Manuella’s Story

Written by Sister2Sister contributor:  Manuella Ruscitti – Niagara Falls

I was reading the Bible, searching for something, not quite sure of what I was looking for.  A neighbour down the street was very involved with TV Evangelists and the 700 Club, and claimed she was healed of severe headaches and facial pain.  She could speak in tongues and wanted to lay hands on me.  I would stand at my living room window and  just be drawn to her house,  but I had a feeling something wasn’t quite right.

One day Henry phoned saying he was conducting a Bible survey on Butler St.  and I talked with him about the neighbour, etc.  Henry started speaking in tongues.  I thought it must be okay but then he explained he was speaking Dutch – a real language.  When I hung up the phone I went directly into my room and got on my knees and prayed to the Lord that he would not allow Henry to come to my door if he wasn’t someone true to the Word.  Henry came.  We studied the Word.  We tried to study with my friend but she slammed the Bible shut  and didn’t want anything to do with Henry and a Bible study. We studied with Ginny who lived on the same street and with another lady around the corner on Heritage.

I was really amazed to learn that Christ had died for me.  I soon knew  I needed Christ in my life and I was baptized and felt so much joy that day.

AND THEN THE BATTLE BEGAN:  Matthew 10: 34-36 came very much alive for me:

My husband was  against my baptism and meeting with the church.  He became very abusive.  When Henry came to study he ordered him off our property and slammed his fist through the door as Henry left.

When I came home from service one day my clothes were all in garbage bags in the driveway.  I took our two daughters and went to my parents home.  Another day after service Sharon Cristelli was driving me to my parents and he forced her to stop and pulled me out of her car and slapped me around in front of the girls.  Another time he was waiting for me in the parking lot.  The preacher, Doug Lightening,  pleaded with me not to get in the car with him but he said he was really wanting to see the girls.  He drove us along the parkway and pulled the car to within six or eight inches of  an embankment and said he’d drive over if I didn’t  promise to give up church, etc.  I finally gave in and went home with him and suffered much mental and physical abuse.  Eventually I discovered he was having an affair and I left him. (He has remarried and is now attending a church)  That same year he kicked our sixteen year old pregnant daughter out of the house and my mother committed suicide.

I came back to the church family.   I had  started living with a kind, loving guy but my conscience was really bothering me.  I knew that wasn’t God’s way.  I ended up in Hamilton Hospital to get off pain medications that were causing rebound headaches, etc.  When I came back home I knew I had to move out.  I walked away from our house we bought together with just enough money for first and last months’ rent.

I got quite sick again. I  developed environmental allergies and my family pegged me as mentally ill. ( I also found out later my thyroid was way out of whack).  Henry and Dorothy didn’t know how to help me and finally dropped me off at the Hospital Door.  My youngest daughter lived with my sister for a short time and then moved to her father’s.

I ended up going to Fort Erie with a patient from the hospital.  She eventually had to go back in.  Her brother cleaned out my bank account and I had nowhere to live.  My sister said not to bother coming back here.   I called the Baptist minister in Fort Erie and he found me a room in a private Retirement Home in Crystal Beach where I lived for almost a year.  I met Tammy  in Crystal Beach and when I got well we moved back to N.F. and shared an apartment  for several years.

I came back to my church family once again and have since moved from the apartment to my niece’s and then to my daughter’s.  My life has been a roller coaster ride – sometimes from sickness and other times from wrong decisions.

I am thankful to God for His continued love and patience, for my church family and the love they have for each other and the love and patience they have shown me.

I ask for your continued prayers as I learn to cope with my many health problems,  being declared legally blind and my  eventual move into a Nursing Home.