After tragically losing her mom to cancer when she was 13 years old, Adella turned to boys, alcohol, and drugs—hoping she would get the attention of her father. She was the youngest of three kids and was lonely and terrified. She confided that she just wanted to be invisible, and the use of drugs and alcohol seemed to hide the pain. She admits it gave her a false sense of normalcy in the chaotic life in which she was dealing with. She wanted to stuff the painful memories away and hide in her own misery.
Before her mom passed away, and when Adella was younger, her mom faithfully took her to church every Sunday. She remembers hearing the stories about Jesus but did not understand how to have a personal relationship with Him. After the death of her mom, her dad decided to move the family to a small town and they tried to move on with their lives. Adella was troubled and sought attention from boys. She became pregnant, and delivered her first child by the age of 16. Her father forced her to give this child up for adoption. Later, she had two more children from different fathers. When those children were just 2 and 4 years old, Adella met her husband. She was working as a bartender at the time and looked up to see a nice looking man get off his Harley Davidson wearing chains and all the motorcycle gear. She was smitten and married him even though she knew he was in trouble with the law and was addicted to heroin. He gave Adella heroin as well, which provided her “daily fix.” This continued for close to twenty-five years. Adella always tried hard to hide her addiction from her kids. She knew they would be mortified if they knew the truth about their mom.
Sadly, she realized that she had turned her back on God her whole life—she always thought she was strong enough to sail her own ship without His help. Adella knew she had to get clean but did not know how. She decided that she wanted to meet some new people that would be good influences for her, and she started attending church. She even hosted her own Bible study at her home. This did not please her husband and it caused marital issues.
Over time, Adella experienced excruciating back pain and had developed large wounds on her thighs caused from heroin usage over the years. Her daughter took her to the emergency room. She was told the wounds were Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This also affected her bones and a surgery took place that caused paralysis from her waist down. Adella even slipped into a coma for four days after one of the several surgeries to repair damage. After spending four months in the hospital and two years of physical therapy, she slowly started to recover. She went home to start picking up the pieces of her life and started working with a counselor. Damaging problems had developed between Adella and her husband and she felt her marriage was hopeless at this point. Six months later her husband became ill and passed away. She confessed, “I started to realize the miracles that I had experienced and wanted to know why I was healed and saved.”
Adella was encouraged to visit Compass Christian Church in September to witness the baptism of her granddaughter. She remembers standing there hanging on to the seat in front of her when Pastor Brian Jobe called all those who believe in Jesus to come forward and be baptized. She heard a voice speak to her. This was the Holy Spirit saying, “Let me care for you. Let me take your pain from you.” She had not heard this voice before and she did not want to take the excitement away from her granddaughter’s baptism, but she reluctantly walked forward and was baptized. As she was drying her hair with a towel, Adella turned around and saw her daughter was soaking wet—she had followed the call to be baptized as well. All three generations were baptized that day!
Adella revealed that God is now working with her to restore her relationship with her other two children. She explained that being baptized allowed her the freedom to let God begin to work in restoring her relationship with them. She now believes in the truth and sees evidence of God’s work in her life daily. Adella has a new captain of her ship. She confided, “I am so happy to finally let Him sail the ship as I know I am not strong enough to do it alone.”
To learn more about baptism and Compass Christian Church we encourage you to attend Rooted. For more information, visit Rooted