By Michael Ashcraft —
Her mother was scolding Demetrius Fears because the 4th grader was STARTING homework at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Then just outside, gunfire erupted.
“Stop! No!” her Uncle Robert shouted, and then they heard a loud pop, pop, pop.
Robert staggered into the house with blood streaming down his face and body.
“When everything happened, I froze. I didn’t know what to do. Everything happened in slow motion,” says Dee, 22.
Dee’s grandma, Yvonne, wasn’t too strong in the Lord at that time. But the Holy Spirit kicked in and she began praying and prophesying that Uncle Robert would live. “She spoke life over him in the name of Jesus,” Dee says.
Their prayers were answered and Uncle Robert survived the shooting.
Dee is named after her father, who died from gunshots weeks before she was born.
After the incident, Dee decided to stay home as much as possible. Because she was always at home, everybody took advantage of her baby-sitting services. She loved babies.
In community college, Dee started attending church and also studied child development. At church, she developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and was born again.
“As I began to do what God wanted me to do and follow His plan for my life, I saw a lot of doors open for opportunities and to be in child ministry,” she says.
She got a job at Starbucks and then added a part-time position at a Christian infant care in Santa Monica.
As time went on, she wondered why she was even bothering with coffee, which she doesn’t like, and not working full-time with babies, which she loves. She offered to her boss, Anita, to go full-time at the Lighthouse Center for Infants.
“She started crying tears of joy,” Dee says. The Infant Care badly needed qualified workers. “She told me I was an answer to prayer.”
“Whoa,” Dee thought in response. “I never thought I could be somebody’s answer to prayer.”
Dee has gained new friendship and developed her classroom learning about child development in real life practice.
One day in church, a sister prophesied that she would overcome her insecurities, which stem from not having a father. During the initial stages of the Coronavirus lockdown, she began to feel unloved.
“I began feeling worthless, like I was useless in every way possible, like I wasn’t worth it, like nobody wants you here,” Dee remembers. “The thoughts were so loud that I began believing they were true.”
Fortunately she reached out to leaders who encouraged her. She reviewed her journal and stumbled across a forgotten entry that said, “In Christ, I am loved. In Christ, I am forgiven.”
She looked up the corresponding scriptures.
“A weight was lifted off of my shoulders,” she says. “I began to believe those scriptures because the Bible is truth. I am a daughter of the King. I am loved and forgiven and worth it.”
As for Uncle Robert, Dee and others are still praying for him to come more fully to the Lord.
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
Based in Los Angeles, Michael Ashcraft does Christian journalism, teaches in a Christian school and works as a financial professional.
