Maria's Story

In 2020, Maria Saucedo worked as a pediatric nurse at Riley Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. COVID-19 took the entire world by surprise and shut everything down, and nurses were on the front lines fighting against the virus with little PPE and knowledge of what they were fighting.

Through her effort to help fight against the virus, she was exposed and caught it herself in early 2020. Maria lost her job, was put on bed rest, and was forced to move in with her brother because she had become utterly dependent on others. Her entire life flipped upside down, and her faith of 10 years disappeared.

“I just became angry and bitter towards God because I'm like, ‘Dude, I was serving you, what happened? I thought you were going to come through,’” Maria said. “I walked away from God. I didn't want anything to do with him anymore.”

For three years, she wanted nothing to do with God and turned her back on her faith. Why would she? In an instant, COVID-19 took everything she had worked so hard towards, and besides, before being sick, she was going through the motions as a Christian.

“I feel like when I gave my life to God in 2010, I gave him my life out of desperation because I was experiencing anxiety and depression, and I didn't know how to deal with it,” she said. “I just felt like a lot of healing needed to be done, but I was not willing to surrender. So, I worked God around my schedule and lived life. I wasn't truly living for Christ.”

Despite doctor visit after doctor visit, Maria was given no answers to her situation. Each visit left her with more questions and fewer answers. She experienced weakness, severe fatigue, digestive issues, and more. A feeling of hopelessness surrounded her as each day went by, her faith continuing to dwindle as time passed despite her daughter constantly praying over her and encouraging her to ask God for help. 

“Even though I walked away from God, she never stopped praying for me,” Maria said of her daughter.

Eventually, she saw the doctor she had previously worked for. He was a believer, and after she was diagnosed with long-term COVID-19, her doctor encouraged her to start praying. 

“He said, ‘Mari, at this point, we just pray because there's nothing else we can do. We've done everything,’” Maria said. “It made me angry because I was like, no, I'm a nurse. I want to go back to work. I'm a mom. I can't be the mom I want to be.”

Easter weekend of 2023, Maria walked through Emmanuel Church's Greenwood Campus doors for the first time with her daughter. Instantly, one of the greeters embraced her, and she felt like she was finally home. 

“She just embraced my daughter and me as if she knew us. I felt like I was coming home,” Maria said. ‘... the way she hugged us is what we have been looking for for three years. We were in isolation, and she just embraced us like ‘welcome home.’”

Her experience of Easter weekend breathed hope and life back into her. Maria was in a place where she felt hopeless. She felt like there was no way she could continue with life and continue to put one foot in front of the other. She felt like she finally had hope after walking back out the doors after service. 

Since then, Maria continued to attend Emmanuel with her daughter and has since joined the host team. She wanted to give others the same experience walking through the door she was given.

Then, Reset Nights happened, and her life was forever changed.

“It was like a complete revival,” she said. “The Lord showed me that he didn't give up on me and that this was a process I needed to go through, because it uncovered the areas in my life that needed healing. It was more than a physical healing. It was a spiritual healing that needed to take place inside of me to be completely set free.”

On night two, Pastor Danny Anderson invited anyone who had surrendered to God that night to go to the stage and be baptized. 

“Baptism is a physical demonstration of a person saying, ‘Hey, I'm done. I'm going under the water and dying of my sinful nature.’ It's a picture of a person dying, buried with Christ, and coming up brand-new washed. It's a picture of the death and burial of their surrender to God,” Pastor Danny said. 

Maria felt a tug on her heart. ‘I should go down there, but I can't. No one knows me. I can't do it, but I should.’ She started fighting with herself. She wanted to be baptized that night. But she couldn't get herself to walk down there and join the 107 others who were ready.

She got home that night and was disappointed. She told her daughter, “I just missed my chance to rededicate my life to the Lord.” Her daughter encouraged her that there would still be a chance if God wanted it to happen, despite not knowing if there would be another chance during Reset Nights.

The next night, Maria and her daughter attended Reset again. Once again, at the end of the sermon, Pastor Danny encouraged anyone who wanted to be baptized to go down to the stage and do it. 

“I ran,” Maria said. “I didn't even walk, I ran up there. I felt like this was my why. This was the start that I needed so badly again. I don't even know how to explain it. I have more than hope now. I have purpose again.”

Maria was baptized during night three of Reset Nights. The first time she was baptized in 2017, she did it just because it was the thing to do. But this time, she was genuinely doing it because God had breathed life into her again and wanted the world to know. 

“I literally came back to life, not only physically but spiritually,” Maria said. “...it was necessary for me to make that decision so that I can truly embrace what he is going to do in my life.”

Since then, Maria has continued to dig deep into her faith. She wants to help others find their purpose and freedom in the Lord. He showed her that not only did she need physical healing, but spiritual healing as well. She hopes to encourage others and walk alongside them to show them that there is hope, even when all hope is lost.

“There is hope,” Maria said. “You can always come back home, and the Lord will provide the right people to walk with you.”