A Walk Through Faith: One Woman’S Story on How She Encountered the True and Living God

By Lavinia D. Lomnasan

Discover that there is a living God that is with you every moment despite lifes difficulties.

Whatever circumstance you might be facing today, know that God can use it for good.

Perhaps you might be searching for a purpose, an answer, or just something bigger than you, or maybe youre searching for the truth. Whatever it may be, I hope that by reading A Walk Through Faith, you will be inspired enough to search for your own relationship with God.

Talk to him today.

He is listening and waiting for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512782271

Lavinia D. Lomnasan

Lavinia D. Lomnasan has experienced God’s presence during the most difficult times in her life. A dedicated wife and mother, Lavinia has kept a record of her encounters with God and enjoys sharing them with others. She truly wishes to touch as many lives as possible with her story. Lavinia and her husband have three children and live in the Pacific Northwest.

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Copyright © 2017 Lavinia D. Lomnasan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-8228-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8229-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8227-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017905139

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/26/2017

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Early Childhood

Chapter 2 Moving to America

Chapter 3 My Mother’s Death

Chapter 4 A New Place to Call Home

Chapter 5 The Teenage Years

Chapter 6 A New Relationship

Chapter 7 Marriage and Infertility

Chapter 8 Motherhood

Chapter 9 The Restaurant

Chapter 10 Meeting Jesus

Chapter 11 Redemption

Chapter 12 Depression and Spiritual Oppression

Chapter 13 Intercessory Prayer and Miracles

Chapter 14 The Holy Spirit

Chapter 15 Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 16 The Kingdom of Heaven

Epilogue

Salvation Prayer

About the Author

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

NET: Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from The NET Bible Copyright 2005 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.bible.org All rights reserved.

NLT: Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

To my husband who has always been there for me for better or worse, family, and to Jesus, my Lord and Savior, because without Him I would have no story about which to write

Introduction

The book you are about to read is my own personal story and experiences of my journey through faith and how I met God. It is one of hope, forgiveness, salvation, and healing.

I want to share my story about life struggles and about hardships and how I overcame them.

I would like for people out there to know that you’re not alone through life struggles, depression, loneliness, illnesses, and losses.

Although you may feel alone, you’re really not. There is someone there right beside you each and every single moment who knows your struggles and pain and knows what you are going through. That person is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is with you always; He loves you, and He will never forsake you. In fact, He patiently waits for that day when you will call on Him. He anxiously waits to have a relationship with you, wherever you may be in life.

I think oftentimes people search for someone to understand and accept them just the way they are, but they fall short most of the time because there is only one who can fully satisfy that longing. Only through a relationship with Jesus will you feel complete, and it is there where you find out who you really are. And the good news is He accepts you just the way you are. You don’t have to change or prove yourself to know Him. He offers a personal relationship to everyone who wishes to know Him.

Oftentimes I think we as people like to make our problems bigger than they really are. If we really start to think how great God is, He is the creator of humankind and everything that came into being. If we really started to realize how big God is, then maybe we wouldn’t focus so much on our current circumstances, and we would start to focus more on how God can help us out of our trials.

As you read my story, you will realize that a lot of times I made my problems seem bigger than they really were, and I think that when we do this, we make God seem smaller than He really is.

I have learned through my faith journey that if we bring our problems to God first and let Him deal with them, then we don’t obsess about them so much, and we can focus more on the life God has prepared for each of us.

I have found freedom in bringing all my problems to God and leaving them at the foot of the cross, whether they are big or small. There is definitely freedom in surrender.

I have experienced God’s mercies throughout different trials in my life, and I have had many encounters with Him throughout my faith journey. He is a personal and loving God who desires for all His children to welcome Him into their hearts. There is an empty space in everyone’s heart that God Himself left empty intentionally so that His children would come searching for Him.

I hope that by reading my story, you will get a sense of how wonderful and great God is.

Chapter 1

Early Childhood

My story begins at a point in my life where I was searching for the truth, answers, hope, and purpose. And what I found was more—much more than I’d ever dreamed of.

But my story doesn’t start here. It starts back in the year 1982, on a stormy, windy night in a small village of Romania. My parents were expecting their second child, which was me. Their first child was a boy, my older brother. After twelve hours of long labor, my mother finally delivered me; she was discharged from the hospital shortly after I was born.

The nurse at the hospital wrapped me in a blanket and handed me over to my dad. Shortly after I got home, my dad noticed that I was turning blue and was having trouble breathing. Out of despair, my dad didn’t know what to do; he looked around and noticed the oven. He put me in the oven on low temperature in hopes that I would recover from the cold.

Because Romania was a communist state at the time, once you were discharged from the hospital, they wouldn’t take you back. He desperately cried out to God to save me from death. After about an hour, my dad noticed that I was recovering. I was no longer blue and was no longer aspirating for air. He thanked God because he knew that He had answered his prayer. He thought in his mind, God must have a good plan for this child, for He spared her from death; she shall grow up and glorify the Lord.

A couple of years passed, and I was growing into a curious and mischievous little girl. One summer day my dad woke us up early in the morning and told us to get ready; he was taking us to our other grandparents’ house in the country for the weekend. I was so excited to visit my grandparents in the country because I enjoyed being around animals. They had a farm with chickens, goats, pigs, and all sorts of different animals that they took care of.

We finally reached my grandparents’ house after a few hours of driving. Once we got there, I jumped out of the car and went straight toward the animals. My parents and brother went inside the house to greet my grandparents. While everyone was in the house, I noticed a bucket full of food by the chicken coop, so I decided that I wanted to feed the chickens and be proactive while everyone else was in the house. So I unlocked the gate, brought the food bucket with me inside the coop, and started spreading the food around—when all of a sudden a huge rooster jumped on me and attacked me! It pushed me to the ground and started biting me on my face. I started screaming and yelling for help, and everyone heard me and ran outside the house. My grandmother pushed the rooster off me and quickly grabbed me from underneath the rooster. I was in so much pain, and my face was covered in blood. The rooster had bitten me on my cheek and forehead, and it cut me underneath my eye. My entire face was full of scratches, but luckily I wasn’t seriously injured.

My grandmother cleaned me up, and I spent the rest of my weekend away from the animals. But that was okay because there were still plenty of things for me to do at the farm. I always enjoyed climbing up through the apple orchards and running down the hill. Soon the weekend was over, and we headed back home.

Being in a time of communism, my family didn’t have much on which to live. My dad decided he would need to leave the country and find work if he wanted to support our family. During communism, a lot of people were crossing the country lines and heading toward the United States. The journey would take a few years to complete, and it was very long and dangerous. Refugees were being captured and thrown into prisons, while others were being shot at the borders into other countries. My dad knew the dangers that would accompany this journey, but nonetheless he was determined to make a better life for our family.

So on one summer morning, my dad said his goodbyes. He kissed my mom, my brother, and me, and he whispered into my ear, I will be back soon. As we were saying our goodbyes, a plane flew across our home. I started shouting, Look, Daddy—a plane! My dad turned around and told me, Whenever you see a plane fly by, remember that I will be in it—and I will be watching over you. I tightly hugged my dad and told him that I loved him. And so my dad left on his journey in search of a new life for us.

In the winter of 1985, my dad had finally reached the Yugoslavian border. Back home during this time, they were announcing on the radio station the names of refugees who had been shot and killed at the borders. My mom just so happened to be listening to the radio when the announcement was made. They were