The international speaker from Ontario has addressed a myriad of audiences ranging from large companies like Proctor and Gamble and Dupont to audiences traveling to Alaska or Hawaii on Norwegian Cruise Lines. Augustine also shares her personal testimony at churches and retreats.

Her messages share a common theme. The choices one makes in life either lead to heartache and sorrow or success and joy. Finding peace in the middle of life’s storms can be a simple matter of keeping a positive outlook and looking for truth in the right places.
Augustine’s latest book, Simple Retreats for a Woman’s Soul (Harvest House Publishers), addresses the need for women to find peace among chaos. Even daily stress can wear down a soul, not to mention major crises like illness, abuse or divorce. “This book makes the perfect gift for women today with their hectic, fast-paced lifestyles,” says Augustine. “So many women have written me to say thank you for giving me permission to look after myself.” The book, Augustine’s sixth, encourages women to occasionally pamper themselves with innocent pleasures like a midday snooze, an early morning bubble bath or a cup of tea, steeping in the finest china.

Augustine understands firsthand how devastating stress can be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. She spent 11 years in an abusive relationship. “I married as a teenager, and my parents did their best to talk me out of it, but I went ahead anyway, knowing this fellow had a violent temper,” she says. During the marriage, Augustine says she had black eyes and was covered in bruises much of the time, yet she never gave up hope for a better life.

“Eventually, I had the chance to build a career in sales, and some of the training strengthened me and encouraged me to think more highly of myself and to go from being passive to more assertive.” Although she wanted to take her two small children and leave the abusive relationship, Augustine developed a nearly fatal illness. Her doctors tested her for leukemia and other types of rare blood diseases but they couldn’t find what was wrong. They finally gave up and sent her home to die.

“That’s when I realized that success in other areas, mentally, physically, emotionally, is not enough,” says Augustine. “I needed to know whether I was going to heaven or hell when I died.” At one time Augustine was heavily into New Age teachings, astrology, horoscopes, transcendental meditation, fortune telling and spiritual yoga. Like many people today, she was searching for truth and peace, but she had not found it. She was confused because all religions claimed to have the answers.

“I remember thinking there can’t be lots of truths just because someone says so,” she explains. “Something in me kept telling me there has to be one truth.” Because she was dying, Augustine knew she had to find peace with God before it was too late. That’s when she felt God urging her to read the Bible. She searched her basement for the white zippered copy her parents had given her as a child and asked God to show her the verses that would tell her how get to heaven.

The first one she came to was John 8:32. It said, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” After reading several verses, Augustine realized a relationship with Jesus, described in the Bible as The Prince of Peace, was what she had been looking for all along.
“The ultimate was when I accepted Christ as my Saviour,” says Augustine.

A few days later she talked to God about her illness. “I said, ‘God, since you can tell me how to get to heaven, then surely you could heal my body.’ It didn’t seem like it was asking too much.”

One night Augustine couldn’t sleep, so she turned on the television and heard a man on a Christian program saying that a woman with a rare blood disease was watching and God wanted to heal her.

“I very simply accepted that woman was me,” she says. “I started telling my doctors I was healed.” At first Augustine’s doctors didn’t believe her. They pointed out her tests were the same, her body was still swollen, she was still bleeding internally and she still had a fever.
Nevertheless, Augustine was convinced she was healed. Gradually, day by day, her body showed signs of improvement. When she felt well enough to drive, she went to the library and picked a book at random.

The book turned out to be a writing by Christian author David Wilkerson and included a little prayer that said something like this: “God, I’ve messed up my life. I recognize I’m a sinner and I need a Saviour. I need to invite Jesus Christ into my life and to be master of my life.”
Augustine was amazed that someone else had prayed the same type of prayer she prayed when she began her relationship with Christ.

Augustine’s husband eventually asked her to leave, and they divorced. Today she is remarried and enjoys her life as an international speaker. Her desire is to motivate others to make right choices that will give them strength to survive life’s raging storms so that they too can reach the destination of their dreams.

She says her heart goes out to people who are searching for the peace she’s found. Augustine says she believes God will be faithful to show Himself to anyone who genuinely wants to know Him. “I had searched in all the wrong places for truth, but once I found Jesus through the Scriptures, I never searched again,” she says. “I had found the peace and truth I had been longing for.” She adds, “When you find Jesus, you don’t look again. You know that you know that you have found the truth. It satisfies. It is enough.”

To learn more about Sue Augustine, visit www.sueaugustine.com

Photo courtesy Sue Augustine