best week of your life, they are really telling you truth! Camp was when I was starting to develop an emotional relationship with the Lord and recognized the importance of surrounding myself with the right group of people.
Things took a swiftly change when I entered college. I was starting to become prideful, I got into a relationship with someone who wasn’t a man of God, and started to dress more immodestly. I was living through the world while I was trying to live for God by attending Young Life and church on Sundays. I was in the spiritual warfare of living through Christ and the world throughout my freshman and sophomore year of college.
On my first day of my junior year in college, I came across a sign that read, “Bible Study on Mondays at 7 p.m.”, while walking to the dining hall with my friends. When I looked at that sign, I felt an immediate desire to go to that bible study. I started going to those bible studies and even started meeting one-on-one with the pastor of that bible study. In my first meeting with him, he asked me two questions: “What percentage do you think you are gonna go to heaven? and “How do you get to heaven? At that time, I responded that I was 80% going to heaven because I felt I needed to do more good works to get to heaven like going to church, reading the Bible, and pray more.
That same pastor then showed me the Gospel of John, including John 3:16, which is one of the verses that led to my salvation. The Gospel of John revealed to me how God sent Jesus Christ onto this earth to die and shed His blood on the cross for ALL of our sins, and that we will receive everlasting life when we place our faith and trust in Jesus. I wrestled with living through God and living through the world up until October 2021.
I sat up on my bed in my dorm room and I looked over the verses from the Gospel of John that the pastor from my bible study showed me. As I was looking at those verses, I was thinking “Okay God! I understand this now!”.
I realized that God gave the greatest gift aka Jesus Christ to this world to bring salvation to the world and that we would have everlasting life in heaven when we put our faith into Him and for what He did on that cross. I was a sinner in need of a savior and Jesus Christ paid the penalty by shedding His blood on the cross as a payment and forgiveness of all my sins.
I got saved on that night and fully committed myself to living through Jesus Christ. I could never forget that I thanked the Lord for saving me and said “Lord, I am trusting in you now” before I went to bed that night.
Current
As you are currently reading this, I have gained so much growth in my walk with the Lord for over the past three and a half years. I graduated from college back in spring 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and got a job working as a registered behavioral technician with young children with autism. Additionally, I have become actively involved at my church in my hometown since I joined there in August 2023. Most excitingly, I am proud to share with you all is that I have been in remission for over five years, and am now officially a cancer survivor.
I constantly thank the Lord for delivering me out of my seasons of doubt and depression, allowing me to live fully in trust and peace in Christ. It is worth it to have a relationship with Jesus and trusting Him in every aspect of your life. Having faith in Jesus shows that not only are you committed to Him, but you are also looking to Him and trusting Him during every trial and storm you face (Romans 5:1). My friend, I pray that this testimony will stir your heart and open you to the wondrous work of God.
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