ROCKINGHAM – “There I stood on the ledge of the 10th floor feeling unwanted, unfulfilled and thinking how much I let God down. Ready to end this pain forever I prepared to jump. Miraculously, I awoke on the floor not knowing how I did not simply fall to my death but knowing that something had to change in my life.”
Cynthia was born in the Bronx, New York and, following her parents’ divorce soon thereafter, lived in a foster home until age 12. It was a difficult childhood made a little easier by fantasies of one day traveling to faraway places. She graduated from a Seventh Day Adventist high school and enrolled in college to be a medical secretary. Dropping out of college she moved to New York City and made money as a file clerk before working her way up to an executive secretary. In 1969 she married and then had a daughter, but soon divorced to end an abusive relationship. She then moved to New Jersey before eventually settling in Puerto Rico. She described the next 20 years as “floating aimlessly through life” as a struggling single parent.
That encounter with God on the 10th floor changed her life profoundly. She began reading and studying her Bible daily and built a successful cleaning and decorating business that lasted ten years. Feeling burned out, she prayed about her life and felt God urging her to go into the mission field.
Her first call was to serve as director of two English language schools outside Bangkok, Thailand. In Thailand she learned that life can be lived at a much more casual pace … things get done but without an overwhelming sense of urgency. Doing it Monday might mean two or three Mondays from now. For the next two years she would lead these language schools and added three more schools before she would leave two years later for her next mission assignment.
Cynthia’s next assignment was as language program director at a university in Peru. She felt much more comfortable in the Spanish-speaking culture of Peru and realized how blessed we are here in America as she saw how hard people struggled to just put food on the table each day. After two years, she left Peru and accepted a new position as a marketing director and editor for the Weimar Center for Health and Education in California. In 2009 she would leave California and join a friend’s medical practice in Wadesboro as an office manager. After one year, she moved to Rockingham and began working at Rockingham Fitness.
Cynthia’s faith and life experience have provided a platform upon which to publish many articles – along with her own newsletter- as well as do public speaking and sing (both in a trio and as a soloist) in her home church as well as internationally.
I asked Cynthia about the most profound things that she has learned throughout the twists and turns of her life; her answer was amazingly simple and heartfelt: “With the Lord, my dreams started coming true and in Jesus and my daughter I found the loves of my life!” It’s clear that faith has changed her life and her service to others has enriched countless lives as well.
Ed O’Neal graduated from Richmond Senior High, served in the military for 24 years and is an inventor and business owner. You can reach him at Ltcedoneal@hotmail.com or 910-995-1366.
