My name is Maxine Salas and here’s my testimony. Growing up, I was loved by my parents but I just chose to run with the wrong crowd. At 13 I started smoking cigarettes. My peer group encouraged me to get into more trouble and I did. Like all of us, doing what was wrong got easier and easier. Parties led me to drink alcohol and become promiscuous. As I grew older I developed an addiction to alcohol. To support what I needed I became a panhandler and begged at retail stores’ parking lots. It wasn’t illegal to panhandle but it was to trespass.
I was arrested many times from 2005-2020 for that charge and served time at Polk County Jail. Chaplain Jerry and his volunteers passed out Christian books to our women’s housing unit. I would get good Christian books like Max Lucado to read. Also there were Bible studies conducted that caught my attention. All of these encounters gave me things to think about, but I usually forgot and went right back to my wild living and alcohol.
At a party once, another woman and I got into a fight. I was charged with willful injury and sentenced to five years in prison. My heart was hard but God was at work. When I was released I began to pursue God. I watched a Christian evangelist and finally gave my heart to the Lord. One day in prayer, God took my desire away for any substances including alcohol. Praise the Lord! But I soon relapsed and God in His faithfulness disciplined me. I was riding with someone and didn’t have my seatbelt on. We crashed and I lost my arm from the elbow down.
God uses my story in so many lives. I know He loves me. Since then, I have been working at a Salvation Army store as a check out clerk for the last five years. I love my job, and I love meeting and talking with people. I hope my story can encourage others about what God can do if you give your life over to Him.