Forgiving The Unforgivable: Lisa Romesburg's Story

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Don't forget to visit infiniteicon.com to pre-save my album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. And we continue with our American stories. Up next, a story from Lisa Romesburg, who runs an international ministry. Today Lisa shares the story of how she forgave, well let's just say, many unforgivable things. This story contains accounts of sexual assault.

Listener discretion is advised. My name is Lisa. I grew up in a very loving, typical Italian family. We're very loud, we're very passionate, and we love really well. But we also, ah, we have another side of us.

We like to hold on to grudges and it's hard to move on at times. But my childhood was fabulous. I went to a Catholic school for the first eight years of my life. I was pretty sheltered. I was a good girl, so to say. Dad worked, mom stayed home, and like I said, it was just a very loving way to grow up.

I started high school and I went into the public school system. Life started to change a bit. And I'm going to tell you about this one night that just changed my life forever.

I was 15 and there was a basketball game going on this one particular night, so I met up with my one close girlfriend. We would periodically walk to school and we were walking through the parking lot like we always did and a van pulled up. Three guys jumped out of the van with a gun and they abducted us and threw us in the van. I remember being thrown on the floor, being held down somehow. I remember the pain. I remember the fear that came over me. Is this happening?

What's going on? Am I dreaming? This can't be. This cannot be. And I remember the van door being flung open and I'm being gang raped. And it wasn't one guy. It wasn't two. It wasn't three. Maybe it was five or six or seven. All I know is that it just kept happening all night long.

This is how I was introduced to intimacy. Like I said, I was safe all the time. My dad was always there and never would have imagined anything like this happening. My next memory is that I woke up and I was in a field somewhere.

We were dumped like trash, like garbage. I had no idea how long I was there for. I had no idea where I was.

I had no idea how I was going to get home. I think I kept going in and out of consciousness. And the next thing that I knew is that there was a cop that was doing patrol.

And he found my friend and I. The next memories I woke up in, I was in the hospital. I thought I was in the hospital like overnight, maybe one day. But I was actually my dad told me before he passed away that I was in the hospital for 10 days. And inside it was just I was a mess.

They were trying to figure out, could they save anything? Could I possibly have a chance of having children? And it was just no, I would never have children. Time to go home. Now, mind you, I was 15.

What do I do? My family did not know what to do with me. My brother and sister, they were young at the time, so they didn't even know what was going on. All they knew was that Mom cried a lot. Dad was angry. And Lisa doesn't come out of her room. That was kind of how life went for the first while, because I think for Mom and Dad, it was let's forget about this.

You know, another great Italian thing. Let's sweep it under the rug. And oh, it never happened. Chop, chop. Let's get on with your life.

That didn't work for me. After a couple of weeks, I went back to school trying to pick up the pieces broken, just broken inside. I didn't have any counseling. I didn't have anyone to talk to because Mom and Dad didn't want to talk about things.

Dad did. I think he couldn't take it anymore. There was a couple of episodes where Dad would take me and he's like, let's go.

We're going for a drive. And he wanted me to try to remember the area where this happened. Where was I driven to?

I remember Dad just having so much anger and wanting to find who did this to his daughter. I didn't remember anything. I didn't know where I was. Remember, I was on the floor of the van.

I couldn't see anything. But inside, in some way, it made me feel like, OK, Dad cares for me. Dad wants to protect me.

Dad hears me and he wants to do something about this. And I remember like, OK, wow, someone does love me. And then after a few weeks, Dad stopped.

He stopped everything. And it was like probably like maybe three weeks after I was in school. And a couple of the guys that were involved in the rape were actually at my school. And one day they found me and they threw me up against the wall and they threatened me. And they said, if you talk, if you say anything about this, we know who you are.

We know where you live and we know your family and there will be consequences that we'll have to pay. So I left school that day and I was fearful of telling Dad, but yet I knew I couldn't keep going back. I had to do something even though Dad stopped. So I did.

And I told them, like, I was excited, like, Dad, Dad, they're at the school. Like, let's call the cops. Let's go. Let's take some action. I needed action. Right.

I needed to know, like, OK, you know what? You're going to pay for what you did. And that didn't. That's one of the hardest memories. Like I said, I was very close to my dad. He was my protector. He was my provider. You know, he meant like the world to me. And here he is treating me like they did.

Throwing me out. I wasn't important. He didn't love me. Dad then started to turn all the attention to me. What did you do? You must have done something. You must have provoked them. And so I started to realize he doesn't believe me. I was starting to feel like I shamed the family. So I started to think, OK, I've got to do something because I can't deal with this on top of what had already happened. And then remember, there was no counseling.

There was nobody for me to talk to. I'm trying to figure this all out on my own. Fifteen years old, figuring this out on my own.

And so what a great idea that I had. I'm going to leave home. I dropped out of school and I left and I never went back. And I moved like far away, probably eight hours away. So there was no chance of them knowing where I was or being able to find me or me going back. And I'm left with this hole inside.

The desire to be wanted, the desire to be loved, the desire of feeling whole again. And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to do it. Well, first of all, I had to find a job. I wasn't qualified for anything.

I wasn't educated. I didn't have money. I didn't have anything. And all I had was me.

I had my body. And that was it. And you've been listening to Lisa Romesburg share her story and what a wretched story it is indeed. And we tell these stories not to repulse people, not to turn people away, but so many women particularly have been victims of sexual assault. And she knew these boys, it turns out, and they threatened her.

And of course, this was in a day when there was absolutely no counseling for victims of sexual abuse. So Lisa did what she thought was the only thing she could do. She left and a hole of void was left in her life. When we come back, more of the story of Lisa Romesburg and the redemption part of her story here on Our American Stories. Let's talk about democracy, uncover the facts, and illuminate what matters. Democracy dies in darkness.

That's where we come in. The Washington Post. Switch on.

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Don't forget to visit infiniteicon.com to pre-save my album. Sponsored by 11-11 Media. And we're back with our American stories and with Lisa Romesburg's story.

When we last left off, Lisa was trying to survive on her own as a 15-year-old runaway. Let's return to the story. I finally met this one gentleman. He was much older than I was. I fell in love with him. He was a great man.

He had a great job, which was number one. He was a provider and he said he left me and he showed me that he left me. And so we got married. And contrary to what the doctors said, I actually did get pregnant.

I have one biological daughter today. After about five years of raising our daughter together, he lost interest and the love he kept saying he had for me just left. And he started having relations with other women. And like once again, it was like ripped out from underneath me.

He left. Now I'm alone again. And all those feelings that I had when I was 15, all those feelings came back again. Loneliness, emptiness, fear, everything just came back again.

This time, though, it's not just me. I have a daughter. I have to provide for this little person. I can't run away again.

I have to face my reality. I had no financial support. I needed to keep a roof over her head. I worked like two jobs and three jobs trying to provide for her what I felt like I didn't have.

I probably tried to overcompensate for that. And it just turned into really my life was just all about working and I was being pulled away from her more and more. So in order to work as much and to help mask the pain, to fill the void, I started to turn to everything that I thought could help me. Drugs, I started drinking, smoking, one relationship after another.

And I spiraled down deep into what I call like the depths of hell. It was years of abuse and I was really missing my family. I was really missing my dad, who I felt had abandoned me. My dad, who pushed me aside, like, you know, what felt like I was being dumped in another field, like a piece of trash. We don't care about you.

Just go about your life. They never tried to find me. They never came to see like, where is she?

Is she OK? Never. The pain just became too much. Resentment started to build in my life. I didn't trust people. I didn't know how to love anymore.

I didn't care. All of that emptiness and the fear just kept taking over. And eventually I lost everything. My job, my home, my daughter.

They had to come and take her away. And I found myself living on the streets. I'm in my mid 20s and I'm living on the streets. OK, I must not be worthy. There is something wrong with me. I didn't have any money because I lost my job. But I have this addiction now that I'm carrying around. So I have to sell myself so I can then get money so I can then feed the addiction. And it was a cycle that I could not break. Many years I lived that way, knowing what I was doing was wrong, knowing that I don't want to do this. I don't want to live this life. I want my daughter back. I want my life back.

And I couldn't. The addiction was so strong that just to survive a day was a miracle. I probably should have been dead three times in my lifetime between the abuse that I was suffering from even after the rape. I found myself in very compromised situations and just not knowing how to get out.

Well, I'd made some friends and trying to help me get back on my feet again. And they started to talk to me about Jesus. I didn't want to know anything about faith, about religion. I didn't want to know anything about Jesus. Now, mind you, I grew up in a Catholic school, so I knew Jesus. But where was he? He left me too. How did all of this happen in my life? And you want me to listen to you about Jesus?

No. But they were persistent. And they didn't stop.

They kept going. And here I am. I found myself one night and I was at my rock bottom.

It was the worst place I was ever at. And I remember thinking, OK, something has to change. Whatever I'm doing is not working.

So let me give this a try. And I remember falling on the floor and I remember saying, OK, God. And I was mad and I was pointing my finger and I said, OK, God, if you are who they say you are and if you love me like they say you do, then you need to come now because I cannot do this on my own.

And if you do, I will serve you all the days of my life. And I fell and I just passed out. I woke up the next morning and I was completely transformed.

The addiction and everything was gone, completely gone. I woke up completely transformed. I know that this is not a normal situation.

I am not saying that it is. I am just sharing this is my story. For me, it was overnight. I was literally a new creation in Christ. And that started my journey of healing. The Lord just started bringing different people into my life that started to help me and teach me about forgiveness, loving people, about trusting again, about trusting God. And in that process, I realized that I needed to make amends with my family. And I'm not going to tell you that that transformation was overnight because it was not.

It was not. It was harder, I think, trying to get back with my family than coming off the streets. There were parts of it that were and I know I'm being a little dramatic right now, but that's how it felt like at times. Forgiveness did not come very easily, but God started to heal my heart. I had to work through forgiveness with my dad.

People are probably asking themselves, like, why did you even do that? Like, you didn't have to. But my heart was hard and my heart was hardening. And I was not going to live my life like that. I remember thinking to myself, OK, I'll forgive if he admits what he did and if he says, I'm sorry.

That didn't happen. And I was waiting and he just expected me to just come back. He wanted his daughter back.

And so let's just again pick up. It was a hard road. But freedom came and I forgave them. My forgiveness gave me 25 years of a great relationship that we rebuilt on a different foundation. I moved in with mom and dad for like eight months, the last eight months of my dad's life.

And I want to tell you that I will cherish those eight months forever. I was able to love my dad in a way that I never thought I would. I was able to care for him. I was able to release him of any guilt or shame that he might have been carrying. He allowed me to pray for him. And I will never, ever regret that time.

And I was given that time up until he took his last breath. Now, what I didn't tell you is that these boys, the people that were involved in the rape, they were black. So that also instilled a whole other fear inside of me that I didn't know until later in life that I had this fear and resentment towards black people. Then the next part, I was given an opportunity to go to Africa. And I was like, no, why would I want to go to Africa?

I am not going to a country that has all these black people in it. And again, I found myself in a situation of I have to forgive and totally released so complete healing could come. And I was in the airport after I said, OK, fine, I will go to Africa. I took the step.

I forgave like you asked me to. Let's go. I get off the airplane. I'm in the airport and I literally fell to my knees and the Lord spoke to me and he said, you are home. And I was like, what? I've spent 26 years in Africa now serving the African people.

I have brought thousands of people on short term missions trips to serve the African communities. All those feelings that I shared with you of being alone, of missing my family, of not feeling like I belonged anywhere. All of those feelings were washed away.

And that's the crazy part of my story. As I started serving the people that hurt me. I was completely transformed once again. I never would have imagined a transformation like that. Never.

She woke up transformed after praying that prayer overnight, literally the story of Lisa Romesburg, a story of forgiveness, a story of redemption here on our American stories. No, don't you visit MODO dot US for the best replay social casino experience wherever you are. Moto offers a huge selection of Vegas style games and now introducing live blackjack roulette and casino hold them.

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