Walt Disney was known for his theme park, the happiest place on earth. Diane R. Swan of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, agrees, but not for fantasy entertainment reasons.
Walt Disney World is where she encountered Jesus.
Swan’s life had been so unruly and vicious in her early 20s, with alcohol and drug abuse and promiscuity, that her mother regularly feared she would receive a call declaring her daughter had been found dead in a gutter. By 2002, the then-26-year-old Swan, a recently separated, single mother of two young children, felt nervous.
Uncertain how to turn her life around, Swan only knew for sure that she needed to be a good mother to Andre, five and Nicole, 6. But growing up in an abusive and broken home, she didn’t know-how. So she determined the best way to be a good mom would be to take her kids to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
“It’s so ridiculous!” Swan says. “But that’s what I thought.”
She packed up her children and went to Florida. While exploring a Disney resort for a time-share promotion, she became captivated with her guide, Steven Paul Gonzalez.
“He had so much peace and joy pouring out of him,” Swan remembers. “It puzzled me.”
She decisively asked. Gonzalez told her he felt so satisfied because he had given his life to Christ.
“When I heard his story and saw at all his happiness, all I could think was, If God did that for you, I wonder what He would do for me?” she says. She wanted what Gonzalez had and admitted she didn’t care what she had to do to get it.
Gonzalez guided Swan to salvation in Christ. Swan says that she, too, faced an immediate and drastic makeover.
“I never used another drug or had any more desire for that daily life,” she says. In that void, she says the Holy Spirit is overflowing her with abundant peace. “Some folks say it’s like a river. Mine was like a geyser!”
For the rest of Swan’s holiday, Gonzalez discipled her and persuaded her to get associated with a Bible-believing church. As soon as she back to Pennsylvania, Swan called Miss Winters, her kids’ former baby sitter, whom she recalled as a Christian. Winters requested her to attend Bethel Assembly of God in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. As soon as Swan arrived at the church, she felt welcomed.
“I wanted to tell everyone I knew about what Jesus Christ had done for me!” Swan says.
Swan, 43, a credentialed Assemblies of God minister through Global University, is still as thankful as ever. She is now a speaker and a core team member of PennDel Ministry Network’s Women’s Ministries. She also leads Seven Swans Ministries and works as a licensed professional Christian counselor with Greencastle Family Practice, where she focuses on helping people heal from trauma, past abuse, drugs, and family difficulties and alcohol issues.
“I can look at what these folks are going through and tell them I understand,” she says. “I’ve been there.”
Kelly Kipe, Swan’s spiritual mentor, who along with her husband, Garry, pastors Bethel Assembly, confirms to Swan’s transformation.
“God has placed His hand on her life,” Kipe says. “It is thrilling to see Diane step into what Jesus has made her be.”
“God is so good at saving every part of your life,” says Swan, who is thankful not only for her salvation and new purpose but also for her husband of 16 years, Todd, as well as blended family of six: Nicole, 24; Lexi, 23; Andre, 22; and twins Isabella and Samuel, 14.
Sixteen years after that divine appointment at Disney, Swan is no longer the girl her mother worry that she would die alone in a gutter. For her, that’s truly a dream come true.
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Thank you AG and GINGER KOLBABA for sharing this.
