SS 12 “Happily Ever After”

This week’s Salvation Story was prompted when the Lord reminded me of my dear friend Vana, a young woman I asked to go home and speak to the Lord about her salvation while she was alone, as I mentioned again in Margaret’s Salvation Story. Rather than asking anyone to ever “repeat after me,” I’ve always believed that it’s important that the person speaks to Him directly. In addition, I’m careful to make sure I’m listening to the Lord throughout the entire process since He is leading and speaking through me. Such was the case with Vana.

Rather than having her pray with me (when we would be the ones talking), I asked her to go home, get in her very large walk-in closet, and begin to speak. Then I told her to sit quietly and listen to the Lord and that this would change everything in her life. 

The proof that someone has met the Lord face-to-face is when you see the person again, and their face is glowing, and later everyone notices that they are an entirely new person—clearly, they’ve been Born Again, which is exactly what happened to Vana.

Thinking back, I can’t remember the first time I met Vana. She was often around the theme park that her family owned, and since the Lord blessed our family by making the commercials for three years, we saw her very often, to the point of becoming friends.

However, I do remember the first day I came to her home, which was not at all the mansion I’d expected that a “heiress” would live in. Instead, it was a very modest house, but it was decorated beautifully. While visiting Vana, she shared her most recent heartbreak. The emphasis was on her father, who had stopped the marriage just a week before it was to take place after finding out about the lie that this man had hidden—exactly like at least two prior marriages and even one who was hiding a daughter that was Vana’s age.

Vana's father was undoubtedly wise enough to realize that this man (and the two fiancés before) were marrying her for her money, and like any father, he knew he had to protect her. Yet Vana didn’t feel protected. No matter how kindly anyone tried to convince her, love was her father’s motivation. I often thought of how many ways our heavenly Father gets in the way of what we believe would lead to our happiness, Him knowing the heartache that what we wanted would cause later on if He didn’t step in and thwart our plans.

What I shared with Vana that afternoon evidently differed from what all the others had offered her.

Coming from the position of being His bride, it was easy for me to explain to Vana that she’d never find any happiness, even should her true prince charming show up on a white horse. Instead, her happiness would be found in her relationship with the Lord. The funny thing was, like everyone else, I assumed she knew the Lord personally—mostly because her family often entertained some of the most "world-renowned men and women of God" in their own home. Many were very close friends of the family and Vana. Yet it wasn’t until I got to know and love Vana for a very long time that I realized she’d never met the Lord personally.

Again, I am not sure what prompted this realization, but the moment the light went on, and I realized this, things changed. I remember asking Vana to meet me for coffee. During our conversation, I began asking her a few questions, which she answered not as someone who knew the Lord personally, but instead, she began sharing dates and events, like the day she was confirmed and other religious milestones.

When I asked my final question, prompted by the Lord (which may be why I don’t remember what I asked), she said, “I don’t understand what you’re asking.” To which I replied, “I know, you don’t understand. Vana. Even though you’ve been around Christians all your life and many people who probably claimed to be, you’ve never really ‘met’ Him personally. And until you have that experience, you’ll never understand fully what you’ve been missing.

“So I’d like you to go home, go into your gorgeous bedroom closet (by this time, she’d moved to a new home), and while there, just begin talking and asking the Lord questions. You can close your eyes or have them open, but trust me, the Lord will be right there, and if you sit quietly, you’ll hear Him speak to you, probably in your heart, not necessarily in a voice or even a whisper.”

Vana did just as I had suggested, and when she called me later, she could barely speak. Instead, she was weeping tears of joy. A few minutes later, she tried very hard to explain what had happened, but I assured her she didn’t need to explain because I understood. All I could do was smile—just like I'm smiling now, just thinking about it.

My work was not over, however. Soon after we spoke, the Lord prompted me to explain to Vana that she needed to go down to the front of our church (that we both attended) during the next altar call.

Now, before you get it into your head that this is something you need to do or something you need to get others to do. Stop and listen.

Each and every salvation story is as unique and special as each person who experiences salvation. In Vana's situation, God knew this was important. I didn’t know how or why it was important, but throughout every interaction with Vana, I was tuned into and sensitive to the Lord’s leading—which is why I said earlier that it was important to let Him take over.

Yet, even though Vana agreed, each Sunday—Vana failed to walk forward during the altar call until several weeks later. That Sunday, the sermon was about stepping out of your comfort zone and taking the additional steps needed to do the extraordinary. So, when the altar call began, I knew I needed to step out of my comfort zone and take the additional steps needed to do the extraordinary. I turned and looked over at Vana to motion her to go down. But she kept her eyes averted from mine, so I had to get out of my seat (and comfort zone), walk back a few rows, and then quietly call to her. Finally, her dad tapped her shoulder, so she turned with panic on her face but began moving towards me. Together, we went forward arm-in-arm. The moment she crossed the threshold, she began to weep and then later, went to the altar room with the others. Afterward, I told her she again wasn’t done, but her next step was to be baptized.

Again, let me repeat that only IF the Lord prompts you or whomever He reaches down to save and tells you they should take this step and be baptized, don't add it to the process. Don’t add any “works” to this intimate relationship any more than you would to a marriage between a husband and a wife. Each relationship is unique, and what is important is their commitment to one another, which trumps any religious or relational gesture.

When being baptized in the megachurch (I attended at the time), each participant is asked to share their short salvation story, which is videotaped and played as they walk into the water and are baptized. Vana’s testimony didn’t only shock everyone watching and listening; most importantly, her parents were horrified. Nevertheless, it also had to be one of the most powerful salvation stories that got everyone to their feet with loud applause (to the Lord).

That evening, Vana shared that even though she and everyone she knew believed her to be saved and a Christian, she had never experienced Him personally. Each time she spoke of Him and her new encounter with Him, her voice broke and tears streamed down her face as she spoke of the love that enveloped her and filled her full of self-worth. At one point, she told about one of her almost successful suicide attempts (one leaving her disfigured), and due to this, along with her money, she was easy prey to men because she just wanted to be loved.

Though her parents and I had been close friends prior to the day I approached Vana to come to the altar, they were hurt and probably felt a bit betrayed and exposed due to what I had been called to do to help Vana find Him. Yet, I know all was forgotten when my family and I were given a place of honor the day Vana married the man of her dreams, Keith, about a year later.

Keith was a pastor for Teen Challenge, who also battled drug addiction and other vices, which allowed him to love Vana in an understanding way. And with the Lord’s love, not just as a man, Keith was the knight in shining armor she dreamed of. Keith was romantic, kind, and a perfect match since he cared little about Vana’s money.

In fact, her money was used to go on many mission retreats to find good soil to help sow Vana’s and her entire family’s money. I know because my son Easton was on one of the trips when, as a couple, they went to Haiti with Convoy of Hope. As I’d already heard from many others, Keith was “real” and “genuine” and so loving to everyone—especially Vana. The couple's mission trips slowed down a couple of years after they married when they welcomed their new baby, but I don’t believe their ministry as a couple will ever slow down for long.

As a side note, Vana was tutored through A Wise Woman earlier in the same year she met Keith. Not by me; I did not know anything about it. A mutual friend, Marcy, who’d also befriended Vana for years, became her older woman. Marcy explained at Vana’s wedding that she was paying me back for "saving her son’s marriage." Apparently, Marcy’s daughter-in-law had been in the process of divorcing her son, and while visiting with the granddaughter, Marcy had been reading through her Wise Woman workbook that was sitting on the kitchen table. Marcy’s DIL asked if she could borrow A Wise Woman and called the next day to say she’d stopped the divorce.

Ten months later, Marcy said she was holding a new restoration baby in her arms. So, when given the opportunity, Marcy began meeting with Vana to go through A Wise Woman, and I believe this laid the foundation to make Keith and Vana’s marriage as wonderful as it is today.