A Voice in the Wilderness

By Keisha Salmon

A spiritual mind and discernment are not things you can learn overnight. It takes many years to practice faith and prayer to develop your spiritual eyes and to mature a heart that will allow you to love as God loves. The beginning of that journey starts with you, feeding your mind with the right spiritual food--the living Word of God. This book is my testimony. It is a true account of what the Lord has brought me through, and how He anointed me, prepared me, and used me as His tool to touch and guide the lives of those around me. We all have a calling on our lives, a divine purpose in which we were all created for God. I was blessed enough to discover early on what my calling is. My goal now is to help others find theirs as well. This book is the chronicle of how that blessing got me through. How it not only changed my life but also my entire identity.

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685704926

Book preview

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Keisha's Life from the Pit to the Palace

Keisha Salmon

ISBN 978-1-68570-491-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-492-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Keisha Salmon

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

About the Author

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But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

—1 Thessalonians 4:13–14

Chapter 1

My name is Keisha Salmon. I was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and came to the United States in 1995 so that I could earn a better life for myself, and my family back home in Jamaica. At the time I was only nineteen years old. I was still young and very naïve about the way things really were out here in the real world, but I had faith that if I simply walked the straight and narrow and worked hard for the things that I wanted, that good fortune would be laid before me. I would soon learn that in life, things are seldom what they seem; and that in order for me to get ahead, I would also have to watch what was going on behind my back. And that good fortune wasn't always a matter of walking the straight and narrow or the end result of hard work. Sometimes, it's a question of faith ; and then other times, it's a question of favor .

For a great many years, I allowed myself to rely on my own perceptions, understandings, abilities, and efforts. They are all useful tools and have their own purpose, of course, but ultimately, they are all ineffectual in comparison to what became the true source of everything that I have ever achieved or could hope for; and that is the power that I have found in prayer, and in my faith, of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This book is the gospel of my life. And in it are some very important life lessons that I have to share for those who have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to receive. It is not out of any need for recognition; it is not for fortune or fame. I am writing this book out of obedience because the Lord has put it upon my heart to share with you the wisdom that was bestowed upon me, through trials and tribulations, through missteps and failures. The Lord sows many great spiritual seeds in our lives; they don't all take root, but the ones that do will allow you to reap a great harvest if you choose to cultivate them. What I am offering here is the fruit that my walk has produced. The hope is that you will benefit from what is written here, by taking in the life lessons that I am sharing, so that you may attain the knowledge and the wisdom, without having to endure the obstacles or the pain, that I had to endure when learning them.

At present, I live my life as a preacher and teacher of the Living Word. I am a pastor at The Ministry of God's Love Inc. We are a licensed 501(c)(3), with a special interest in helping the homeless and victims of domestic violence. At the core of us all is family. And individuals who are homeless or victims of domestic violence are just people who have lost that connection with their families. Family is where we learn our values. It is where we receive our first understanding of love, compassion, sharing, and caring. It is where we learn structure and respect, hope and faith; we can also learn hurt, pain, and disappointment.

Dysfunctional relationships are also a reality for many in the family dynamic. And the things that we experience, think, feel, and believe as children are the things that shape who we become as adults. Sometimes that works out in our favor, and then sometimes, it doesn't. But there is never a situation, or a circumstance, an issue, or a problem, that God cannot change, rearrange, transform, or fix if you have a heart willing to receive Him and are willing to simply submit your will and your life to Him. Trust me, I know. My life is a living testimony to that fact.

You should never judge a book by its cover because until you open it to see what is inside, there is no way to know what it is truly about. My life now is a blessed one. I am married to a loving man who has weathered many a storm by my side. As of the release of this book, we will be preparing to celebrate our ten-year wedding anniversary in September of 2017. We have two beautiful and healthy children who are the joys of our lives, but before we made it to a place of peace and prosperity, there was hellfire and brimstone. As the old saying goes: I don't look like what I've been through. But I know that it's not because of anything that I have said or done, but it's because of the God that I serve and because of His grace and His mercy. He has carried me and mine from a mighty long way for a mighty long time as only God can. So I am careful to give Him all the praise and all the glory all the time.

Walk with me now as I take you on a trip down memory lane. Let me show you how God placed a calling on my life and then ordered my steps so that I would not fall into any of the pits or holes that the enemy had lain in wait for me. In hindsight, now I'm able to look back at my life from every angle and see realistically how easily my life could have been wrecked, destroyed, or stolen from me, but for the grace of God. (Thank You, Jesus!)

Growing up in Montego Bay, I never really knew my father. And as I approached my teenage years, I found myself becoming attracted to boys who were older than me. In retrospect, I now understand that it was because I was looking for a father figure in a man that I could genuinely love. Someone who would care for me and make me feel protected, cherished, and loved, like my real father should have done. All children need their fathers, but for little girls, a father's love is something indeed very special.

In a child's mind, every little girl is a princess, and her prince charming is her dad. Daddy is the one who teaches her worth and her place. That she is a rare gem, meant to be treasured. Daddy is the one who helps her to understand what to look for in a mate, in a real man. Daddy is who helps her to understand the difference between genuine sincere love and game. I didn't have that. And something within me craved it so desperately. To be acknowledged as the princess that I know my dad would want me to be, but not having a daddy to show me those things or teach me those things, I went looking for a father figure in the man who I came to love. And I used the word love loosely. I was only fourteen when I met him, and honestly, at fourteen, what do any of us know of love?

For reasons that only God knows, that seems to be a universal experience for us all. When we hit our teenage years, we begin to think that we are old enough to function as adults. We think, feel, and believe that we are as smart as adults and are more than capable of making our own decisions without any supervision or guidance from anyone else—until things take a bad turn and begin to blow up in our face. Instinctively, we immediately revert to being fourteen again while begging our parents to save us from whatever hole we have managed to dig for ourselves.

I was a very quiet person, and I did a pretty good job at staying out of trouble, so I never had any real attention drawn to me. That pretty much allowed me to move as freely as I wanted to throughout my teenage years. And at fourteen years old, I found myself in a relationship with a young man who was four years older than me. We were together for less than a year, but by the time that I became fifteen, I started growing independent of him. Though I never got into trouble with anything in my life, I did have one vice that my boyfriend had a real problem with. I enjoyed gambling. I can't tell you when or how it developed, but for as far back as I can remember, I've had a love for playing cards. And adding a bet to the game only served to make it more exciting. So in my younger years, I developed a taste for gambling. And not only did my boyfriend not like it, but he had also forbidden me to play. He specifically told me that he didn't want me playing cards anymore—period!

Me being a nonconfrontational person, I simply agreed to it just to keep the peace. Not long after, a group of my friends wanted to get together for a card game. My mother was gone for the day, so I told them all that they could meet at my home so that we could get a game going. Well, in those days, it was common place for us to leave the front door open. And my boyfriend was very accustomed to simply walk in when he came to visit. My young and carefree mind never once stopped to consider that he might come over while we were in the midst of playing, which is exactly what had happened.

By the time I had realized that he had come in and was watching me indulge in my vice, it was already too late for me to pretend that we weren't doing exactly what he knew we were doing. So I just smiled at him, thinking that we'd talk about it later. He smiled back in return and said nothing. He allowed us to finish our game, and then once everyone was gone, he said to me, Come on and go with me on a ride. I have some things I need to take care of real quick.

Then he hinted at wanting to pick something up to eat. I was happy to go with him and just glad that we weren't going to argue about him catching me playing cards again after he told me he didn't want me doing that anymore.

We got inside his truck and started driving away from my home, but then I realized that the direction that we were headed in was also away from town. There was nothing but wilderness in front of us. I asked him, Where are we going? There's nothing out this way.

He stayed silent. He didn't look in my direction and never uttered a word. Once we were far enough that we could no longer see or hear anything or anyone, he stopped his truck just inside a dense tree line. He got out of his truck and walked around to the back of it. I got out as well. I didn't understand what was going on, or why we were here. So I asked him again, Babe, what are we doing all the way out here like this? What is going on?

Without any warning and with no time for me to react, I saw him reach into the back of his truck and pull out a broomstick. The look on my face told him that I had no clue as to what was going on. That's when he decided to finally let me know why we were here.

"Didn't I tell you that I