I was born and raised in a Southern California and lived there most of my life. The first ten years of my life we lived in Los Angeles. I didn't have much of a religious background as I was growing up. My parents didn't attend church or teach me anything about God. I never saw a Bible in our home or ever heard anyone pray. My parents were good to me though, and loved me. But even at an early age I knew that something was missing in my life. I would ask questions like, "Why am I here?", and "What is the reason for life?" I remember looking up into the sky one night and wondering how did all this come into being. As I got older I began trying to fill that empty feeling inside me with things like alcohol and drugs. I began hanging around with the wrong kind of friends and by the time I was fourteen year old I was sent to Juvenile Hall. While I was there I remember going to a chapel service and all I could do was cry. I needed God so bad but I didn't know how to find him or if there really was a God to find. After I was released to my parents, I went back to my old ways again, and by the time I was sixteen I was married, (thinking that this was my answer.) After four years of a very unhappy marriage we divorced. I then had two children to raise on my own. Two years later I married again and again my life was in turmoil. About three years later something very tragic took place that shook my whole world but at the same time (although I didn't know it at the time) started me toward the answer I had always wanted to know. I received a call that my father took his own life. I then began to really ask questions. "Is this all there is to life?", "Is there really God, Heaven, or Hell?" I ended up with a nervous breakdown. The doctor said that I would probably be on anti-depressants for the rest of my life. I really felt that I had hit the bottom. I had never felt so hopeless. I couldn't eat or sleep. I lived in constant fear. A fear to live and a fear to die. It's then that I began to search for God. I began to go to church. I heard that there really was a God, that he loved me, that he could help me, and save me. I heard that if I repented of my sins and was baptized in Jesus name, He would fill me with His precious Spirit. I did repent and was baptized in His name, He did fill me with His spirit, and He healed my mind. As He filled me with His Spirit I began to speak in a language I had never heard or known before. I felt a joy and peace that I had longed for fill my soul. I had found what I had been searching for all my life. All of my questions were being answered. All along Jesus had been my answer. I threw away my pills and haven't had to take any for 11 years. He has been everything He promised He would be to me and more. He'll do the same for you. The same God that reached down and put the pieces of my life together will do the same for you.