(Editor’s Note: This testimony is not for the squeamish. The evil one person can inflict on another can be horrifying and almost hopeless in the final outcome. But there is a God who sees all. Cassie was prayed for salvation by a loving grandmother and uncle. It was those prayers that protected her from a brutally abusive relationship that could have ended in a fatal tragedy.)
as told to Associate Editor Virginia Aguilera
C
AT FIRST IT’S LOVE
assie first met Johnny at James Marshall Elementary School in Modesto, California. There was something about him that just clicked with her. But what started out as a schoolgirl crush almost ended in her death and that of her unborn son. After years of attending elementary school together and weekly Awana youth church programs, she was saddened when Johnny moved with his family to the Los Angeles area when they were in junior high. Heartbroken, she thought she would never see him again. But she was wrong...almost dead wrong! On a hot, summer evening while at a gathering of friends at Mellis Park in Modesto, Cassie, now in her early twenties, saw a familiar, handsome face. It was Johnny walking toward her, smiling broadly. Seeing his face, brought back her romantic feelings and stirred up a new hope that perhaps she could finally have a relationship with the boy who had stolen her heart in elementary school. Her friends at the park gathering warned her that he was crazy, but she told them she knew him and he was not that way. Convinced that Johnny had not changed, Cassie was now ready to move beyond her school girl crush to serious dating. Although Cassie had believed in God her entire life, she had been struggling spiritually. Her uncle was an United Pentecostal Church preacher, Brother Gregory Pearson, and her grandmother, Sister Dorothy Nash, was a faithful church member of Revival Center. Even though both encouraged her to live for God, Cassie’s addiction to crack and alcohol had her bound. Instead she would visit numerous different churches, trying to connect with God, but still not ready to give up her vices. She had started taking drugs to assuage her emotional pain and depression, but
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they only ended up deepening her troubles and blinding her to the real answer to her problems--Jesus Christ! Johnny, on the other hand was not religious at all. In fact, when he was living in the Los Angeles with his family, he had become heavily involved in the Crips, a mostly African-American gang. Alcohol and drugs also had become part of his existence. He was struggling with mental illness, having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Sadly, Cassie would find out later he had also been in trouble with the law. Hardened and angry, he was not the same boy Cassie had fallen as a young girl. Instead, he had become an unpredictable, violent threat. But Cassie had no idea how dangerous he was. They started dating and ended up moving in together, which she admits was a terrible mistake!
ALWAYS SORRY
The first time Johnny attacked her was a complete surprise. They had been arguing as they often did, especially when Johnny had been drinking. When Cassie slapped a cigarette out of his hands, he leaped up, grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter, and plunged it into her back. He then slugged her in the jaw. Cassie screamed, “I’m going to call the police!” She never made that phone call. Suddenly, Johnny became extremely apologetic and kept saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She believed his sincerity and excused his violence as her fault, after all she did knock the cigarette out of his hand first. Cassie, herself, had grown up in an abusive household, so in her eyes this was “normal.” She did not want to live in an abusive relationship like her mom, but she just fell into it. Not only did she not call the police, she also did not seek medical care for her deep stab wound. She was in a great deal of pain for many weeks, but was relieved the knife had not hit a vital organ. “I didn’t want to tell them at the hospital what had happened,” she said, “because I didn’t want him to go to jail.” Cassie convinced herself that Johnny would never assault her again. After all, he was very apologetic, and she would be more careful in the future not to push him too far when they argued. She was wrong!
