THE JOURNEY VICTORIOUS

Hello and welcome to The Journey Victorious. This is not yet the perfect website/blog, as it is a work in progress. Some buttons may not work at time of launch, but I am getting there and hopefully within a short amount of time, everything works as expected.

The Journey Victorious is a blog created and written by me, Janet DelTufo, and it is based on seeking and finding victory through faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The journey within the journey

 

Have you ever had a journey within a journey?

I have had a journey within the journey just getting the web page launched.

All I will say is that the accuser (the devil) tried every way possible to stop the launch of this blog. He did everything he could to delay me and stop me. It took eight days to get done what could have been done in one day. But Our Higher Master, Jesus, did not let the accuser win.

Hello … The Journey Victorious is here … it is live.

Please subscribe to this blog to receive alerts on new posts and posts from guest bloggers. Also, my (hopefully daily if not almost daily) inspirational messages will be posted here on this blog.

 

My first blog post

 

My first blog post will be much longer than future posts, because I need to get new readers and followers up to speed and to clearly state how this blog came about and where it is going. This first blog post will contain subtitles to assist in your reading convenience. Heck, maybe they all will.

I currently reside in Surprise, Arizona with my two dogs, Skye and Thunder, my mother’s dog, Bella, and my four cats Jettie, Little Boy, Lily and Sandie. I have lived in Arizona for more than 36 total years (two separate times) and it is a well-known desire of mine to find opportunity in another state. I am ready to move on from here again.

I was born in Montclair, New Jersey and at nine years of age my family moved to the Arizona desert. I was baptized Catholic and made my first holy communion before moving to Arizona. I made my confirmation in Arizona with other eighth grade friends.

It was in Glendale, Arizona, where I discovered my first Jesus culture. Entering my teen years at the end of the hippie generation, my fellow elementary school girlfriends and I used to wear hip huggers and short tank tops, and we would hold up our bibles as we listened to Jesus Christ Superstar on vinyl. We were a part of the early stages of the “Jesus Freak” generation … though I was not yet fully freaked.

It was a few years later, walking home from high school as a freshman that Jesus first spoke to me. And it was five years later at 19 years of age, while living in Tempe, Arizona, where I received a vision of my future, which led me on a walking path with Jesus Christ, spreading the word wherever possible. Just so you know, part of that vision included a blonde man, standing on a balcony overlooking the ocean.

 

The path that led me

 

When I was 25 years of age, I was basically required by God to move from Arizona to Los Angeles, California. It was the last place I wanted to go, but the one place Jesus wanted me to go. I was already familiar with Los Angeles, as I worked for a company based in Gardena, California, and I traveled to the company’s headquarters on a regular basis. As far as I was concerned, Los Angeles was the devil’s playground and I wanted no part of it.

Yeah, well, you know how that goes … There I was, in a car packed with clothes, heading to lovely Los Angles. I bounced around the first year and a half in the Los Angeles area, but finally I received a major gift from God … a beachfront apartment at the Torrance Beach. There, I lived for 13 years, bringing God’s message to those who had no idea how easy it was to know and to love Jesus. And it was there that I found that blonde man on the balcony overlooking the ocean.

So, it would seem I had hit the Jesus jackpot … Not quite. Things with the balcony man did not work as I expected and I went into a major tailspin. Out of confusion, I walked right off my path with Jesus. I was angry and I resented everything. I knew Jesus still loved me, but I did not understand the pain and anguish, so I closed up.

 

The man who helped me

back and then left me

 

Soon after I walked away from God, things started falling apart. But of course they did, because man/woman is not expected to walk alone and walking with Jesus is seriously the only way to walk. I ended up moving back to Arizona with an amazing individual, the best hearted person I have even known, and I started working as a reporter and later an editor as well.

I had been in journalism since California. Well, actually, I have been in journalism since the day I wrote my first letter as a child. As a working journalist, I covered professional and amateur inline hockey in California and finally started covering hard news and crime in Arizona.

During my time covering hard news, I met a man who was a declared Christian. There was an instant connection and bond with him and I looked forward to him helping me get my heart back for Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Through the 10-plus years I knew this man, I found myself in a comfortable spot with Jesus, not back on the path or in lockstep with the holy spirit, but I was coming around. The man and I married and two years later he said he wanted to go in another direction, without me.

I was devested beyond devastation. Seriously, it was stick-a-fork-in-me time. It was the absolute worst trauma I had ever experienced, but through that event I found my way BACK onto the Jesus path I had left 22 years prior.

So, yeah, the pain I felt over one man forced me off my Jesus path and then the pain I felt over another man forced me back on the path. Funny how things work.

 

What it all means

 

Anyone who walks with Jesus knows that He changes you. He changes you because of the gift of life and love He brings to you. If you accept these gifts, you live in that light.

I love being back on my path. I love what He brings me. I love that I can share these VICTORIOUS experiences with others.

Just recently I spent four days with my longest known friend Cindy, in Del Mar, California. We had the most amazingly peaceful days. She was able to watch me spend my first hour of the day reading devotional materials and listening to worship music. She saw me move in confidence, clarity and joy. She told me that I needed to start writing again.

I had stopped writing. I was done with my writing career … so I thought. The news reporting industry had dramatically changed. It was no longer fun and challenging. But Cindy made me promise I would create this blog and tell people about my experiences, while providing inspiration and giving others a reason to get up and start moving again.

“Start a blog and tell people about it,” Cindy said to me, on Saturday, April 22, 2017.

I promised her I would, so I shall.

The Journey Victorious is my story of going from fear, anxiety and despair, to becoming a very happy, modern-day disciple of Christ, as in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.