SYDNEY, Australia, Aug. 17 /
Christian Newswire/ -- "Absolutely not," says Sharyn Killens. "Even as a small child I prayed to Him to help me escape the terrible beatings and desperate situations of my childhood and He always answered my prayers. It's just that sometimes He took longer than I had hoped."
In an interview on InFocus Christian News, Sharyn Killens talks with David Gibbons about her faith as she tells of her extraordinary life, revealed in her just released Biography, The Inconvenient Child.
Born in Sydney Australia to a blue-eyed blond mother and an African American serviceman father, Sharyn was abandoned in squalid foster care soon after birth. It was 1948, the White Australia Policy was in place and illegitimate children, particularly of mixed race, were no trophy in post World War II Australia. So her mother did all she could to distance herself from her inconvenient child.
Ironically, Sharyn's first experience of a loving home was as a two year old when she was rescued by black American champion boxer Freddy Dawson and given a home in a house of ill fame in the back streets of Sydney's red light district, Kings Cross. This irony is brought into focus when she is then put in a convent orphanage - a house of God - at age five where she is repeatedly beaten and abused by a demented nun. "I would pray to God to make her stop," says Sharyn. "Eventually He answered my prayers."
As a troubled teenager, Sharyn suffered further ill treatment in notorious juvenile institutions but her faith helped her to survive. God also answered her prayers when she finally achieved her dream of becoming a singer and entertainer, celebrating success as Sharyn Crystal on night club stages and luxury cruise ships throughout the Pacific.
"But I didn't know who I was. For forty years I begged my mother to reveal my African American father's name. I remember the silence that night, as I waited for her to finally answer my question. I called it a holy silence because I could feel God's presence in those seconds before she said, "Thaddeus Killens". I scribbled his name on a piece of paper and held it to my heart and thanked God."
The extraordinary outcome of that discovery and Sharyn's journey to find her African American roots continues in the remarkable story of The Inconvenient Child and includes a situation in which Sharyn believes involved Divine intervention.
Sharyn's story contains much pain and despair and at times a decadent lifestyle but it's also a story of redemption, hope and joy and Sharyn's faith in God transcends all situations.
Her final triumph over the cards life dealt her, transported her to New York, Los Angeles then North Carolina. How she gets there and what she discovers en route, makes for riveting reading.
The Inconvenient Child is available at TheInconvenientChild.com, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and at most large Internet book retailers.
