This book is my testimony. An autobiography of a woman who found God's love in the midst of her total emptiness whose life represented the loneliness of the dark and isolated desert of her home. A house is not a home if there is no love. For God so loved this world that is the reason he gave us his only son. The name of my book is "Faithful." If it was not for faith and obedience in my life, this book would not be the evidence of the faithful one. God instructed me to write this paper to be a book for a class (pastoral care) when I was a student at Nyack College.

This is my story. My name is Marilyn M. Martin. I was born in Trinidad and Tobago, a sunny, bright, and festive country. Its location is in the continent of North America. I got married at the age of twenty two on December, 26 1977. I have four gifted children and four beautiful grandbabies out of my marriage. They are God's gifts to me. It was our first old years as a married couple, when that lie altered my marriage forever. My husband said, "I am going to my mother's house to get some money so we could go out and spend our first old year going out and embracing the new year that was coming in together." He left the apartment around 6 pm on December 31, 1977, and did not come home until about 7 am of January 1, 1978. That was the beginning of my journey becoming a woman, a wife, and a mother. The tests in my life led me to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I met him at the foot of the cross, where my rightful place is. On my knees, when I overdosed on pep pills the drugs that made me cry out to God, the faithful one. If it was not for the goodness of the Lord in my life, I tell you truly, I would have been dead, lying in my grave. God said to Marilyn, "I am God. I can't fail." I know God's faithfulness will take me from rags to riches in Christ Jesus. God himself will open the flood gates of heaven and sent me down his blessing to be blessed and to be a blessing to others. His faithfulness endures forever. The name of my book came from the love that rises from my heart everyday toward my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has been with me from the beginning. He is the lover of my soul and the caretaker of my life. In the vine, I am planted by the river of water who feeds me every day. He is the apple of my eyes as I am his. Amen.