My Testimony

I grew up Catholic. When I was a child, I would play alone quite a bit in my room. Our house was an old, large Victorian built in 1879 and my room was on the second floor. I remember feeling a sense of comfort and peace in being alone as I played, because I never really felt "alone". I believe I was learning to sense the Presence of God.

My first conscious encounter with Jesus Christ was in high school. My father was going through his second divorce, my mother as well. Both parents restless in their marriages led me to question some things. Through The Lord's miraculous provision, I found some powerful answers.

In high school met a young man by the name of Brian D. Imrie. He was 16 and I was 15. We met over summer break and we attended the same high school. We invested some time together the summer before my junior year and became good friends. Early in my junior year, we began dating. Many of our mutual friends were Christians and would invite us to the Youth Group meetings at First Christian church. I remember going to those meetings with Brian and attending a church snowboarding trip together.

My junior year of high school was the hardest year of my high school experience, hands down. Possibly the hardest year of my life in many ways. As I struggled with my parents, I carried a full coarse-load of honors classes, athletics, extracurricular activities and the role of being a parent-like sister to my little 4 year-old sister Gianna. I remember my emotions and circumstances overwhelming me at times. Youth group would bring peace in small doses and I remember craving the worship. I remember gazing up at the young worship leaders and wishing that I would be able to sing like that one day.

My first encounter with the presence of God occurred in my bedroom closet. My mother and I had just been in a horrible fight. That night, I opened my Bible. It was the only place I felt I could go to find an answer in a moment of inexplicable pain. And The Lord met me there. He had drawn me there. On the pages of scripture in Luke, I remember Him saying to me that the worst thing people could ever do to me would be to hurt my physical body. But He held the key to my soul. He held the key to my innermost being. And He wanted me to know that no one could EVER take away what they had never given me-- His Love for me. I remember crying in such gratitude in that moment. He was speaking to me! I learned later that the Biblical term for this is "Rhema", when God speaks directly to your heart from scripture. I shared this experience with my Dad soon after that. I could barely get the words out of my mouth before I broke down crying again. I didn't understand it, but my Dad explained that The Holy Spirit was moving in my heart. He had recently become born again in Christ and was on fire with The Holy Spirit. He received a lot of persecution from our family and friends in those days, but He stood fearlessly in The Truth. And I watched him grow and transform as The Lord worked in his heart and through him to advance The Kingdom.

My Dad would take me on father/daughter trips that year. We grew closer in the last two years of my high school experience. I remember him taking me to Mt. Hermon for a father/daughter retreat. We sat in the woods together as he shared the Gospel with me and edified me in The Lord. He wrote my name in an acrostic poem on a brown leather heart. My favorite Bible is still the one he gave me in that season.

I had a second encounter with The Lord during one of the Worship sessions at the Youth snowboarding retreat. I remember tears pouring down my face uncontrollably during one of the songs as I lifted my hands for the first time. The Lord was softening my heart toward my mother and asking me to surrender to Him and receive forgiveness.

Brian Imrie and I dated for about three months of my junior year and then we went our separate ways. I left for college at UC San Diego after my graduation and moved down to Southern California. I found out in my second year of college that Brian had also moved down to San Diego. We crossed paths a couple times, but remained on our own separate journeys. I never really plugged into a Christian community as I moved through my adventures at UC San Diego, but I remember going to a few churches and small groups. I got into some unhealthy behaviors as I explored. Never too overboard but I was still seeking. I became very committed to an Iyengar Yoga practice and teaching Yoga after injuring my right knee. Yoga was a tool from The Lord sent to heal my knee and my body image in that season.

I moved to Los Angeles in 2005 to enroll in Masters program for Education at UCLA. I continued to seek and explore, never feeling satisfied and going to food many times for comfort. Right before Easter weekend in 2006, I found a book entitled I Am The Door, by Paul Ferrini in a New Age bookstore up in the hills of Topanga Canyon . He claimed to be a channel for The Holy Spirit. The book spoke to me in many beautiful ways and led me closer to Our One True God.

My third encounter with The Lord occurred during the Yoga Retreat on Easter Weekend, April 2006. Jesus came to me during my last Yoga practice at the retreat and his Presence was warm and full of Light. It was so real, so raw, and in some ways, indescribable. Jesus had spoken clearly to me in my heart and said, "Come to me. I am The Door. What are you so afraid of?" All I knew after this encounter was that Jesus was REAL and I wanted Him as my Savior. That was when I received Christ fully and began an authentic relationship with Him. That was when I received my salvation! I remember describing the encounter to my Dad and his wife, tears streaming down my face at the dinner table. I began prayer-journaling after that encounter and communing with The Holy Spirit there. That was how we became more and more intimate.

Fast-forward through a broken engagement, a transition out of teaching in South Central Los Angeles and an abrupt, divinely-timed move to Ojai, The Lord drew me into the wilderness with Him so that He could do an intense work in me-- Hosea 2:14. He healed me from a lot of my past there. He revealed His Vastness and His Unfailing Love and Provision for me there. And in that place, He invited me to sing His Praises. This was when I rediscovered the voice He had given me.

I moved back to Napa according to The Lord's prompting in October 2010. December 1st, 2010, Brian Imrie and I reconnected with a fierce and passionate Love. It blurred the lines of Divine Timing and The Lord's Will in our lives. We became pregnant soon after our reconnection. We were excited, terrified and overwhelmed.

Brian proposed to me one week after we received the news that we were pregnant, so we were newly engaged on top of being newly pregnant. Brian and I were 2 months pregnant and we had just gone through a rough patch in our very new and vulnerable relationship. The Lord knew He needed to intervene and take the wheel. He led me back to church through an invitation to The Father's House by my friend Eileen Perez.

My fourth and most powerful encounters with Our Lord occurred at The Father's House in Napa in February 2011. The Presence of The Lord was so thick in that place, I wept. I submitted my Life to Christ that day as I recommitted myself to Him. I met a woman named Faith at the Guest Services counter afterward and felt Jesus in her eyes. I met a woman named Melinda my second time at The Father's House and knew she was to be my mentor. We met for coffee each week and she began to disciple me. I couldn't get enough of The Word. I couldn't get enough of The Worship. I was reborn in The Spirit and I was SO HUNGRY! It was awesome. Brian Imrie and I were married on September 16, 2011 in a beautiful, intimate garden wedding with our families. Kellen Elijah Imrie was born at home twelve days later on September 28th, 2011-- a beautiful, perfect 7 lbs, 4 oz baby boy.

The journey continues to be an adventure! I now lead Worship with the Worship Team and serve in Li'l Kids Church at The Father's House in Napa. The Lord has given my family and me New Vision and we are confidently walking according to His Will and His Timing. He prompted us to begin a Christ-centered Yoga Ministry called The Little Yogi Room in October of 2014 and He is leading us each step of the way! Hallelujah!!! Romans 8:1 and 8:28!

#fruits