Knitting Hearts Ministry Presents:
REAL Life Testimonies
Cindy Roberson, Lizzy Lowe, & Liz Goerski
Written by Sue Sanders
October 14, 2017
The flag team worshiped to an anointed song that exalted the name of Jesus and told us to speak the name of Jesus, the name that is above all names, the name that winds and waves obey. We were reminded that at the name of Jesus strongholds are broken, chains will fall, and we are set free. We are forgiven and fear has to leave. The atmosphere was filled with the precious name of Jesus.
After Joyce Sanders prayed and lifted up the name of Jesus and made announcements, she played a video clip of the Sea of Galilee that gave glory to God in the Highest and expressed the worthiness of the Messiah.
Susan White and Joyce Sanders led the audience in worship. Susan shared a testimony about her daughter’s miscarriages and then the birth of a healthy baby who is now a year old. As she led us to sing “Blessed Be the Name,” she shared that we have to bless His name in the good and the bad. Then every blessing He pours out, we need to turn back to praise. His name was further exalted as we sang “How Great Is Our God.” We sang about the Godhead—Father, Spirit, Son—and declared how great He is. Our hearts overflowed as we sang, “Jesus, I Need You.” The testimonies that followed were confirmation of the words from the song: “Beauty for ashes. You find the weak and contrite heart, shoulder its burdens and carry it into the light.”
Joyce led us to read Psalm 78: 4 as a declaration before each testimony: We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders He has done.
Cindy Robison works with special needs children in the public school system and has for 25 years; she feels that she is young at heart. Her father was in the military, so her family moved around from the states to various places overseas. She is a people person and believes that traveling around forced her to make friends.
Cindy is a member of Alice Drive Baptist Church and answered the call to participate in ADBC’s church plant that meets at Pocalla Elementary School. There, she serves as the director of the nursery. ADBC has been a place of grace for Cindy. Pastor Clay Smith challenged members to write out their story in one sentence: before Christ and after Christ. Her sentence is simply: Before Christ my life was emotional, mental, and chaos. After Christ my life was pure peace and comfort.
When Cindy was 9, she felt life was perfect. God touched her and saved her in 1975 at a Nicky Crews’s crusade at a stadium in Jacksonville. This was the mustard seed in her life, and her mother cultivated that seed as she took her to various Christian gatherings and then to visit at the nursing home. Cindy met Mr. Lovett and played bingo with him. She believes that was her beginning in physical therapy. However, she experienced a severe trauma when she was 12 and a sexual assault when she was 13. She learned to lie and cover-up the truth about what had happened to her. Her parents would not expose the truth, and Cindy just learned to appear happy. When she was 15, a leader took her and others to an orphanage for abandoned children. When she arrived, she was overwhelmed with the children that she saw, especially one who had been severely burned. She knew when she was in tenth grade what her career would be—she would work with special needs children. Her career began there in 1976. Her motto centers on a belief that the Lord will heal us when we begin serving wherever God has planted us. For so many years, she did not experience real joy. Triumphantly, she now has abundant joy.
Cindy realized that forgiving was a part of her story. She had to extend forgiveness to the ones who had harmed and traumatized her and to her parents for covering up instead of exposing the evil. Since her mother had a lot of guilt, Cindy found grace to help her mother forgive herself for ignoring these serious traumas in Cindy’s life. As an act of obedience, Cindy gave her mother a book on forgiveness and then wrote out a letter to her mom that included Ray Bolts’s song, “Feel the Nails.”
Cindy left the audience with the visual that we are sandwiched with God’s protection. He goes before us, He encircles us, and He goes behind us. He is never going to leave us.
Lizzy Lowe, a nineteen-year old from Columbia, shared her story next. Her parents divorced when she was one, and she was tossed back and forth for quite a while between her parents. When she was with her mom, she was extremely fearful. Even though her life was troubled, she was a good kid and obedient. When she was eleven, she moved in with her father and step-mom and attended Thomas Sumter Academy.
Her story embraced the foundation of her Christian life. When she was in the ninth grade, many people were convinced that the world was going to end. Other issues bombarded her when her friend betrayed here. There were constant arguments in her home, and it seemed that she was always in trouble with her parents. She remembers crying out in desperation needing answers. Jesus responded to her cries and caused her to realize that He was listening. She remembered this pink devotional book that she had, and she told herself that if she was still awake at 2:45, she would read it. She was still awake, so she opened it. The Lord showed her that she was never alone. The Father allowed her to see that He knew exactly what would happen when He sent His son to this earth. The Father also opened her eyes to the Holy Spirit. She documented everything in her journals. Before this experience, her journals were pretty dark and expressed heaviness. Her new journals were amazingly different because she herself was experiencing the transformation of the Lord’s work in her life. In four months there was an astounding difference in her life, and it was all because of the foundation and the deliverance that He walked her though. She encouraged each of us to return to the foundation of our faith.
Liz Goerski shared briefly about her husband and two birth children and one adopted child. She grew up in a Christian home, and Christian influences surrounded her. Even as a child, she had prophetic thoughts, but no one understood them but brushed them aside. Today she walks in the prophetic and miraculous and desires to help others fulfill their callings. Liz wanted to embrace the fullness of the calling on her own life, so she has attended the Bethel School in California for the past two years. While she was at Bethel, she saw many miraculous healings. She herself has prayed for so many people, even on the phone, and individuals have been healed. She ministers in public places, and some people have even accused her of being an angel. She has also prayed impartation to others so that they can heal as well. She prays whenever the Lord prompts her or opens her eyes to someone who is hurting. She has even taught her children to pray for healing for themselves and others and to use the name of Jesus.
She admonished us that there are things that will hold us back from embracing healing. We might ask ourselves: What if nothing happens? Liz herself has experienced severe rejection at work. Instead of getting upset and frustrated, she has surrounded those at work with love and has prayed for anyone who would allow her to. She has seen people raised from the dead. Five different times God warned her that someone was about to commit suicide. She has prayed for people to be healed from leprosy—shingles and skin diseases. Liz also has been used to deliver people from demonic influences.
Liz does ministry as she goes. She is radical for Jesus.
The gathering ended with anointed prayer.
The message today was bold and strategic for fighting the enemy. Hope is our anthem. Testimonies proved that even when the world has fallen apart, You stand right there beside us. You give us songs in the night.
Remember love;
Remember mercy.
Christ before me, Christ behind me.
Your loving kindness has never failed us.
Hearts United Women's Ministry 