This is an account of how the Lord has worked a miracle in my life, and how by His grace I followed a path to salvation completely unaware for many years. This is a story of how God's plan shaped my life, and how His hand leads my life and testimony so that my actions are an example and a witness to many others.

Back in 1996 I moved to Ohio from New York. I was 28. Shortly after meeting my husband and moving into an apartment complex with him in Loveland in 1997, another family moved into the apartment below us.

"Ellen" and her husband had a 2-year-old daughter. They were expecting their second child. They were were in a relationship with God and not afraid to be who they were in a very casual way. I hadn't had any religion in my life since my teens, and hadn't belonged to a church in six years. I did not even believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

Over the years that followed, Ellen and I would socialize or talk on the phone, and we kept in touch as we both expanded our families and bought houses in the neighborhood. When my oldest daughter turned two in 2002, I mentioned to Ellen that I was going to be looking for a preschool for her.

She recommended one at a local church because they loved the children so much and they were reasonably priced. Although I was not religious and even a little uncomfortable with the idea, I registered my daughter when she was three years old and she started attending preschool there in September, 2003.

Also in September of 2003, my older sister Gina was diagnosed with lung cancer. She wasn't particularly religious either, but she joined a prayer group, which helped her find the strength to get through the surgery to remove the bottom lobe of her right lung and the chemotherapy that followed. Throughout this time, I would ask my daughter's preschool teacher to pray for Gina.

In February, 2004 Gina had a follow-up CT scan that showed an enlarged lymph node behind her heart. A scan revealed yet more cancer in the middle lobe of her right lung. More surgery was needed per the "tumor board", a panel of 42 specialists who reviewed her scans. Again I asked my daughter's teacher to include Gina in her prayers. During the last week of February, her teacher invited me to come to services on Friend Day, March 7th. I said I would consider it.

Gina and I decided to see The Passion of the Christ together on Sunday, February 29th and the visual representation drove it all home for me. I was brought spiritually to my knees. After two days immersed in tears, prayer and repentance, I became completely enraptured with Jesus for two days. On Tuesday, March 2, 2004, at around ten o'clock in the morning in my living room, I confessed my faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only Son of God, and the Way, the Truth and the Light.

I confessed my sins to Jesus and repented. My soul was transformed in a glorious epiphany as I kneeled in supplication, and I felt the Holy Spirit come down upon me, down and through my lungs and into my heart. I breathed my first breath in Christ and was baptized in the Holy Spirit, as they call it.

I immediately got up and took a shower and continued praying. The following Sunday, I went to church for the first time in over 12 years. They did communion, which I was able to receive. When the Pastor offered to all born again believers that they may be baptized by immersion in water, I stood up and went forward, and asked to be baptized. I was baptized on Sunday, March 7, 2004.

My sister Gina was also baptized that day.

After seeing "The Passion" a second time, I went online, found a website called MyLifeAfter.com, and shared my experiences on the forums. There I met Judy Dudley who responded to one of my posts about my sister. She told me about Blanket Ministry, an outreach ministry through her church in Indiana in which the congregation prays over blankets and sends them out to individuals with specific needs. She sent some prayer blankets for me and my sister.

Gina's surgery was scheduled for the following Friday, March 12th. Many people were praying for her - everyone in our church, her prayer group, my neighbors and their churches, Judy, and even friends whom I barely knew who posted their thoughts on the forums at MyLifeAfter.com. Before I knew it, a prayer chain had been set up clear across the country for my sister's healing, and many people were going to stop what they were doing on Friday March 12th at noon just to pray for her during her surgery.

The night before the surgery I remember praying. I prayed hard, in complete supplication, and then suddenly I felt this sense of complete exhilaration and joy! At that moment I knew the Lord had done something wonderful!

The morning of the surgery a woman from church called and prayed with us over the phone. At the hospital, our family went into the room where they were prepping Gina, laid the prayer blanket over her, and prayed.

Our pastor came and prayed with us before they wheeled her away. We said our tearful goodbyes and set out for the waiting room for the five-hour surgery. Two hours later, the surgeon called us into a room to tell us THERE WAS NO CANCER! The "enlarged" lymph node was not only NOT enlarged, but looked completely healthy! An hour after that she was sitting up in her room, praising the Lord and asking for something to eat!!!

Her oncologist, however thrilled, now questions the integrity of medical imaging! I didn't know how to tell him that it is only when the Lord intervenes that medical imaging becomes unreliable... two weeks later my sister was back at church, singing praises to the Lord and giving her testimony as to how the hand of God came to her rescue in front of our whole congregation.