So I was running and I fell onto the street. I like busted my chin open. I went into shock. I literally, like in the cartoons when people fall they see stars…I legitimately saw stars when I fell. It was bad. Three of my teeth broke in half. I could feel it. One of them was rolling around in my mouth. So I was trying to unlock my phone and blood was dripping down and I was like, I don’t know what to do. So I called my dad. He came and picked me up and we went to the ER. I got stitches, which honestly was on my bucket list. Fun times. Then the next morning I remember when I woke up. I cannot open my mouth. At that point, we did not know my jaw was broken because I guess at the ER the X rays weren’t strong enough to see that it was broken. Um, it wasn’t like my physical jaw bone, but I broke the joint. So from that point on, I basically went to dentist appointments all the time. The doctor told me, or one of them told me, that it would probably just take about three years for it to heal on its own, and then after that I would have to get braces in order to fix whatever was left. I had to get my teeth fixed. So I like three fake teeth in my mouth. 

It’s weird, because it always sticks out to me, but I remember after – when I was like fine enough to go to church – I showed up and everybody was like, “Oh my gosh. Like, that’s so bad that happened to you. Are you okay?” And I remember my youth pastor at the time was like, “Oh, that’s crazy. Man, I hope you feel better.” I don’t know, but for me personally, like, that was weird. Knowing what I know, now. Like, knowing what God can do. It’s like, why did nobody ask to pray for me? 

So we ended up moving that December and by that time I was still in eighth grade, I was almost done. I was almost a freshman. We started going to the church that we’re at now and I remember the first day that we showed up…At this point we’ve been to religious churches; no deliverance, no healing, none of that. So I didn’t even know that was available. Like, I did not know people can get healed. I didn’t know people have demons. Like, I didn’t know Holy Spirit was still moving. But I remember the first day that we went to the church, like when we opened the doors, like the presence of God, like, I don’t know how to explain it. But literally the presence of God was so tangible that it actually knocked the breath out of me. Like, I was like…it’s crazy. I had never experienced or felt anything like that. The church that we’re at, people get healed, people get delivered. Crazy testimonies that I’ve never heard of: people getting healed, like people getting healed of cancer, cancer tumors dissolving, crazy things. I’ve seen people that were paralyzed at the church get healed. And so I was like, Okay, all these people are getting healed. I think God could heal my jaw. 

So for a few months, I think three months, like every Sunday, I would go up to the altar. I would ask God, “God, I’ve seen You heal other people. So I know You can do it for me.” Um, nothing happened. But I still was persistent. I was like, “Okay God, I know You can do this.” And so it was May at this point, so as before my birthday, actually, someone had invited my mom and me to this…It was like this creative night and people were just praying and worshiping like painting and doing prophetic art and stuff. So that was really cool. We went and at the end someone asked, “Does anybody need prayer for anything?” And I almost didn’t say anything. They were literally like, they were actually moving on and I was like, “Well, actually, my jaw is broken. Holy Spirit convicted me. He was like, Girl, you better say something right now. So they ended up praying for me, and my jaw started chattering. And I wasn’t cold, but it just started like going off. And I was like, this is really weird. Um, and so they, they were done praying for me and they asked me, “Okay, do something that you couldn’t do before.” And at that point, my jaw would pop all the time when I would eat. It would get really tired after a while from eating. Like, I couldn’t eat cheeseburgers, steak, none of that. It was terrible. It was, it just sucked. And I couldn’t open my mouth very wide either; just because of the joint, how it was like, it just, I could not. So I opened my mouth and I was like, “Wait, I wasn’t able to do this before! Like, this is… What?!” And usually, when I would open my mouth it kind of hurt when it got to a certain point. But I was like, “Okay, wait, it’s not hurting anymore. Like, there’s still a little bit.” So he prayed for me again and I was completely healed. 

It was, just in that moment that God really met me and showed me like, I actually care for you.  I’ve heard your prayers, and I’ve seen the pain that you were in. Because for a lot of my life, I always felt so rejected and that people didn’t want me or like, I’d never fit in. In that moment, it was like, Wow, God actually sees me. Like, He actually has heard my prayers. And someone prophesied over me too. She told me that she got like this picture, and it was me staring at myself in a broken mirror and some of the pieces were missing, and it was just really cracked. But she said that she saw God restore the mirror and like, restore how I saw myself. Even like the shame that I was carrying. Because I did carry a lot of shame because I broke my jaw, just because it’s really expensive and I felt a lot of shame and a lot of guilt for a long time because I feel like I put my parents through so much. So that word really touched me, and really impacted me and how I saw myself after that. It just showed me like God was always there with me. Like, even when I felt like He wasn’t there, I felt like I wasn’t seen or loved, like, God was there with me. 

So after the meeting, we went in the car. My mom and me were crying. She was like, “Okay, we have to see if you can eat something!” So I was like, “Okay.” And I ended up getting a cheeseburger and a medium fry and I ate the entire thing. Like, my jaw didn’t pop once. It didn’t hurt, it didn’t get tired, and I was like, “Oh my gosh I can eat food again!!” And even too, I remember the next morning, when I woke up, I was like, still kind of like, I guess you could say, I was a little skeptical. I was like, Was I really healed? You know? I was kind of testing the waters a little bit and I remember I woke up the next morning, and I was like, Okay, I’m about to yawn. Let’s see if my jaw is gonna pop or hurt or anything. And I was able to yawn and it didn’t hurt. And then I woke up, and I was like, I’m gonna eat cereal now, and I was able to eat cereal and it didn’t hurt! “OH MY GOSH!” And then I actually remember, for my birthday, because it was a few days after, I was like, Okay, I’m gonna get some steak now. And I was able to eat the steak, so, God bless. So then ummm, I was so excited. Like, I actually have a picture of me eating steak because I hadn’t been able to eat steak. 

At that point though, I remember, I knew I was called to ministry, but I didn’t want to be. Like I did, but I didn’t because I was like, I don’t like speaking in front of people. But I was like, Okay, you’re gonna have to suck it up and do it somehow. So it was towards, probably almost end of freshman year, probably around April, I’m actually at a conference at our church and it was a women’s conference. There was one night they were talking about the power of testimony and they’re like, “Okay, if you have a testimony, you can come up and share it.” And there’s a lot of people there. I was like, I don’t know. But, I felt Holy Spirit tell me, “Go up there and share what I’ve done for you, with your jaw.” And I was like, Eeeeh Okay. So I went up there and ended up sharing my testimony and then I prayed afterward. And there’s just something about when you’re under the anointing or like, under the power of God, that it’s just not even you anymore. Like, it’s just Holy Spirit speaking through you. And that’s how I felt in that moment. Like, it was just boldness I’ve never had before, like, I was not scared. I was not timid. I was up there yelling like, it was, it was coming out. You know? I remember just standing there afterwards, like, Wow, I don’t know who this person is, but I kind of like her. 

So I remember, there was this lady though, that was, I was still kind of up on the stage, like to the side. But there was this lady on the corner of the stage crying, and she motioned the pastor’s wife over. So she was talking to her and she brought her up, and the lady was talking about how she was actually a prostitute for a long time. And I guess she had gotten beat up one night and her jaw had actually been broken for about nine years and she never got it fixed. It was crooked and she just kept it that way. But she was saying that, before I had even prayed, as I shared my testimony, her jaw popped back in place, and she was completely healed. And so it was like, “What?!” And then later, we found out that the same thing happened to a lot of other people that had problems with their jaw, by the power of the testimony they had gotten healed. 

A few weeks later, the pastor’s wife had gone to a conference to preach and she shared my testimony there about what God had done and more people got healed! So it was like God was multiplying it. And it’s just, it’s just crazy. 

From that point on God really stirred inside of me and really brought compassion to me for other people. And knowing that, like, there’s a lot of people out there that need healing and by sharing our testimony it can really encourage people as well. It really showed me that sharing our testimony is so powerful. Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. So like, what God has done for you can multiply in other people’s lives.