Born in a little town about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta, Ga., Debbie Seagraves grew up in a very strict and often abusive home.  Commerce, Ga. was a place where everybody pretty much knew everybody or knew everybody’s business.  Debbie’s mother left her to live with her grandparents when she was just 3 weeks old.  Unfortunately, Debbie and her older brother Charles was born out of wedlock and her mother just couldn’t handle the responsibility of raising two kids.  Debbie’s grandfather was a sharecropper so life was simple and times were hard.  They didn’t have much but they had a roof over their heads and food on their table.  Summers were spent working in their huge vegetable garden and preparing the vegetables and freezing them so there would be enough food to last through the winter months.  Debbie loved her grandparents very much and even though there was much physical and emotional abuse in the home she is very thankful for them providing a home for her and her brother.  Being locked out of the house or in the closet when she was being punished was the norm and being whipped with a belt till blood ran down her legs was something that happened quite frequently.  As she looks back she realizes now that her grandmother was mentally ill and just never received treatment for it, so as painful as it was to endure this, there is no animosity toward her grandmother.  She loved her very much and was by her bedside on the day she went home to be with Jesus.  

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Going to church on Sunday was something that was just expected, at least by her grandmother.  Her grandfather never set foot in a church that she can remember but he was a good man and she adored him. She is thankful for being brought up in the church because at the young age of 10 the pastor sat down with her one night after church and asked her if she would like to get saved.  She might not have understood everything about the Bible but she knew if it had something to do with Jesus it was something she wanted.  It was there on that church pew in Emmanuel Baptist Church at the young age of 10 that Debbie prayed to receive Jesus into her heart and her life changed in a moment. For the first time in her life she felt happy and at peace.  She no longer cried herself to sleep every night longing for the mother that didn’t want her, and she felt truly loved for the first time in her life, but most of all she was not afraid.  Fear had become a huge obstacle in her life and little did she know that same fear would come back years later and try to take her life.  By the time she was just 15 years old, she became very sick.  She was unable to go to school because she became afraid to even leave her house.  She didn’t know what was happening to her and that scared her.  Little did she know she was suffering from severe depression and anxiety and she began having panic attacks.  The doctors didn’t know how to treat it back then so eventually she had to be taken out of school.  That was a very hard time in her life and she remembers no one understanding what was wrong with her, and how could they understand because she didn’t even understand.  It would take many years before she would get a diagnosis and treatment to help her to get well.  

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Debbie’s grandparents both passed away and she found herself alone and with no place to go.  There was a time when she actually lived in her car.  An uncle took her in and she lived with him until she met her husband.  Debbie married at 18 and gave birth to her first child when she was just 19.  She thought she had finally found a home and when they placed that little baby boy in her arms she found out what true love really was.  She didn’t know she could love another human being so much. Unfortunately the marriage did not last because her husband was very abusive and eventually left her for another woman.  Four years later she would meet the father of her second child.  This too would end in the exact same way. She thought something must really be wrong with her because no one seemed to be able to love her for very long and with the love she had read about so often in the Bible.   She had drifted away from the Lord and was in so much pain, her heart was broken, her life was broken and she found herself trying to drink away her problems.  She just wanted to stop hurting.  She says she knows God was watching out for her back then because even though she was drinking she never became an alcoholic, she was never even able to get drunk.  She hated what she had become and even though her children never saw her drink, she hated what she was doing to them.  The time she spent away from them working was necessary but not the time leaving them with a sitter to try and drown her sorrows.  She was sick of her life and the person she had become.  Debbie made up her mind that she was going back to church and bring her children up in the church and she made the decision she would never date again unless the Lord sent someone to her.  So for almost 10 years she never dated anyone.  She rededicated her life to the Lord and vowed to serve him for the rest of her life.  It was in that very church that she met the man that would eventually become the husband that she knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord sent to her.  He became her best friend.  He was married for 22 years and unfortunately his wife left him as well for someone else.  He tried for many years to just get Debbie to go on a date with him and she wouldn’t.  But one night she prayed and asked God to show her if he was the one for her and needless to say they were married on August 12, 1995.  They have been through so much in their 20 years together but one thing is for certain Debbie knows that Mike Seagraves was meant to be her husband.

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Shortly after Debbie and Mike were married, she became very sick again.  The depression and panic attacks came back with a vengeance.  She didn’t understand because she finally had the home and family she had always dreamed of having.  Why was this happening now?  It was then that Debbie had to admit she needed help.  She found a Christian clinic in Birmingham, Alabama that specialized in treating depression and anxiety and prayed with her husband about the possibility of going there.  The clinic was founded by Christian psychologist and noted author Dr. Paul Meir, and Debbie had even read some of his books.  After much prayer, Debbie decided to go into their day program and for the next 6 weeks, she underwent treatment there.  It was there that she found out how to live with her disease.  She still prayed for healing but she also prayed for God to teach her how to live.  It was there also that Debbie learned how to deal with things that she didn’t even know bothered her, such as codependency, internalizing her feelings, trying to be a people pleaser, and taking care of everyone but herself.  It was hard to learn some of the things she learned but she found them to be so true.  It was there also that Debbie had to participate in expression therapy, which to this day she still hates because she found that therapy the hardest thing to do.  The counselor had her paint a picture one day of exactly how she was feeling at that moment, Debbie sit there in tears as she painted a picture of herself in the Garden of Gethsemane kneeling and praying as Jesus did that fateful night asking God to take the cup of suffering from her if it be His will and tears of blood streaming down her face in the picture.  The counselor told her it was one of the most powerful examples she had ever seen.  After the program was complete Debbie continued to be treated by the doctors there and continued counseling.  She has learned to live with the disease she has but she has never stopped praying and believing for healing.

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Debbie and Mike have 5 children between them, 4 boys and a girl.  Tommy, Timmy, Tammy, Josh, and Adam.  Tammy, their only daughter passed away on March 28, 2009.  This was by far the hardest thing Debbie says she has ever been through.  She spent many days by Tammy’s grave crying out to God and trying to understand why this happened.  And she could just not find peace.  But it was on June 18, 2011, that Debbie found her peace.  She had a near fatal motorcycle accident and the Lord allowed her to see Tammy and see that she was ok.  As a matter of fact, she was better than ok.  Tammy also suffered from severe depression and had become dependent on pain medication. She passed away tragically from a prescription drug overdose.  Tammy had found the peace she just couldn’t seem to find on this earth.  Debbie remembers walking through a beautiful meadow and feeling more serene and at peace than she ever had felt.  It was there in that meadow that her daughter stepped out from behind a rock and they both ran to each other and embraced and fell to their knees.  Debbie remembers Tammy holding her and rocking her back and forth as she cried.  Instead of a mother comforting her daughter it was her daughter comforting her.  And it was at that exact moment that she knew that Tammy was fine. After some time, Debbie woke up in intensive care on a ventilator.  She had a brain injury with 5 brain bleeds, 8 broken ribs, broken shoulder, crushed knee, broken arm and leg, torn meniscus and acl, torn rotator cuff, most of the bones in her face were broken and her eye socket was crushed so badly that her eye was completely out of her head.  She had too many other injuries and surgeries to mention.   The pain was unbearable and she could literally do nothing for herself.  She had to be fed, bathed, and taken care of because all she could do was lie in a hospital bed unable to even turn over.  It was during that time that she learned a whole new meaning to the word humility.  She spent many days and nights talking to God and praying.  Life as she knew it was over.  Debbie loved missions and was supposed to fly out to Brazil on a mission trip a week after the wreck so she couldn’t understand what God was doing.

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 It has been a long road to recovery but Debbie remembers a night a few years before the accident. She was sharing her testimony at a Celebrate Recovery meeting and the Lord spoke to her that night and told her that she no longer had to wonder why He allowed all the things that had happened to her.  The Lord told her that she was going to take her testimony and use it to help others that were going through some of the very same things.   And He has done that.  On her trips to Brazil, she got to speak in churches and schools and arenas and on the radio and she saw literally hundreds of people pray to receive Christ. As difficult as that time was in her life she is so thankful for those doctors and counselors that played such a huge part in helping her to get well.  She knew God sent her to Alabama because it was there that she learned how to live with her disease.  Debbie has prayed to be delivered from depression and she believes that if God chooses to that He will heal her.  She has prayed for others to be healed of the very disease she has and she has seen God miraculously heal them.  And she gives God all the glory for using her in the lives of the people she has had the opportunity to minister to.  She says she has nothing but a heart full of gratitude and if God chooses to let her live out her life with this disease and she doesn’t receive her healing until she crosses the finish line she is fine with that.  Because she knows it is through what she has been through that she has grown and learned and been able to help others. That is where she says she finds her greatest joy, helping and praying for others.  She has the gift of mercy.  It has been through much pain that she has found God’s mercy and forgiveness and she says there is nothing she could ever go through that could compare to what her Savior has endured for her. 

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One night a few years ago Debbie went to a gospel singing with some friends that was held in an old chicken house that had been converted into a building to have Thursday night singings every week.  She found herself looking around that old building wondering whey in the world she was even there.  But the Spirit was so sweet there and the people were so down to earth and nice.  One night she got up and sang a song and it was on that night that she knew God was not through with her yet.  So she continued to go and sing on Thursday nights and also sing at benefits and in area churches.  Because of the brain injury, she sustained she sometimes may forget a word or line, and she has found that to be her biggest obstacle and almost quit singing because of it.  But the Lord just won’t let her stop.  She knows she has a song to sing and a story to tell that can speak to someone that might be going through what she calls “the darkest night of the soul”.  She has recorded two projects and shared the stage with some great singers.  She has been through the fire and the devil fought so hard to keep her from recording her latest cd.  She had just finished the tracks in the studio and before she could record the vocals a few days later she fell and broke the exact same leg she broke in the other accident.  And ironically it was on the exact same day she had the near-fatal accident 3 years before.  Was it bad luck, No, Was it karma, No, it was Satan trying to keep her from finishing what God had ordained for her to do. Her latest project was released in mid-May of this year.  She asks folks to listen for her new single “Dream Big,” which is due to be released to radio later this month.

 

Debbie sings and speaks at ladies' events and gives her testimony in churches.  She wants everyone to know that if you find yourself wondering where God is in the midst of your suffering that she has a song and a word for you.  She would love to come and minister at your church or event.  She can be reached for booking at 706-353-3283 or 706-338-4652.  She also has a ministry page on Facebook.  Her address is Debbie Seagraves, 7539 Nowhere Rd., Hull, Ga. 30646.   Her favorite bible verse is Micah 7:8 and she has claimed that as her life verse. Debbie believes that even in God’s garden of grace that even broken trees bear fruit.  The Lord has truly given her beauty for ashes.