Newsong Church's executive pastor, Cyndie Tolone, recently shared her life story with me and said something obvious, yet so profound, "Moms are significant in their children's lives". I couldn't agree more. Yes, we all know that moms are important. But I never thought about how drastically a child's life can change after losing a mom at an early age.
When Pastor Cyndie was four years old, her mother was in a tragic car accident that left her in a vegetative state for two long years before finally succumbing to her injuries. Pastor Cyndie's childhood home-life became unstable. She remembers hiding under the table when her father would come home from work. He suffered with alcoholism and became angry and violent while intoxicated. She was molested by her mother’s boyfriend and abandoned by the one person that brought safety and peace to her, which was her mom. Pastor Cyndie remembers wondering desperately, "Why don’t I have a mom? I need a mom...its not fair.” Pastor Cyndie grew up in a household with no belief system. Her older brothers brought her to an Assemblies of God church at the age of eight, but her father didn't permit her to return and she was left to figure out life by herself.
Cyndie graduated from Fulton High School in New York. She married at 21 and had two children, then ended up separating from her husband for about six months. During that time, Cyndie's husband had an uncle who was a born again believer. One day he reached out to Cyndie and said, "God wants to speak to you today". He said to her, "You can continue doing what you're doing, or you can be the wife and mother God has called you to be." That spoke directly to her heart and on that day in 1997, Cyndie prayed the sinner's prayer and said "I will surrender You and follow You all the days of my life". She said she imagined that she had dug a grave and put herself in it. She covered the grave with dirt and told herself, "You are dead now. You cannot come out again."
Soon after, Cyndie's husband came to the Lord. He invited her to lunch with a rose and a note that said, "Meet me at McDonalds”. She met him and he told her the words she had been longing to hear, "I have been thinking and I want to have a family with you". "That was the most fabulous McDonald’s meal I ever had!" Pastor Cyndie said. "Through all the things in my life that I went through, God has shown me the love that only He can give. The Holy Spirit has shown me the moments in my life where the enemy has downloaded these negative things that I’ve rooted my life in. But Jesus took every point and brought it back to the root and re-named that root. It was powerful and life changing."
Although Pastor Cyndie grew up without the presence of God in her home, years later God showed her that He was with her the whole while. He was there in the valley. She says, "The valley is where we really grow. I’ve had a lot of valleys, but I wouldn’t give them back. Let’s not look for the next best book. Let's sit at Jesus' feet and allow Him to minister. He will show us the Father".
~ Rev. Debra Valentin Spagnoletti
