Christine Martin: Rescued by an Angel

CBN.com Christine Martin lived every girl's dream: the newest clothes, the coolest shoes and money to burn.

“I was used to having very nice things," she tells The 700 Club. "Things actually had a hold on me.  It was a matter of the thing, the home, the nice car, the country club or the yachts or the… Driving around in beautiful things with your windows down so people could see you.”

But behind the country clubs and privileged lifestyle, Christine was living a nightmare.
 
“The molestation happened from ages 3 to 13. So it happened in a very long time of my life. It was forceful and not pleasant, yet it was really embarrassing and continual, non-stop.”

The abuse came from not one, but two men in her extended family.  But Christine never told a soul.

“I was this inner kid inside screaming, wanting to tell somebody, ‘Please help me.’ I was told do not say anything. ‘Do not tell your parents. No one is to know. This is our secret.’”

While the physical abuse eventually stopped, the emotional pain only got worse.

“I was very damaged. Very hurting.  Very broken, lonely, insignificant, I felt that no one wanted me.”

Just when she thought she couldn’t feel any lower, she was raped at a party by a stranger when she was 16. 

“I had this horrible disgusting dirty feeling relived all over again.  This horrible dark stillness just captivated every part of me. I sat in the shower, and I made myself bleed. I scrubbed so hard and scratched my body. Pulled my hair at the scalp. I just wanted to get every part that he had touched off me and away from me. I told one girlfriend and she’s like, ‘Oh, you better keep it quiet. This is a good school. You don’t want to make a fuss.’ So I kept it quiet.”

Then, her father lost his contracting business. She could no longer hide her pain behind a lavish lifestyle, and she used other thingsdrugs, alcohol, and promiscuityto mask her pain.

“I did not have any value for myself as a woman. A body was, you know, there’s no respect for it. It’s already been taken advantage of, so why does it matter to give it away? I would do drugs every single weekend, and whenever I could, almost several times during the week I would smoke pot. I would get high. I would skip school.”

But all that changed one day when she was 19. She had been joyriding with a friend.

“I lost control of my car. My car had spun in 360 degrees for like 50 yards. I remember my car teetering over the edge of the bridge.  I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die with the fish!’ I didn’t think about clothes. I didn’t think about people. I didn’t think about family.  I cried out and said, ‘Dear God, please rescue me.’ That’s all I remember uttering.  I remember as my car was on fire, teetering over this bridge, it was an angelic presence about five stories tall. Massive. Wide in stature. Just strong and gray like took my car.  It was like these hands almost swooped down and took my car teetered it right off the bridge onto the grass.  My car door flung open and I just remember rolling out and laying on the grass.”

She had a few broken bones, so she was taken to the hospital. While she was there, she thought about the angel that set her car to safety. Then she remembered going to church as a child, and knew it was finally time to give her heart to Jesus.

“There was this uncommon peace that I had not ever known that had come over my body and swept over my soul, and I felt for the first time in my life that I was valuable. That someone cared about this girl. That I was going to be okay. That day radically transformed my life, and it’s like I fell in love with this Jesus that everyone had talked about, but I had never known.  He became so real to me on that particular day.  Just as real as I’m talking about Him now.  I knew that all the pain and all the tragedy and everything that I had gone through was not in vain, because at 19, there was still a purpose for my life. I wasn’t going to be some washed up druggie.”

Christine is married now and has a wonderful son, Solomon.   She and her husband love to share what Christ has done in their lives.

“My life is amazing.  I know it’s because I know who I am in Christ.  Jesus has become literally my friend. He’s so real to me. He is the fiber of why I do what I do. Why I breathe. Why I live. Why I exist. It’s all because God showed me grace.“

God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life. Discover how you can find peace with God.