Joan T. Randall - Finding a Path to Victory: 9 Stories on Using Faith to Overcome Obstacles

FINDING A PATH TO VICTORY

Published by Purposely Created Publishing Group

Copyright 2018 Joan T. Randall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, quotes, or references.

Scriptures marked NIV are taken from the New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the New Living Translation. Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.

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This book is dedicated to all the women and men who have experienced all types of domestic abuse, painful life situations, adversities, failures, and setbacks but still found the Strength through Faith to get up and fight, no matter how many times they got knocked down. They are the real role models, the ones who found the power to persevere and the passion for operating in their true purpose.

Twilah R. Anthony

Angela A. Hope

Julie Sands

Merle J. Lamount

Rodney L. Lawson

Leslie Cottrell Simonds

Tomi Banks

Shellbe Antoine

Joan T. Randall

I owe my sincerest gratitude to all the people that have inspired me on this life journey. I am thankful for everyone that has had an impact on me, whether good, bad, or indifferent because I have learned some valuable lessons as a result.

I would like to acknowledge and say a special thank you to the following people; they have raised their voices and allowed me to share their stories for this collaborative project: Twilah R. Anthony, Shellbe Antoine, Tomi Banks, Angela A. Hope, Merle J. Lamount, Rodney L. Lawson, Julie Sands, and Leslie Cottrell Simonds: you have all inspired me with your stories of triumph and have reinforced the Spirit of perseverance the perseverance to thrive and be victorious .

I owe gratitude to some fantastic coaches that I have had the privilege to work with in different capacities; they held me accountable and encouraged me to challenge myself so that I may reach my fullest potential something Im still working on: Marshawn Evans-Daniels, my Speaker Coach, and Danielle Murrell, my Branding Coach. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

To my incomparable Master Business Coach Aprille Hunt: without your no-nonsense, robust coaching approach and high expectations, I would not be thriving in both life and business. I am so grateful to you for never allowing me to quit even when I wanted to. Your leadership continues to inspire me to be my best every day.

To my incredible Publisher, Tieshena Davis, and her amazing team at Purposely Created Publishing: you all gave me the encouragement and support to make this project come to life. Writing a book that highlights personal struggle and pain is very emotional for one author, so imagine doing so with nine. The PCP team, with their expert staff, managed the anthology and publishing process with the highest level of integrity and professionalism.

To the love of my life, my king, my husband, my partner, Bill Randall: your love has kept me grounded, and your support is my foundation. Thank you for showing me what equality looks like in a marriage. Last but not least, my children Kay, Shay, Brianna, and Brandon: I love you to infinity, and to my grandchildren: Maicol, Gabriel, Raegan, Ena, and Israel: you light up my heart and my life.

Philippians 4:13 (NLT)

For I can do everything through Christ which gives me strength.

The scripture above is my all-time favorite. Whenever I am in a tight spot, I refer back to these words, and they fill me with hope. There is something magical and comforting knowing that you can find strength through your storms to accomplish anything as long as you have faith. The day I accepted this was the day suffering led me to the cross. I was so broken that there was no other place to go but lie on the floor by Jesuss feet, surrender, and submit to His higher power. Everything I had done on my own up to that point had failed, and I knew there had to be more to life that I was missing. There was a hole in my heart I could not fill, and no matter how I tried to remedy this vacancy with things I thought I needed, the effort quickly dissolved, and the hole remained. I eventually found the source of my strength when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior and discovered that I could become all that I was purposed to be.

I was born on the beautiful Island of Jamaica to Rudolph and Ena Thaxter. My experience as a child growing up on a tropical island was a humble beginning filled with unconditional love. Some of my fondest memories as a child was teaching other kids how to read, write, spell, and do arithmetic. I was around seven years old at the time when I would help these other kidssome were as young as four years old, and some were my age or a year or two older. I loved the joy it brought to my heart when those kids were able to read, spell, write, and do math because of my help and guidance.

I was a dreamer: as a teenage girl, I would sit and fantasize about becoming a woman of influence, impacting and shaping peoples lives with my words and ideas. I would sometimes stand in the mirror with my toothbrush as a microphone, pretending to be a speaker or a teacher. Other times I would sit at the table and pretend to be a news anchor, reading from whatever made-up news I scribbled on a piece of paper. The dreams and visions always came down to one thing: my words had the power of influence. Those inspirations never left me, and they would one day shape my life.

When I graduated from high school, I wanted more than what Jamaica could offer me: I felt as if the island had gotten too small for the giant dreams I had I felt I outgrew it. I longed for the opportunity to move away from Jamaica to explore a place where there were unlimited opportunities to become who I wanted to be, outside of a country that was only 144 square miles. Then one day, I thought that God had answered my prayer by sending me my knight in shining armor; he had a million-dollar smile and was on vacation in Jamaica from the United States. He had seen me walking home from work one day and asked me for directions; what followed was a whirlwind romance for two weeks before he went back to the US. After six months of talking to him every day on the phone, I left Jamaica and flew to Philadelphia to be with him. Of course, there was a sadness within me since I left everything I had known for 24 years behind, but I felt strongly that this was how it was meant to be. I had a four-year-old daughter, and I saw this move as the best way to create a better life for her; my plan was to get settled in the US and eventually bring her from Jamaica to live with us. My parents were caring for her in Jamaica after I left, so I was leaving her in excellent hands; I cried for days, but I forced myself to remember that I came to America for the opportunity to establish the best life for myself and my daughter. I accepted the bitter with the sweet.

My life did not go the way I had dreamt it would in the United States, but I was happy to eventually have my daughter with me, and I was soon blessed with a second daughter. By this time, I was 30 years old with a ten-year-old and a three-year-old. My dreams of living in the land of opportunities turned instead into a life filled with years of domestic abuse, pain, sorrow, adversities, setbacks, failures, homelessness, and emptiness. But I found the will to survive through my Faith and my two daughters.