Maddy’S sTORY

I grew up in a Christian home, and accepted Jesus at a young age, I think I was around 4 years old. I am the oldest of three, and my family would go to church sundays, and read the Bible sometimes before dinner. The year 2008 was hard. I was only 8 years old and my aunt passed away from cancer. Luckily she accepted Jesus into her heart right before she died. It didn't effect me as much then as it does now. We were really close and I still miss her every day. Fast forward through my school years, I was homeschooled all the years except grade 2. Life was good, went to church mostly ever Sunday, and started going to youth group in grade 9 and got baptized at my church! In 2016 and 2018 I went to Haiti twice with my church on a missions trip. Those trips were life changing! I loved every minute of them and I could see god working through us and the people down there. We stayed at the campus of United Christian International. It was such an amazing experience and would recommend to anyone to go on a missions trip at least once in their life! In 2019 I also went to Mexico on a missions trip which was also really good! And went to the One Life One Chance CampusI can't remember the exact timeline, but near graduating I started to get panic attacks, which I didn't know what they were at first. I would have shaky episodes where I felt like I couldn't breathe and my whole body would shake. My mom said I might have anxiety but I didn't know what I was anxious about. After graduation I started to just feel really sad. It was a weird time when friends were figuring out their lives and going to university and I didn't know what I wanted to do. I started feeling really down and it got to the point where I thought I might hurt myself. I went to my mom crying and she made an appointment to see the doctor. I ended up filling out a question form and I pretty much had bad depression and anxiety. I didn't know why. Honestly I don't remember what happened after that doctors appointment. I just remeber my mom asking me if I had ever tried praying about this, and I hadn't. So I prayed. I prayed that god would help me through this and my panic attacks. And guess what, after I prayed I never had another shaky episode. I've felt down still sometimes but I have never had another episode like I had before. Like wow, God really is there for us. I ended up going to my churches young adults group where I met my now husband. He helped me through a few of my shaky episodes and has been such an amazing support. In 2019 I went to university. Unfortunately, I was not able to walk across the stage because of covid in 2020. In 2021 I got married to my husband and it was the best day of my life! We have continued to go to church and joined a group with our married friends. In August 2022 we found out that one of my uncles had throat cancer and that it was already stage 4 when they caught it. They didn't know how long he had to live. Having already lost someone to cancer and having another family member have cancer was hard. He was a strong believer and was ready to see Jesus. For his last days all he wanted to do was share gods words which is so inspiring. In March 2023 he passed away. It's been hard, very hard. My family is super close and it's hard to grasp since throat cancer is something he should not of even had. He was too young and had never ever been a smoker. I for questioned god why he had to go. Losing people you love is hard. Recently I have felt god telling me I should share my testimony. And here I am sharing things I have never shared before to even my closest friends. But I know that I'm not alone in my struggles and that there are people that are going through the same things. I think it's important to share so that we can pray for each other and lift eachother up. And that's my testimony.