Destined to Make It: Destiny Awaits You

By Gwendolyn Joyce Williams

Destined to Make It is the story about how this writer fought and overcame tremendous odds that would have sidelined many before the fight began. This book was birth through me because of my many life experiences that crippled me and had me bound for years. My drive and desire not to be held by my past propelled me forward. My desire is to reach women that are held by their past, and are afraid to let go of what has held them bound for years. I pray as you read my story that you will begin to take courage, move out of your situation and move forward. We cannot control what others do to us, but we can control how we handle the situation. Take control, and Remember, the battle is not yours but it’s the Lord’s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 23, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450031288

Gwendolyn Joyce Williams

Gwendolyn Joyce Williams was born June 7, 1962 in Miami Florida, to William and Mary Howell. She grew up in Miami and attended Dade County public Schools. She later married and was blessed with four children. Gary, Felicia, Shameika, and Mary Johnson. On December 21, 1986 she moved to Cross South Carolina. After moving to South Carolina, she felt a strong call on her life to enter ministry. It was there under Bishop Joseph E Watson that she was ordained. She later relocated and move to Greensboro North Carolina. She now serves up the Leadership of Pastors Bobby and Linda Chapman of Pioneer of Faith Ministries.

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Copyright © 2010 by Gwendolyn Joyce Williams.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 06/17/2020

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Growing up in an Unsafe Environment

Chapter Two

An Ugly kind of Love

Chapter Three

The Absence of a Mother’s Love

Chapter Four

Pregnant with my Father’s Child

Chapter Five

Life on the Streets

Chapter Six

Lost my Footing

Chapter Seven

Overcoming Life’s Obstacles

Chapter Eight

Survivor of Abuse (moving forward)

Chapter Nine

Victory in Sight

Conclusion

The Ten Round Match

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book, first and foremost to my Heavenly Father for enabling me to write and share my story, to my two oldest daughters, now deceased, Melaniece and Felicia, to my son, Gary Johnson, who has been a great inspiration to me, to my two youngest daughters, Shameika Johnson, Mary Chapman, my niece Quantisha Howell and also my best friend Mary Hall.

Thank you all for your prayers, support, encouragement and most of all, for believing in me. You stuck with me through thick and thin, never giving up on me and for that I’m grateful. May God continue to bless each one of your lives and may you continue to be an encouragement to each other.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First, I would like to acknowledge my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If it were not for his Grace and Mercy, I would not have made it. I would like to thank Pastor James Marshall and Carlton Maynard for their dedication and sacrifice in helping me complete my book. I would like to thank my Pastors Bobby and Linda Chapman for their continuous prayers and believing in me. They both have always been a blessing to my family and me. I would also like to thank Brenda Price for her prayers and encouragement. May the Lord bless each of you for your invaluable contributions and support you have given me. May God reward you richly and may your life be filled to the measure of all the fullness in Him.

INTRODUCTION

There was a time when I distanced myself from people because of fear of rejection, or being hurt. I felt I had experienced more than my share of these feelings. But one day I discovered, life comes with no guarantees. There was a time I felt I was born to live in adversity and trouble. The Bible states, Man who is born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble… (Job 14:1).

Today, I can say, I AM AN OVERCOMER. With God’s Grace and Mercy and with the strength he has given me, I overcame almost impossible odds. But, God see nothing as impossible.

I am exposing my life today, to encourage you to LET GO OF YOUR TROUBLED PAST. Secondly, to help all who are willing to except help by encouraging you through the reading of this book, of how you too can overcome your hurt and pain. To all the abused women (and men) I pray that by the time you reach the end of this book, you will find you are not alone. You are not alone in your struggles, your thoughts or your desires. I urge you to take a page from my life and redirect your life so you can be an overcomer also.

I hope, after you have read about what I experienced, and to what I was exposed and the mental trauma I endured, I overcame. You will acquire the insight and motivation to not allow yourself to be held back by all the negativity you may be experiencing, I hope you too, will acquire the desire and motivation to seek your Destiny.

CHAPTER ONE

Growing up in an Unsafe Environment

Today I, Gwendolyn Joyce Williams, am writing this story which flows from the core of my being.

As a child, I was introduced to adulthood at a very early age. I was a child denied her God—given rite of passage. My natural path from infancy to childhood to adolescence was altered dramatically.

How? you may ask.

By an evil man who covered his wicked, perverted deeds under the guise of being a man of the cloth a preacher, is the answer.

To grow up in a stable, loving home, with caring parents, was not a gift I had the privilege to experience. Instead, I had a father and mother who lacked even basic parenting skills. The giving of their time, extending unconditional love and providing proper nurturing to their offspring are traits they seldom displayed.

My home life was not one of joy and fun with my siblings. We rarely had the opportunity to experience neither a night of fun and games nor anything else that brings a family together to just, enjoy each other. Instead, the most involvement we had as brothers and sisters was when we were cleaning up behind our father. He continuously tore down walls and rebuilt them. It was our job to clean up the mess.

We were not fortunate to have a lot of toys because our parents were not financially able to afford them.

In a nutshell, growing up in our home was not very enjoyable. Fun and games were almost non-existent. Our family was governed from a strict, authoritative, disciplinarian parental perspective. Our lives centered around church activities.

In my eyes, my parents were more devoted to portraying an image of being religious than providing their children with the necessary love and support needed to become normal adults. They were busy, moving about attending and supporting church services or other church related activities. Of course that meant my brothers, sisters and I had to go also. This kind of activity was normal for them and became a pattern for the rest of us. This life in religion would continue for years.

Whatever life lessons we learned, I guess, were supposed to be gathered from whatever we encountered. Likewise, we were supposed to automatically know what was right, wrong, good, bad or indifferent. After all, we are preacher’s kids.

Church Life (What was it like?)

Church functions seemed to be a sort of outlet for many people. It was the only social involvement many of us had. But, there was always something happening at church:

Monday night-Young adult choir rehearsal:

Young adults, age 13 to 25, would meet to select and rehearse songs for the following Sunday morning’s service. As the preacher’s child, I had no choice but to sing in the choir.

Tuesday night—extended prayer service:

This was one service for which I really didn’t care at all. I was expected to go kneel at the altar regardless of my desire. The choice was not mine however, thinking as a child this seemed to be an ideal time to get a quick nap. It seemed God wasn’t hearing me or answering my prayers anyway. So, I made it my business to sleep at this time as did many of the other children. I would always wake up when prayer service was about to end, so as not to get into trouble.

Wednesday night—the ALL SACRED Bible study:

This was another adult activity with little or no thought for the needs of the children. It might have been better if someone had informed these God-loving adults that children could have Bible related activities geared to their age groups, just as the adults. Usually, we were expected to sit quietly, not cause any disruption and wait patiently. As for me, I could never quite understand the Bible, especially with all the Thee’s, Thy’s, Thou’s, etc.

I would always end up falling asleep long enough for my mom or one of the ushers to come along, discover I was asleep and disrupt my nap. They would pull on my ear and make me sit up.

There were rules the ushers enforced and one of these rules, I remember so clearly was, no chewing gum in church! If we were ever caught chewing gum the ushers would come over, grab our lips, squeeze them together and say, Didn’t I tell you not to chew gum in church? Now, spit it out. They would have a big napkin and make us spit it into the napkin.

As they walked away, they would say, don’t let me catch you chewing gum again!

As soon as they turned their back, I would mock them by making this big ugly face to the glee of the other children. I often wondered if this was one of the Ten Commandments.

Thursday night—Usher meeting:

This was the time when all the ushers would meet and discuss their jobs and responsibilities. I hated Thursday nights, because it usually ended in heated augments with not much accomplished. In my opinion, this meeting, along with all the other auxiliaries should have been conducted on Saturdays.

Mom would leave my sibling’s and me home that night. My dad would make my brothers and sisters go outside to play. He would keep me inside for totally, all the wrong and certainly, ungodly reasons.

Friday night—Youth night:

Friday night was the only time we were allowed to participate in any activities. They called it Youth Service. Although it was called youth night, it was also geared toward the adults. Again I wondered if possibly this was the Eleventh Commandment. Make the Youth think it’s all about them.

Saturday—fish fry:

All day Saturday was devoted to selling fish and chicken dinners. This was a weekly social gathering mostly for adults, as usual. It brought many new people out. People who never attended a regular church service would always show up whenever food was being served.

Saturday’s events ended with a general church