Marchettas_Testimony

I remember when I was about 8 yrs old; I was attending a church in Orangeburg, SC. My mother was an Evangelist. At the age of 13 yrs old, I gave my life to the Lord. I started singing in the choir and leading Worship service. At the age of 11 yrs old, while we were living in Awendaw, SC, I got molested by my Step-Father. I didn’t remember the molestation until I was going through therapy at Morris Village Treatment Center in 2001. My mother, one of my sisters and I, moved back to downtown Charleston. When I turned 16 yrs old, my sister that lived with my mother and I, moved with another one of my sisters and my mother and I moved with my godmother until we could afford and apartment. I enrolled into N. Charleston High School. I stayed there until I dropped out of school when I was in the 9th grade. I also started drinking, smoking cigarettes and smoking weed. At the age of 17, I was introduced to powder cocaine. I was snorting cocaine and smoking weed. I also started seeing this guy that was married. After his wife left him, I moved in with him. Not long after moving in with him, I started using crack cocaine, I had just turned 18 yrs old. I was getting abused by the man that I was living with; my family never knew what was going on, because I didn’t tell them. Whenever they saw bruises, I would tell them that I bumped my leg against the table or something. I was abused by him for 11 yrs. This went on until I left him. I was 28 yrs old and had two daughters that I had to take care of. I stopped using drugs in 2000 so that I could go to Nursing School. Not long after that, I started using again. That’s when my sister Odessa, went to DSS so that she could get temporary custody of my children. That didn’t stop me; I continued to use drugs anyway. Sometimes, I would be missing for days, or even, months at a time. My sister Anita would come looking for me, but she couldn’t find me. Drugs and the streets became my life. Being out there day and night after night, just getting high on crack cocaine, cocaine, and weed and drinking alcohol. While I was out there living what I thought was the life, I was a victim of rape. In 2002, I was high and stoned. I was walking down Reynolds Avenue, and I got into a car with a guy I didn’t know. After a while, I started to feel uncomfortable about the guy, so when he stopped at a stop sign, I proceeded to open the car door so that I could get out. When I got my foot out of the door. He grabbed my left hand, took off down the street and started dragging me with half my body inside of the car. After a while, I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw that the guy was still in the car and he was trying to run over my head. When he let go of my hand, I got up and started running so that I could get away from him. After a while, I saw a guy and he was walking along side his bicycle and I asked him to walk with me. I asked him if I was bleeding and he said yes. When we got to the gas station, the people that was in the store, called the police and an ambulance. The attendants that was in the ambulance had to cut my clothes off of me. I didn’t know how bad off I was until the next day. What I discovered is that, I had a hole in my knee and ankle, bruises on my right shoulder and lower part of my back, a patch of my hair on my head was missing where the tire of the car was hitting it, and some broken ribs. After about three months, I thought that I was healed enough so I started using drugs again. In 2007, I had a stroke. While I was in the hospital, Elder Greene came to see me and prayed for me. I was losing my eye sight. Tow days later when my sister Anita came to the hospital to see me, my blood pressure was so high that the doctors had to put medication in my IV so that they could get it down. I got really, really sick. I was so sick that I couldn’t keep any food in my system. The doctor came in to let me know what was going on in my body. After the doctor left, my sister Anita looked at me and she said, “Marchetta, if you don’t stop what you’re doing, you’re going to die.” That year while I was at “Praising in the Park,’ I decided to give my life to the Lord. Ever since that day, I’ve been running for my life. It’s been 1 year since I’ve been saved and drugs and alcohol free. ‘To God be the Glory!!’