Renita

Retina Shelton
AUTHOR
Author · Communicator · Woman of Faith

About
Renita T. Shelton

A life shaped by storms, refined by faith, and marked by the undeniable hand of God.

R
Renita Shelton
Meet the Author

A Life Shaped
by Faith

Renita T. Shelton is a communications professional, former television producer, and public information leader with more than three decades of experience in media, community engagement, and public service. She has informed, educated, and served communities through broadcast journalism, municipal communications, and public safety, but her greatest story has never been told on air. It has been lived on her knees.

Her journey into faith began with her grandmother, a woman the family quietly knew carried prophetic gifts. When her grandmother passed, Renita was present, having been drawn to the hospital by an unexplained prompting. It was only hours later, in the quiet of the early morning, that God revealed to her: the dream her grandmother had described days before was a vision of that very moment. It was the first sign that the same spiritual gifts her grandmother carried were stirring in her as well.

The defining chapter of Renita's life came on February 24, 1999, when her daughter Aria was born three months premature, weighing one pound and fifteen ounces. Doctors gave little hope. Her husband urged her to disconnect life support. Standing alone at her daughter's isolette, Renita made a vow to God: "If You do this for me, I will give Aria back to You and tell everyone how it happened." On August 5, 1999, nearly six months later, Aria came home. A miracle that left the NICU staff speechless.

Through the storms that followed, the dissolution of her marriage, the loss of her television career, and the long road of caregiving, Renita's faith deepened, and her calling became undeniable. She eventually trained as a firefighter at age 47, receiving the High Heat Award for excellence in academics, physical training, and perseverance. She has served as a Fire Education Specialist, Public Information Officer, and Director of Community Relations. Through every role, the same thread has run: the call to serve, to communicate, and to point others to God.

Strength Through the Storms is the story she was always meant to tell. It is not simply a memoir; it is a testimony of the miraculous power of God in one family's darkest hours and a call for anyone in the middle of their own storm to hold on.

When I look back over my life, I see now what I could not see then, that every storm had purpose. Every delay, every detour, every breaking point was an invitation to trust God on a deeper level.

Renita is available for speaking engagements, ministry events, keynotes, and community presentations, where she shares messages of faith, endurance, and transformation. She is currently developing additional devotional resources, teaching materials, and future books designed to encourage spiritual growth, healing, and renewed hope.

STORM
HEALING
STORM · FAITH · MIRACLE · HEALING

The Night That Changed Everything

At 3:00 a.m. on February 12, 1999, Renita's water broke three months early. She drove herself to the hospital alone; her husband had gone back to bed. The fluid was tinted green: a sign that her unborn daughter was already in distress. Twelve days later, an emergency C-section brought Aria into the world in silence. The monitors had gone quiet. There was no cry.

The doctor who delivered her performed a Classic C-section, two incisions forming a cross on Renita's abdomen. She would later reflect on the significance of that symbol. A cross that Jesus bore. A cross she was now being called to carry. What followed was 165 days in the NICU, a faith rebuilt from nothing, and a God who showed up so unmistakably that even the doctors took notice.

LEGACY
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The Story Behind the Book

Renita did not set out to write a book. She was encouraged to do so by Pastor Christwill A. Adjei-Sarpong, whose counsel redirected her steps and whose spoken title, Strength Through the Storms, became a banner of hope that sustained her even as she faced new storms while writing it. The result is a memoir unlike most: deeply personal, Scripture-anchored, and filled with accounts of the miraculous that leave no room for coincidence. It is the story Renita was always meant to tell.

My purpose in writing is not simply to tell of the trials we faced, but to share the hope, the healing, and the deliverance that resulted as an unshakeable trust in God grew.

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