Sheila Walsh calls it a story with more twists

and turns than the wildest roller coaster ride.

Bonnie Floyd knows that to be true

because she had to live it, and it all

started with an unexpected phone call Bonnie received

more than 20 years ago.

NARRATOR: Bonnie Floyd's nightmare started in 1994

at 6 o'clock in the morning.

She answered the phone and learned

her parents, who were sailing in the West Indies,

were murdered, along with two others in cold blood,

aboard the yacht Challenger.

Two years later, the quadruple murder trial began.

Closure and justice were about to be served--

or so she thought.

"Bound to a Promise" tells the true story

of love, murder, and redemption, and how Bonnie found peace

in the midst of tragedy.

Joining us now is international speaker, author,

and bible teacher Bonnie Floyd.

Bonnie, welcome.

It's so good to have you with us today.

It is wonderful to be here.

What a story you have here.

Let's start a little bit with that phone call that came

at 6 o'clock in the morning.

I mean, this happened right at a point

where your dad's relationship with you

was beginning to flourish.

And through divorce and just life and time,

you all had kind of parted company with each other,

not so much antagonistically, it's just it happened.

So this call must have been-- it would be devastating, period,

but then to have been building this relationship

and have it happen.

Tell me about the call and when it came.

Well, the time apart was because they

had sailed around the world for seven years.

This is your father and your step-mom, right?

Exactly.

And then when they returned, God just

began to just grow our relationship.

And we couldn't have been any closer at the time.

And I had become a Christian while they were sailing,

and I couldn't wait to share Jesus with them.

And so they had been growing and growing in the Lord,

but never prayed the prayer.

And so when I got the call that they had been murdered,

I was told that they had been murdered in their sleep.

And my dad had promised me-- he had made me a promise just six

months before that if he ever got into a position

that he feared for his life, that he would

call on the name of Jesus.

So when this happened and you get this terrible phone call,

and your dad and your step mom are now no longer in your life,

and you feel like they came to that end

without ever knowing what was going to happen to them,

what did you feel spiritually?

Because you had done what you felt

you were supposed to do as a follower of Jesus.

You had said, do this.

In an emergency, do this.

What did you feel?

I was devastated.

But then I later found out that they had not

been shot in their sleep, but they had actually

been bound and gagged for hours, and tortured before they died.

And that would seem to be such torturous information,

but for me, I fell to my knees in praise and thanksgiving

because it bought them time to keep their promise.

The promise was then enacted.

Yes.

You know, that would be such devastating news

to most people to hear that, but for you,

because you loved them so much and wanted

to know that they had found salvation it was the key.

And you had shared your faith a lot with them--

Yes, I had.

---not just a little.

Oh, yes.

So they surely knew at that point.

Bonnie, how did you-- your dad meant so much to you.

From the time you were a little girl, you were a daddy's girl.

I mean, how did you rise out of the ashes of this?

Well, I first had to fall into the ashes.

I was at a very low point in my life,

and I had nowhere else to look but up.

And people had been telling me about the Lord.

God was placing people in my life, Christians in my life.

And so I prayed one day, and I called out,

because there weren't just Christians in my life,

but there were also other religions in my life

that were also telling me-- and they

would to use the name of Jesus.

And so I prayed out to the one true God, and asked him,

don't let me make a mistake.

Yeah.

And so it was just a few weeks later

that I prayed, and God showed me that his true self was

Jesus Christ, was his son.

And you're so candid in the book about the restoration

of your personhood under Jesus.

You were searching for love in all the wrong places because

of losing your dad, not in death, but just in distance

as a young person.

And then when Christ came into your life, I mean,

everything changed.

But even with your husband-- you share

about meeting him and the family, and all of that.

Learning to accept yourself when you know you've made mistakes

is hard for a lot of us.

How did God work that out in your life?

Well, I just began a love relationship

with the word of God.

And I believe what it says.

I know that sounds so simple, but serving God

isn't difficult. And I believe what it says.

And 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sin, he's faithful

and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

And so I was free from everything I'd done.

Later on in this story with your dad and your stepmother,

this horrible murder scenario.

You actually, when this went to trial,

felt compassion for one of the murderers who was there.

Did God's forgiveness of you play

into your being able to find compassion for this man?

Honestly, I went to the prison because God

spoke to me during the trial.

And I was having compassion for him,

and I didn't want to feel what I was feeling, and so I excused

myself and went out onto the balcony of this courtroom.

And I asked the Lord, what's happening in here?

And he said, what you're feeling is my compassion for him.

And I said, what do you want me to do with this?

And he said, I want you to go to the prison

and I want you to tell him about my son.

Wow.

And so I went to the prison as an act of obedience.

I did not walk into that prison to tell him, Donaldson,

I forgive you for what you did.

I was going to go in, be obedient to the Lord,

tell him about Jesus--

And get out.

---and get out.

But God had another plan.

So what happened?

So he was so sorry for what he did, and he kept telling me

how sorry he was.

And he said, I didn't actually pull the trigger.

And I said, no, but you bound and gagged them

with black tape.

And there's a price to pay for sin,

and your price is 15 years.

And so then we just prayed, and forgiveness just flowed.

I think that forgiveness came in my act of obedience.

That's when it happened.

And I was able to pray with him and lead him to the Lord.

And now Donaldson is-- he's my brother, and I love him.

That is so hard for people to imagine,

but you have just spoken such a truth,

that when we trust God enough to be

obedient in the hard things he asks us to do,

there is a freedom that comes with that

that's beyond measure.

You and Donaldson are actually friends.

We are very close.

And God has brought me back to the island of Antigua

and Barbuda just this year.

And an amazing event happened where

the entire island of Barbuda came and asked me-- I preached,

and then they asked me to forgive them for what

they did to my parents.

And then asked me, after I forgave them,

to pray, and ask God to lift the curse that has been

on the island for 22 years.

Wow.

Everything that existed 22 years ago now lies in ruins.

Anything that has started has been abandoned.

There has actually been a curse from the shedding

of innocent blood 22 years ago.

Wow.

This is a package totally wrapped up and tied up

with a bow at the end of God's goodness and grace and mercy

and fresh beginning.

It is a fresh beginning.

For you, for Donaldson, for the island.

Yes, absolutely.

Restoration personified.

It's an amazing story.

It really is a movie.

Watch for it.

Somebody's going to do this.

Bonnie, we just thank you for being here.

Your book is quite amazing.

There's so much more to her story.

We've skimmed the surface.

You can find out by getting her book.

It's called "Bound to a Promise,"

and you can get your copy by going to cbn.com.

We'll tell you how to move forward with that.

It's a wonderful story.

Thank you so much.

A story about redemption.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

Thank you for having me.

I love "The 700 Club," and have for many years,

so it's a blessing to be here.

Thanks, Bonnie.

So nice to have you with us.