The Testimony of Laura Beaudry

The Testimony of Laura Beaudry

Tony and I have been here in PA for almost 8 years now. Tony was raised in Canada although he was born in California. I’m originally from NYC. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. My mom was 17 years old when she had me. At that age, she’d already had my sister 2 years before. My mom was a heroine addict and wasn’t equipped to raise us. Being that she was so young, and had this addiction, my grandmother took me and my sister in and raised us from the very beginning. I thank God for my grandmother. I know some people would have just left us to be put into the foster care system, but my grandmother was raised with strong convictions about family staying together.

Years before we were born, my grandmother had separated from my grandfather and started working in a belt factory. It wasn’t easy for her. She only had a first grade education, but she made the best of what she had, which wasn’t much. But she always had faith in God. And although she was not saved at the time, she would pray every morning and every night before bed. These were real prayers, not repetition kinds. It kind of reminds me of Cornelius in the bible in Acts 10:4, and how the angel of God comes to him and tells him “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” I can remember her praying for her whole family always. I always thought of it as just something she did. She wasn’t religious or anything like that. It was just the way she was raised in Puerto Rico.

When I was 12, my mom died of a drug overdose and before that time she had had 3 more children. My brother (Manny) and my 2 younger sisters. My grandmother had to make the decision again about taking more children in. So now she had five of us to take care, of and with no help from anyone financially, she had to go on welfare. It was just too much for her to afford on a factory salary. Plus she couldn’t keep an eye on us and go to work. Regardless of her financial situation we were never in need of anything. We always had food and clothes and a roof over our heads. We didn’t have all the latest fashions or styles but we definitely had the necessities of life. It seemed even back then God was watching out for us.

My Grandmother was very strict with us. We were not allowed to stay over anyone’s home or go to any types of school dances. We knew not to even ask. It was just known that we were not to ask for anything because we just couldn’t afford it and we also knew that we would get yelled at just for mentioning going to hang out with friends. It was just a huge no-no. But as children, we always found ways to get around to doing things that we weren’t supposed to, as children often do. When I was 15, I met my son, Jonathan’s dad in school. He was in one of my classes. During the time that we dated, under the watchful eye of my grandmother, I finished High School and decided to go right into business school instead of going to a 2-year college. Knowing that my grandmother would never allow me to move out on my own, we decided to get married. I was only 19. I was very young and not very knowledgeable about what married life was going to be like. I was in no way prepared to be a wife. I had no clue what being married was all about. I had no examples of what a good marriage was. All I knew was that I was finally out of my house and free. (Or so I thought.) I can remember the night Jonathan’s dad and I came home from our honeymoon, I was so unhappy, and all I could think about was how sad I was and how I knew something was missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

One of the main goals in my life was to never, never end up on welfare. I knew the only way to avoid it was to finish school and start working immediately. I was so tired of being poor and not able to have nice things. I thought my first step to being happy was having money. Boy, how wrong I was. It seemed the longer I stayed married, the more alone I felt, and the more money I made, it never seemed to be enough. I kept thinking there had to be more to life than this. This just couldn’t be it. But for the life of me I just couldn’t figure it out. Since I knew there had to be more to this life, I started “expanding my horizons”. I thought my problem was that I hadn’t “experienced” life because my grandmother had me so sheltered. I started hanging out with the wrong types of people from work, and before I knew it I was caught up in one mess after another. And of course, I still wasn’t happy. It seemed no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get that hole in my heart and life filled.

Eventually, I ended up divorced. I was still under the impression that happiness could be found in another person and more material items. So I tried meeting other people, going to clubs and drinking, but I was still very unhappy. Of course I knew about God, I believed in Him, but I never really understood the magnitude of what He really meant to me personally. I guess I never really thought about it. We were Catholic for many years. Not practicing, but by name only. Then some time when I was about 10 years old we started taking bible studies from Jehovah’s “False” Witnesses. We did that for about 4 years or so. So I knew something about God, just not the truth about Him. I just wasn’t sure what was true and what wasn’t. My belief system was totally messed up. For instance I had no idea that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh or that he had come down to redeem us.

I kept thinking I wanted to go to church, but I didn’t know why I wanted to go. And I just didn’t feel right in the Catholic church, so I didn’t know where to go. I know now the Lord was dealing with me. One of my cousins, who was going through her own challenges with religion, had just finished reading a book that she told me I should read. It was called “Peace with God” by Billy Graham. I was always into books so I didn’t even ask her too much about what it was about. All she said was that it really made you think about your life. Well, I read the book from cover to cover. And at the end it had the plan of salvation. Almost every time a situation was spoken about in that book, I kept thinking “WOW” that’s me, and so by the end of the book I was ready to get saved. I prayed to God while I was sitting at my desk at my job. I asked Him to save me and confessed that I was a sinner and living a lie. I told Him I was a mess without Him and I needed Him to come in and take over my life. Instantly I knew something was different about me. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew that I was different. I knew I did not want to sin anymore and I knew I had changed in that moment as I prayed. God became real to me and I was filled with happiness for finally finding out what it was that I was missing all those years. It was like someone had turned the light on in my brain.

I wish I could say that everything was wonderful after that and that I went to church and lived a good and holy life. But the reality was that although I knew I was different I was having a hard time letting go of my old life. I thought I could live both lives and be happy. But after getting saved, I really wasn’t comfortable with the old crowd of friends I had. I no longer fit in with them. Everything they did and whatever they talked about just sounded wrong to me. In II Corinthians 5:17 it says: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is anew creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

It’s amazing how the bible is so accurate in every part of our lives. I started going to church with my cousin, and although she had been going for a while she didn’t seem to know too much about this Christianity lifestyle either. So, it was a learn as you go deal and it was a very long process for me. I finally ended up going to a Calvary church in the Bronx in NYC where I learned a few things about being a Christian. I attended bible studies and ladies meetings and really started to feel like this is where I belonged. I had been going there for about a year when I met Tony on-line on a Christian website called Christian Café. It was a good site. It allowed you to be open and honest about your beliefs, what level of Christianity you were at, and whether you were charismatic or catholic. I already knew that what I was looking for was a man after God’s own heart. This was the number one priority for me. I had met a few “so-called” Christians that most definitely did not put God first and I knew that was not for me.

When Tony and I started speaking I knew almost instantly that he was not playing games with God. He was serious. He would pray with me over the phone and no one had ever done that before. I was just so amazed by that. After about a month of speaking on the phone I took a trip to Canada and met with him in person and we pretty much knew already that we were going to get married. I packed up my stuff from NYC and moved to Canada about 3 weeks before the wedding. We met May 8, 2000 and we were married August 5, 2000. I had been at the same job for almost 15 years and I was making very good money (a little over $60,000/year), so my friends and family thought I was nuts. But God had given me such a peace about moving and getting married that I never even questioned it. Aside from being saved, it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know it was all part of God’s plan for my life. We lived in Canada for 2 ½ years. Tony was the maintenance man and janitor at the church and I became church secretary for a while and we lived in a house on the church property. While I was in Canada I learned a lot about God and continued to grow in faith.

We left Canada and moved to Hazleton, PA in January of 2003. In October of 2003 we had our daughter, Hannah, and after about 1 year ½ in Hazleton we bought our home in Scranton where we live now. When I look back and see what God has done in my life, all I can think is that he truly is a God of miracles; and I am so thankful and grateful that He is. God brought me out of a mess that was heading nowhere fast and that is a miracle. The verse I’d like to leave you with today is Jeremiah 29:11-13.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”