I received this today in an e-mail.  It's too good not to share.  You may consider it too long to read, but please, take a few moments.  You will be truly blessed.

Much of His Love,

Rosie

Testimony by Allison Everett

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I have always heard it said that God is with us even during our darkest hours. I never really understood what this meant until I endured an overwhelming loss and a debilitating illness, both occurring at a harsh
time of life, during my first year of high school.

Then, in my first year of college, Hurricane Katrina took all that my family had. I lost my beloved grandmother to cancer, and that experience alone brought a legion of sadness into my life. Watching my charitable grandmother suffer and die was the most difficult experience I had been through in my first fifteen years of life. But, even though I lost a lot, I also gained a lot. Through my grandmother's agonizing death she taught me the value of life.

My grandmother was my babysitter through my infancy and childhood. She didn't have much money, but she didn't need much money to show me how to enjoy life. We went to the beach almost every day so I could build sandcastles, collect sea shells, and play in the water. We went to the local soup kitchen to volunteer our time to help the downtrodden. I learned exactly what items to put in the brown paper bags for needy families to pick up on Tuesdays. Once I saw a baby wearing a tattered blanket as a diaper, that evening I begged my mom to stop at Walmart to purchase some baby food and diapers for that family.

My grandmother spent three months in an intensive care unit at a hospital, tolerating three surgeries and a myriad of other tests and treatments, always seeming to get worse, never better. During these three months my grandmother lost track of days and nights and time in
general. It was decided that she would be moved to another hospital to endure yet another surgery. When the emergency medical technicians strapped my grandmother to the gurney and secured her for travel, they took her outdoors to put her in an ambulance. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she implored the technicians to let her rest just for a moment. The hospital had robbed my grandmother of her memory; she had forgotten what fresh air smelled like, what birds sounded like, and what clouds looked like. The benevolent emergency medical technicians afforded my grateful grandmother a few moments in the outdoors before loading her in the awaiting ambulance.

From this I learned that the world around us is a priceless treasure, meant to be adored and revered. The additional surgery at the next hospital did no good to improve my grandmother's condition. She was dying.  I wanted desperately to let my grandmother know just how much I loved and appreciated her. On a shelf in my bedroom I had proudly displayed my grandmother's favorite seashell that we once found while shell collecting at the beach. I brought that shell to my grandmother and told her just how much I had enjoyed being with her and treasured the time we had spent together. Once again, tears rolled down her cheeks as she told me that shell had greater value than a sparkling diamond, and she never forgot the joy, excitement, amazement, and happiness I had on the day we found that shell.

Little did I know that one month after my grandmother's death I would find myself in the exact same intensive care bed she had occupied. I had been immensely ill after her death, but the insidious case of infectious mononucleosis I had contracted was not diagnosed until it became severe.  The virus that caused the mononucleosis led to encephalitis, an inflammation of my brain. Although I felt an abject fear, my heart went out to my mother. She had just lost her mother, now she was watching me, her only child, suffer from a debilitating illness.

My mother has always been confident in the Lord, and taught me to be this way as well. Boy, we sure needed God's help now. Through prayer, God was able to keep us brave when not blithe; aware of his presence even though not abounding with vitality.

I found God's strength through the love shown to me by others. Every single day I received visits, cards, poems, letters, flowers, prayer cards, religious medals, and phone calls, often coming from people I did not know and had never met. Through these loving acts of kindness from family, friends, and strangers, I developed a richer awareness of God. God can really take awful situations that befall us and turn them into good.

The Bible says:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28)

With the help from physical and occupational therapy, I was extremely fortunate to make a full recovery from encephalitis. I graduated from high school with high honors and was also selected as one of the top
four volunteers in the state of Mississippi. Little did I know, I would soon need a plethora of help from a host of volunteers.

Katrina hit the Mississippi gulf coast on August 29, taking the homes and hearts of too many people. When my family and I arrived home, we were stunned to find that our home and all of our earthly possessions were gone. I thought, "This is what it feels like to stand before the Lord, all you have is what you have done for the Lord."

My family had much help from many friends, church groups, individual groups, the government, a myriad of volunteers. We had to split up though, due to lack of transportation. All we had left was the car we
had evacuated in. The best way to describe our new environment was to think of a war zone, so much destruction everywhere you turned. Angels come in many shapes and sizes though, and God sent an abundance of them to Mississippi.

A caravan of people pulled up one day while we were trying to salvage anything that we could find and asked if they could cut all of the trees that were down in our yard. They were from a group called the Samaritan's Purse. They did not want any money; all they wanted to do was pray for us and help us. We were feeling down and defeated, they were angels who restored our hope and faith. We did not even have a Bible left and they gave us a beautiful leather bound bible, signed by each one in their group.

We had to go to points of distribution to get daily survival items. There was so much help from so many sources, I felt cheerless that there was no way I could thank all of the people throughout our nation that helped us. It was depressing to see all of my possessions gone, but my family splitting up was the worst of the situation. I learned once again the value of life and love.

The best way to deepen the conviction that God really can take the setbacks of life and turn them into springboards is to think of the Cross. That is the supreme example of God's ability to transform things. There He took the foulest event that ever happened on this earth and made it into the most sublime. The crucifixion was the world's worst crime; now it is the world's supreme hope. It was the darkest scene in human history, now it is the brightest. No matter how dark things get, and I have experienced some dark times, there is always hope. The spirit and faith of the American people gave me the will to move on.

By: Allison Everett, age 18, Ocean Springs
Jackson County Campus Homecoming Queen
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College