t’s hard being the wife of a man driven to succeed! I wanted to be “in his corner,” but constantly being left alone took its toll ... it sucks to be ignored!

I’m not going to lie, I let my hurt feelings lead me down the wrong path! In turn, I caused myself and “Steve” a great deal of pain!

You may have guessed ... I had an affair! While the relationship never got physical, the emotional at-tachments were harmful enough!

The only good thing that came out of it was learning about Faith Family Ministries!

Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me back up and start from the beginning ...

Looking back, my “sweet” child-hood years were short-lived! Up to twelve years old, I was a carefree, happy child!

From twelve on, my life be-came a nightmare! You see, my half brother, “Frankie” started sexu-ally molesting me every time we were in the house alone!

He’d already wreaked so much havoc in our home with his alcoholic rages, that I did my best to stay away from him!

By the time I was fifteen, I started dating a boy who was on the football team with my half brother.

I never knew if “Frankie” had been bragging, but when “Todd” and I were alone one evening, he vio-lently raped me.

I carried a lot of shame that my body had been used that way, thinking I must’ve been responsible somehow for those abuses!

I managed to coast right through my senior year as though everything was perfect. I guess I was a good little actress!

But actually I was dying inside!Fortunately, I met “Steve” two weeks after I grad-

uated from high school. It was a whirlwind romance. We literally dated only three weeks before we began

living together. No doubt, we had fallen head over heels in love

with each other, but truthfully we were looking for an escape from our families and situations.

I’d never met anyone as kind as “Steve.” He had such a caring heart, and no one had ever put me first before.

We lived together for about nine months before we got married.

Not long after that, we moved to Texas so “Steve” could work with his dad. Life was good at first, but my bouts with depression would surface way too often.

We were headed back to Arizona to see my family, but hadn’t gotten far when our car broke down. As “luck” would have it, we rolled into the parking lot of a small church.

They helped us get our car fixed and invited us to church. After the

service, “Steve” gave his heart to Je-sus in the pastor’s office. His transformation was al-most physical, and he has never been the same!

Mine was not like that. I knew I was saved, but I just couldn’t imagine God loving a person with my past. I just felt so ugly!

By the end of that year I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and two years later, our precious daughter was born.

But, I stayed depressed and finally reached my breaking point. “Steve” had me committed into a Christian rehab unit in a hospital where I was treat-ed for severe depression.

He had been out of work quite a lot taking care of the kids in my absence and was forced to resign from his company. His boss told him it was all my fault.

I came home from the hospital even more defeat-ed and depressed than before.

By 2012, I experienced a complete nervous break-down and was admitted into a mental health facility

by “Stephanie Graham”

I

LIVING A NIGHTMARE

once again. I attempted suicide several times over the next

few months and was re-admitted to the hospital each time.

“Steve” buried himself in his new job, and our marriage continued to be in rough waters.

We fought the same fight over and over. It’s like we were just co-existing, but with no intimacy. No communication.

By 2014 I knew I couldn’t take much more of whatever was going on within me. “Steve” and I were fighting worse than ever, and I didn’t even want to go to church anymore. I was isolating myself, as well as, self-mutilating.

These were all signs of a crash. I was doing dam-age, and that’s when I checked myself into an outpa-tient rehab for help.

It was a great program, but unfortunately it was overshadowed by an inappropriate relationship with a married man who also suffered with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

We actually hung out with a group of other peo-ple and laughed and related well to each other.

Everyone graduated from the program before we did, so it was just us two left. We continued hanging out together, not thinking anything about it, hon-estly.

Once we started texting I knew it would make “Steve” mad, but quite frankly, I didn’t care.

By this point my husband was sleeping on the couch, and we barely spoke.

In the beginning, my new friend, “Barry” and I mainly talked about football or the program we just finished.

The relationship did escalate when we began go-ing to aftercare, and we started hanging out more.

One night “Steve” found all our texts, and I told him that I was choosing “Barry.” He left. I tried to call him and text him for hours, but he wouldn’t re-spond. I realized what I was about to lose.

I texted “Barry” and told him I was sorry, and that he should fix things with his wife.

Ending my life was the only way I could see out of all the pain! I left a message on “Steve’s” phone, telling him I was sorry and that he deserved better. And to make sure my kids knew I love them.

I then took an overdose and laid down to die.

When “Steve” got home and found me, he franti-cally called 911. The paramedics rushed me to the Cardiac Step Down Unit at the nearest hospital.

I was there for five days and then transferred to a rehabilitation facility. I stayed there through the holidays, and was depressed the entire time.

I learned nothing while I was there. I did, howev-er, give a hundred percent so I could get out sooner.

And that’s where I was when our pastor made arrangements for us to spend three days in South Carolina at Faith Family.

I will say that going to FFM was not easy for “Steve” and me. It seemed like we had to move mountains to get there.

Our marriage was in crisis and had been for quite awhile. I was ready to quit and throw in the towel most of the time!

I was full of trauma and a heart aching with pain and bitterness. It was like dragging around a dead body!

The week leading up to our arrival, I was extreme-ly anxious and quite skeptical, but at that point, I was desperate for my family!

Meeting Dr. Bill and Toni immediately put me at ease. Our sessions together were so sweet, and I knew right away that I would leave different than when I came.

By the end of our three-day program with the Morgans, I had been totally set free from all the hurt and pain. I had released all my unforgiveness toward others, and myself as well.

Being able to process through the painful things in my past was a real bonus! I had always been told I’d have to live with PTSD my whole life. That there might be an improvement some day, but the anguish of the abuses would always be there.

However, that’s not the case! With Toni’s gentle guidance through prayer, I “heard” Jesus speak to my heart, and His words totally freed me from all of it!

But the greatest thing was that my marriage was restored, and “Steve” and I are in a better place than we have ever been!

Returning home, we were like two teenagers, talk-ing non-stop about our plans for the future.

Our time at FFM was amazing, but I know it was actually Jesus in their ministry who brought healing to our hearts and put our family back together!

aurine is not only the leading amino acid in the brain, but in the eyes, heart, digestive and detoxifying bile. If that were not enough, it is extremely impor-tant for the developing fetus and young infant whose brain, eyes and heart are growing at an enor-mous rate.

But because it is also crucial in making bile for digesting fats, lowering choles-terol, and detoxi-fication of the ev-eryday onslaught of chemicals, it gets used up much too quickly.

That’s why there are countless research papers about the ability of taurine to re-verse many conditions which medicine never thinks of reversing.

Rentinitis pigmentosa, a cause of blindness, congestive heart failure which kills more people and more quickly than cancer each year, and epileptic seizures resistant to all medications are just a few of the things that can be turned around if taurine deficiency is investigated and corrected.

In one study, thirteen out of fifteen people who were classified with severe heart disease were dramatically im-proved and upgraded to being only half as severe after using four grams of tau-rine (1000 mg four times a day).

It is senseless for a cardiologist to ig-nore assaying and correcting taurine, especially in some-one dying of heart failure.

Taurine has also been used to re-verse alcoholism,

Alzheimer’s, liver problems, cystic fibro-sis, high cholesterol, high blood pres-sure, as well as, other serious eye and brain diseases, like macular degenera-tion, seizures and depression.

Dr. Sherry Rogers, whom we’ve come to trust, encourages people to eat as nat-ural as possible. And also says, “If you want to turn back your ‘brain clock’ twelve years, add taurine to your list of supplements.”

She further states, “There is no harm in a trial of 1000 mg of taurine one to three times a day.”

HealthPoint

T

Taurine Supplements

True freedom is an illusion to most people. And why is that?

Part of the reason is we are so busy trying so make ourselves acceptable to others that we don’t even look at what God desires of us.

The world has expectations of every individual. Your looks, what you wear, your job description, where you live, what you drive, and the list goes on.

If we get caught up in all that, we will run ourselves ragged trying to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to im-press people we don’t like.

So, what’s the answer? How can we break this ridiculous cycle?

The answer will seem way too sim-ple, but the truth is, it’s the only real an-swer.

REST! That’s it! Rest!“What do you mean by ‘Rest.’ How

can I rest? If I do, everyone will pass me by, and I won’t get what I need!”

Jesus tells us that if we will take on His yoke, we will find rest (Matt.11:29).

I know, the resting part sounds great, but getting in a yoke doesn’t seem very restful. How do we reconcile these two?

It’s like being on vacation. Do you just lie around, doing nothing?

No, you’re active, but you’re active with things you want to do rather than things you have to do.

True rest isn’t lying around in a ham-mock on the beach with someone wait-ing on you hand and foot. Rest comes from doing what the Lord gives you to do, but He’s in the yoke with you.

The work is easier when two tackle the task together.

And when one of those is Jesus, and you let Him take the lead, WOW! It won’t get any more restful than that!

Toni & I work together on almost every project whether it involves FFM or some other activity.

When we begin, we ask the Lord to take the lead and help us understand His perspective on what we are about to encounter.

The rest that comes is always an as-surance that He has gone before us and prepared the way. We can walk through whatever we experience because we know He is in the lead.

Open your heart to the reality of His presence with you, in you and His desire to live His life through you. Let Him lead and you will find true freedom and the reality of rest that He beautifully provides!

True Freedom

ave you ever stopped to wonder how the Unit-ed States of America got to the place where she is today?

Why have the principles, which our Founding Fathers laid down, been so completely ignored?

Let’s back up almost three centuries. In 1620, the Pilgrims came to the coast of New England and created what is considered the first American con-stitution, known as the Mayflower Compact.

This document served as a beginning frame-work for the Constitution of the United States in 1787 at the Constitutional Con-vention in Philadelphia.

Those men sought to estab-lish this country with a Biblical world view and laws based on the Bible.

They worked to keep this at-titude before the people through-out those early years.

Do you know what the sec-ond best selling book in the colo-nies was? It was the New England Primer whose sales were only eclipsed by the Bi-ble.

This book, in print until the late 19th century and even used into the 20th, was based on the KJV Bible and used by every child learning to read.

However, an event occurred in 1859 which be-gan a trend in our education and legal systems, as well as, our society as a whole — the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species.

Ten years later Charles Eliot became the presi-dent of Harvard University. He appointed Chris-topher Columbus Langdell as head of the law school.

Both of these men believed that Darwin was correct, even in terms of the law—that it was an evolving thing rather than being based on Biblical principles.

This is when the Case Method for deciding le-gal matters was instituted. Up until then, William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law were the standard for all legal decisions.

In the early 1800’s, Charles Finney, the great American revivalist, was a law student who said he came to know Christ through reading Blackstone.

I doubt that many law students today would

be introduced to Jesus through reading their law books!

Much of our country’s foundation was laid on the Biblical statement found in Isaiah 33:22.

For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Law-giver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.

The Lord is Judge, Lawgiver and King. From this our Founding Fathers established three branch-es of government—judicial, legislative and execu-tive.

But, each of these were to be under God as the Supreme Judge, Lawgiver and “King.”

Today these three fight over mat-ters that would not even have been considered by the founders of this country.

The removal of the Bible as the standard for all legal matters has to-tally changed the structure of our government.

As we consider where to go from here, we must realize this change

happened over more than a century, and we will not bring it back with one election or through the efforts of one person.

The pendulum has swung to the left and has to be brought back by degrees.

Prayer, humility, repentance and a return to the Biblical foundation upon which this great country was built, are necessary to begin making a differ-ence.

Will the road be easy? Not likely!Will it be quick to travel? Again, not likely!What will be needed in order to begin this tran-

sition?Learning to negotiate with those who don’t be-

lieve the same way we do, will be a start.If we can understand each other, if we can look

for common ground where we can stand together, then we MAY be able to begin the journey back!

We must recognize the truth of Revelation 2:5, “Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

We need Christ’s light to burn brightly in this country once again!

HThe Journey Back!