Listen to Stephanie's request for laws to be changed at the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee on February 8, 2023: https://video.wixstatic.com/video/fb8b05_ea4712be5cd04be6b61c35abecdbff19/720p/mp4/file.mp4
Watch Lacie's Clemency Video here: https://vimeo.com/788844831
Sign and share Lacie's petition for Executive Clemency here: www.justiceforlacie.com
Stephanie and Lacie, after taking a plane ride over Houston with our newly discovered cousin, Trey, a flight instructor, in November 1992.
Many of you have walked with the two of us since I began sending urgent prayer requests in April 2020. Big things were happening in all of our lives then and still are today. At the beginning of the pandemic, you may recall, Lacie and I were hit hard on April 15, 2020. That day, I learned a suspicious tumor was discovered that would later be diagnosed as breast cancer. Additionally, Lacie began coughing up blood from an undiagnosed infection requiring two lobes of her right lung to be removed a year later.
Yes, on the same day in April 2020,
Lacie and I began a new fight for our lives, our health, and our future.
We also began learning how to walk in faith for many things. It became an entirely new journey! You can scroll through the Tale of Two Sisters from the last three years and read about God’s promises being kept here: https://www.hopepeacelovetx.com/blog
Lacie and I joined our faith in an entirely new way three years ago. We did it because we needed answers. We needed help. Since then, Lacie and I have experienced numerous encounters with the Lord. We have been reminded often of His goodness, and we are here to testify -
GOD IS A GOOD GOD!
I was reading the first chapter of Luke in the Bible. It reminded me of another person who also had some very significant faith-building experiences, Zechariah. In it, we are told about Gabriel, an angel who made himself known to Zechariah.
During his experience, Zechariah was told of very specific details surrounding a son he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have. This was an outlandish thing for Zechariah to believe since he and his wife were so old or, as the ESV translation says, “advanced in years.” As I continued reading about Zechariah, I was reminded of the specific things God had shown me and the promises He made when I encountered the Lord at 19 years of age.
It was the time in my life when I came to Christ and was born again. The impact that Christ had on my life was beyond life-changing. It was radical. I was healed instantly of a physical ailment and delivered from drugs and alcohol on the spot.
It all happened in an instant.
From that day on, a Sunday in late November 1986, I would never be the same. I can imagine, it is much like the account of Zechariah told in Luke Chapter 1, with details and directions of what to expect. In all of it, Zechariah's life would never be the same either!
Soon after having my own personal encounter with the Father, the Lord, the God of all, and Our Creator, I began to hunger for His Word - the Bible - and all things Him.
On January 4, 1987, I took another step of faith and, with great desire, was baptized in water. That same night, I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues.*
*Note: Don't let anyone try to convince you that this doesn't happen anymore. The same Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - Trinity - that I encountered in late 1986/early 1987 is the same as the one talked about in Luke 1 and Acts 2. Yes, He is the same today!
So, did I mention my life would never be the same?
It was evident to many who knew me. It was an exciting time, so much so that I would often go back to the dark little bar I had often sought refuge in to tell others about Jesus. I wasn't even of age to drink, yet, before my encounter with Jesus, I had spent many nights there attempting to escape the pain and destruction of my childhood experiences and abuse.
I'll never forget the woman who managed the bar. One night, while telling someone about my born-again encounter and how Jesus had rescued me, the woman approached me from behind the bar, leaned over, and quietly told me, "You have to stop telling people about Jesus. It is bad for my business."
I knew I was doing the right thing.
Around that time, I remember finding a scripture. It was the last scripture in the Old Testament.
Malachi 4:6 (ESV) And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
What fascinated me about scripture was how I had become aware that God's word, the Bible, was full of wisdom, direction, and confirmations. This scripture also helped me acknowledge one thing that was missing from my life, and it was a BIG thing.
My Father.
I had never known him, although I remembered him. My mother and I fled the State of Texas in fear for our lives when I was two years old. Now, at 19, in the season following my life-changing encounter with Christ, I would read Malachi 4:6, and it would hit me deep to the core.
God was going to unite me with my father one day. I was sure of that because it was His plan to do so. I knew it. I could feel it. It was in black and white on the pages of my Bible. It was a promise I held on to and believed in at 19. I will never forget the moment I read it and how I felt a sense of confidence in my new relationship with God, my Father. I was beginning to trust and realize that He could do all things and would.
But really? Unite me with my father? How? When?
It was a promise. A promise He would keep, and I didn’t even know where my father was!
I am sure those are the same questions Zechariah had after encountering an angel, as told in Luke 1. Here he was, an old man with a wife that was "advanced in years," being instructed about a son they would have. Can you hear Zechariah questioning God too? How? When?
In the following years, I never doubted that God's promise and plan to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers" would happen.
In June 1991, I found my father and my father found me!
In the months following this, I learned I was no longer an only child!
Nope.
I was one of five children from my father. It was another life-changing event for me.
This event led me to find Lacie.
We spoke for the first time on Sunday, March 22, 1992. I was 24, and Lacie was 11 years old.
One week after talking to Lacie for the first time, Stephanie had an unexpected first-time-ever visit from her father, Michael, on March 29, 1992.
He had traveled from Anchorage, Alaska where he was a deep-sea fisherman. It was a big step in seeing God's promises being kept!
Stephanie and Lacie originally met on August 1, 1992, in Colorado for the first time.
The picture shows Lacie visiting Stephanie in Houston in November 1992.
God's Promises Being Kept - It was changing all of our lives !!!
I can only imagine that God's promises, as spoken by an angel, being fulfilled in Zechariah's life were life-changing too! His prophetic experience was so important it is documented in God's Word with promises of who his son would become and what he would do in his life even before he was born.
This is true for all of us. God has a plan for us before we are conceived in our mother's womb.
Psalm 139:13-16 (ESV) For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.
After 17 years of separation, I reunited with Lacie in July 2019. I am often reminded of how our story goes back to 1991. Yes, our story began over 30 years ago. What God had planned for us and my other siblings that are now accounted for continues to be revealed even to this day.
This is why I stand for Lacie. This is why I don't give up. This is why I keep pursuing the truth and reality of what God put in my heart at the age of 19.
I'll be turning 56 in a few weeks. A lot of time has passed since those encounters at the age of 19, yet, it feels like time has stood still.
I am embracing this challenge because in these 32 years since meeting my little sister, Lacie,
I have also seen many promises of God fulfilled.
I can look back and see His hand in many encounters, and THAT is what keeps me going.
It is a pursuit of wanting His plan fulfilled in my life.
Walking with Lacie for the last few years has brought value and a purpose to my life that I have always desired and never known. He is indeed making a way and has done much to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers."
Our story, Lacie's and mine is about redemption and healing. It is a story of finding fathers and being restored. It is one of blessings and promises being fulfilled because the last part of Malachi 4:6, "utter destruction," is not an option for us.
Tale of Two Sisters is about witnessing God's promises and living them out until completion, just like Zechariah did. I am so glad to have each one of you join us on this journey.
It has been an adventure!
If you have any specific questions, please let me know. I will do my best to answer them.
How is Lacie doing? Well, the last two months have been unique and challenging.
I will update the legal aspects in the upcoming "Justice for Lacie" newsletter.
If you would like to write to Lacie, you can send letters and plain cards (without decorations or glitter) to:
Lacie Nelson
PO BOX 392005
Denver, CO 80239
Until then:
Please feel free to share her story with others
Sign the petition at www.justiceforlacie.com
Ask the Governor of Colorado to grant her Executive Clemency
It is time for Lacie to be put in a place of freedom.
In closing, I will tell you there is NO way we could have made it this far without your support, prayers, letters, and belief in what God is doing in us and through us.
We are SOOOOOOOO THANKFUL!!!
We are trusting in Him, the Author of Truth and Justice. The truth will set Lacie free - in many ways, it already has.
Now we wait to see her leave Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, where she can be free
"on the outside" as well.
May His blessings come upon you and overtake you too!
Lacie's proud big sister,
Stephanie