Austin shares, “They ended up locking me in their goat barn overnight where I slept with the goats, cried and screamed.”

Austin Legg was four when he landed in a foster home. It was no better than the home he’d been taken from.

Austin remembers, “The foster dad, he never called me by my name. My name was bastard. It just reminded me or made me feel unloved.”

After two years, Austin went back to live with his mother where violence, neglect and drugs ruled the home. Then, at 8 years old he experienced another life-defining moment. His mom was murdered by her boyfriend.

Austins says, “My grandma looking over at me, just tears all in her eyes. And she said, ‘Honey, your mommy's dead.’ It was just like every bit of emotion within me just died.”

Sent to North Carolina to live with his aunt and uncle, Austin spiraled into rebellion. At sixteen, expelled from school, entrenched in the gang life and addicted to pills and alcohol he tried to kill himself.

Austin recalls, “I was in my room one night and I grabbed a bandana, and I tied it around my neck as tight as I could until I felt like my Adam’s apple was in the back of my spine. And at the very, very last minute before I faded out, I whisked out.”
Austin’s aunt and uncle checked him into a mental hospital where he was diagnosed as bi-polar. The sedatives they prescribed became his escape from the pain inside.  
Austin shares, “I would save them up and I would snort 'em or I'd pop 'em and I would stay high. I was so angry at myself that I didn't do anything for my mom. I was angry at myself that I didn't protect her.”

Austin’s mental issues, and rebellious behavior escalated leading to him being placed in a group home. While there, he caught a felony assault charge for fighting and was put on probation. He soon joined a gang, started selling weed, and popping pills – until his drug use landed him in rehab. By the time he turned 18, Austin had aged out of the system and was left with nowhere to go.
Austin says, “I'm sleeping in alleyways. I'm sleeping on staircases in, apartment buildings. And this one day I'm walking the streets and I'm just angry. I'm, I'm hollering at God. I just wanna die, ‘Lord, please take me out. I don't wanna live anymore.’”

Even then, Austin would wander in darkness for another ten years – living a life of addiction, crime and violence. He also had two sons by two different women. He knew he was destroying his life but felt powerless to change it.

Austin recalls, “When I would look in the mirror, what I saw was darkness. I saw a sad, miserable, angry, evil young man who just was lashing out at everything in anybody that would come near.”

Then at 28, he landed in jail after taking a plea agreement for domestic violence.  One night, a cell mate had a question for him.

Austin remembers, “Well what do you think about God?” And I looked at him and I says, “I know that there's a God. I know God's real.” I says, “but lemme tell you something. God doesn't have anything for me, and I don't have anything for God.”
Over the coming weeks, Austin says he heard God’s voice.

Austin says, “And I can hear my name in my heart being called like Austin, like a very small still whisper, peaceful and quiet Austin. And at first, I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm finally going crazy. I've been in here for almost 45 days. I am going crazy.”

The whispers, however, continued and Austin felt God compelling him to read the bible. 

Although resistant at first, he finally started reading and came across Matthew 11:28.
Austin shares, “Come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And when I read that verse and the old King James version of it, I broke something inside of my heart, just broke. And tears were running down my face. And at this moment, I hit my knees, I threw my hands in the air, and I told Jesus I needed him, and then I gave my life to Christ On August 23rd, 2021, in the middle of a jail cell. In that very moment everything within me changed everything. Everything. I stopped cussing. I stopped desiring pornography. I stopped desiring drugs. I stopped desiring alcohol. I stopped desiring the evil of life.

Even then, Austin remained haunted by the life he’d live. Soon after he had a dream, he was chained in a prison cell with other inmates when Jesus walked up to him, unlocked his chains, and washed his feet.

Austin remembers, “He was renewing me, who's setting me free. And the Lord was telling me, I have forgiven you of all of these things, and I don't remember one of them. And it was that moment that I realized that he deemed me worthy of forgiveness. So, I'm worthy to forgive myself.”

Austin says God told him to read the new testament three times. It was late at night when he finished. Moments later, the guards called his name. The charges had been dropped, and he was released.
Austin recalls, “Legg pack your stuff, you're free to go with nothing less than a miracle.”

For the first time in his life, Austin was free from the pain that had ruled his life. 

Today, he’s a devoted husband, works a steady job, and shares joint custody of his second son. He’s also a youth pastor whose brand, “4-given skateboards,” spreads the gospel to the skateboard community nationwide.

Austin shares, “God will never give up on you. You could run a thousand miles over again. He'll still be right there beside you, waiting for the day, faithfully for you to come back. His arms are always open. He can and will forgive you. And He wants you to come and accept that love, the real love that you've been searching for. It resides in Christ.”

Katie Guiliano is the founder of Hosanna Revival, a company she started as a college student.  She wanted other people to be as excited about the Bible as she was and thought this could happen if Bible covers were more beautiful.

She explains, “I had fallen in love with God through His word, and I looked at this Bible in my hands and thought, ‘If it's so beautiful on the inside, why on earth are the covers ugly?’”  

So, Katie re-bound and hand-painted her own bible, and within a week, she was doing this for other people, for profit.  And while the business is doing well today, she and her husband Nick’s journey came with risk and uncertainty. 

“We were so incredibly broke as we were walking into marriage,” recalls Nick. “Katie really had no income. We were dwindling down to nothing in her accounts. And then we, we were paying for a wedding.” 

Katie had dropped out of school, re-investing every penny of profit into Hosanna Revival.  She never took a salary, yet she always tithed, as a friend encouraged her to do early in the business.

“It just sparked something in me of like, this feels important to be able to tithe and to consider seriously how to invest this money that God has entrusted me with,” Katie shares.  “And I would find missionaries or organizations or individuals and just give it.” 

Nick was also a tither. 

He says, “That 10% rule thing kind of became a thing where I wouldn’t even stick it in my pocket.  I would set it aside and say, ‘God, this money is for your kingdom.  Go. You gave it to me.  I want to give it right back to you.’” 

With this kind of financial perspective, neither ever worried about how they’d get by, even when Katie didn’t have the money she needed to go from hand-painting to mass producing the Bibles.

Katie remembers, “The publisher said, ‘You need to pay us $70,000.  There was 40 grand in the bank account for the business bank account.  I drained my personal bank account, and I was still $10,000 short.” 

Katie’s dad loaned her the $10,000.  Meanwhile, two nights before their wedding, it was decided that Nick would quit his corporate job the next day and join Katie full-time in the business.

Nick explains, “We prayed about it.  I was split.  There was part of me that felt this undeniable peace, and there was the logistics side of me, the safety side of me that was like, ‘This is chaotic.  This is crazy.’” 

Katie adds, “I’m writing my vows, and I finish up, and I check my email probably at 2:00 AM, and I see in my email inbox an email from a buyer at that retailer and they said, ‘Yeah, we're in,’ and it came, I mean, within a hundred dollars of the entire annual salary we had prepared for Nick.  We made that decision; the next day, God said, ‘I've got you.’”

Katie shared the good news with Nick at their wedding reception.

He says, “I started to cry.  To see God do something so quickly, to bring so much peace.  I felt so cared for by the Lord in that moment.  It was a wedding gift from God.”

They paid back Katie’s dad.  Revenue for Hosanna Revival tripled within the next year and again in 2019.  Even in the uncertain climate of COVID, the business grew, and by 2024, revenue was up another 35%.

Katie explains, “We were faithful with what He entrusted us with and then continued to give us more to steward.  And He trusted us with more and more and more.  And I think that connection is so clear.” 

As the Guilianos make more, they give more. 

“If our business is going to continue to grow, our giving should absolutely be following that same model,” Katie declares.  “And (we) just so desperately want to honor Him with our resources and what we think is His.” 

Nick exclaims, “When we give, we get to be a part of the kingdom of God.  We get to be a part of the evangelism that's happening here on earth.  That's the blessing.  Seeing that work being done, being a joyful giver.”

The couple encourages others to be good stewards and give generously, like they do.

“If you step out in faith and in obedience, you're going to uncover something new about who the Lord is,” Katie says.

“And when you tithe and you see the impact that your money goes towards, it brings joy, life to your faith,” Nick concludes.  “Just jump in and experience it.”
 

“Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” Will you partner with CBN and help plant generously around the world? Your generous giving brings hope to the hopeless and the truth of God’s Word to millions around the world through our humanitarian efforts. Become a CBN partner today and share the love of Christ. 

CBN found Pat Robertson's speech on the futility of "land for peace," delivered at the prestigious Herzliya Conference, is as true today as it was more than a decade ago.

Shelly Recio was in turmoil.  “To have proof of your partner being unfaithful is like someone died and your ideology or your thoughts or your perspective of who you were or what you guys were made of completely crumbles before you. And it's like, ‘oh, this will never be the same again’.”  Noel and Shelly Recio had been dating for eight years when they gave their lives to Christ in 2013. Shortly after, they tied the knot. Embracing their new faith, the couple poured their hearts into church ministry, confident it would lay a foundation for their love. Noel recalls, “The church felt like Heaven. It really felt like an escape from the street life that I had grew up living.”  And Shelly adds, “I wanted someone that loved God more than he would love me. And I saw all of those fruits.”

Two years later they had their first child. The celebration, however, was short lived as Shelly battled postpartum depression. In the few months that followed, their marriage began to fracture. Shelly recalls, “It felt like my whole world flipped upside down. I didn't even know how I was gonna take a shower. She was colicky, so she would cry a lot. I was sleepless and I had no idea how I could even attend to my husband or even think about going back to work. That was a complete nightmare, and I felt very isolated and depressed.” While Shelly suffered, Noel says, “I felt powerless. I really wanted to help her as best as I could as a husband. I thought that the deeper I dive into ministry, the closer I got to the solution. I neglected my marital duty. I neglected my duty at home. And the energy and the resources that I should have used at home I was invested in the ministry at the church.” During this vulnerable time, a woman at church expressed her attraction to Noel, offering affirmation he craved. Noel recalls, “I started to feel like I was wanted, like somebody looked at me with desire. This woman made me feel as if I was a champion.” It was then, an off-and-on affair began. Eventually, Shelly’s intuition, sparked by a dream, led her to discover texts between Noel and the other woman. Shelly says, “Here I am. I feel burdened. I feel alone. I feel isolated. Part of me felt like it's time to let go or give up. And then there was a part of me that felt like, no, you fight for your marriage, God is gonna restore you guys. Initially, Shelly kept her discovery a secret, to see where the relationship would go. Then, her depression subsided, and was replaced by a cold, indifference towards Noel. Finally, a few months after finding the texts she confronted him. Noel recalls, “My thought process was, is it over? Can it be fixed?  It's crazy to say this, but I never stopped loving my wife, even though I was doing all the things that I was doing.” Shelly thought,  “I'm already confused. I'm already broken. I'm already lost. And I decided just to step forward and say ‘whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen and if I end up leaving, I end up leaving’. And God told me to ‘be still. He doesn't need you to nag him, he just needs a friend’.”

The couple began opening up about their thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, the off-and-on affair continued. Eventually, consumed with guilt, Noel left church and went back to his old ways. Noel remembers, “Drinking and doing drugs helped me numb the pain and the pain brought so much desperation that I could not process my thoughts. I was afraid I would lose my family every day of that affair.” Through this time Shelly says, “So many times I was ready, I was ready to pack up and go. I said, ‘No more. God, you could figure it out later if it's your petition. But I'm getting out of this house’. And that's not what God wanted for me.” The sporadic affair had lasted two years before Noel found the resolve to cut all ties with the woman. Repenting for his sins, he recommitted his life and love to shelly, his family, and God. Noel says, “When God forgave me, I felt like I got my integrity back. I felt like I wasn't a broken man. It wasn't damaged goods that when God restored me and forgave me, I felt like I could finally become whole again.” Again, Shelly turned to God, this time asking Him to help her forgive, trust, and love her husband once again. She recalls asking God, “Am I holding onto bitterness and hate and resentment for all that he did?’ And God said, ‘absolutely’. So I started to take all these different leaps and really like move forward to being more gentle, like having physical touch and being present with one another. We started going on dates again. We continue our nighttime conversations and that's where my heart started to get soft again.”

The couple rebuilt their marriage over the next two years, finding strength through their faith in Jesus Christ. Shelly recalls, “When I saw Him restore my marriage, I said, ‘there is literally nothing impossible for God’. Part of being a Christian is to forgive. And when you encounter that moment, Jesus is expecting us, just like He did with us, to be loving, to be merciful, to provide for that person if it's in your ability to do so. So, I got to do that for my husband.” While Noel says, “I feel like me and my wife can fight against anything. We were in love before, but we didn't know what our love could handle.” Noel and Shelly’s story is a testament to God’s power to heal. By surrendering their struggles, they saw ashes turn to beauty. Shelly says, “Sometimes we run away from the pain, but God says, lean into it so you can see what I'm gonna do. And that's where you see His miracles happen.” Noel believes, “God is so good that He can extend His goodness into the bad and brokenness and still use it for good. He did it for my marriage. He can do it for anyone.”
 

Special Acknowledgement: Story lead courtesy of Delafe Testimonies

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