Although she's a famous and successful actress, model, television personality, author and spokeswoman, Jennifer O'Neill holds none of these roles above her relationship with God.

O'Neill is the next American Lyceum Lecture Series guest speaker. The event, in Rodeheaver Auditorium, is sponsored by Grace College and the Village at Winona. It is free and open to the public.

"I am beyond honored," she said of the Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. engagement. "It's very exciting for me to be a part of that group, to speak where Billy Graham and people of that stature have been."

In a recent telephone interview, O'Neill candidly discussed her ongoing walk with Jesus Christ and upcoming talk in Winona Lake.

"I think the best illustration is what one has gone through in their own life," she said from her Nashville, Tenn., home. "For all intents and purposes, I had an enviable life. It also was very tumultuous."

In the autobiographical "Surviving Myself," O'Neill writes about her very public career. Despite her stardom (title roles in movies like "Summer of '42" and "Rio Lobo") and many magazine covers, she married badly a number of times. She has been shot, almost died three times, discovered the sexual abuse of her daughter and had an abortion.

The mother of three children came into her faith a latecomer, at age 38.

"I kept thinking another person would fill me up," she said of her long and hard search for something to fill her emptiness. "I looked to others."

In "From Fallen to Forgiveness," she describes the tough row she's had to hoe to come to the place of peace and fulfillment she now enjoys.

O'Neill, now married for six years, describes herself as an authority on everything because "I've done everything wrong.

"If you've messed up, don't accept the lie that it's over for you. God is a god of new beginnings, every day. And that's such exciting news."

O'Neill's message is about forgiveness - forgiving self, forgiving others.

"Without forgiveness and healing, our lives are robbed on a daily basis. We're less than we can be," she said.

She talks about a new level of integrity, of an all-encompassing peace and love that improves all other relationships.

She doesn't say the work is easy.

"You have to change a life full of bad psychological and spiritual habits and release pain and scars from places you never knew existed," she said.

"I thought I had dealt with everything after writing 'Surviving Myself.' I soon realized there were so many areas still left untapped and untouched."

During the Lyceum lecture, O'Neill plans to get straight to the core of the matter because she can anticipate a well-churched audience.

"I talk to thousands of women a year and people come up to me in tears. They say, 'I thought I was the only one' or 'I don't have anyone to talk to' even though they belong to a church with 20,000 members.

"Allowing God to work in our lives is not our first inclination. Submission was very difficult with me. I used to negotiate with God," she said, laughing at the notion. "Now I let Him handle retribution."

"We're not asked to do anything we're not empowered to do. It's a process, one of the most profound processes we'll ever undergo."

She maintains everyone can use a little house cleaning. Like house cleaning, learning forgiveness is an ongoing process.

"God does not want us stuck and stalled. He doesn't want a frozen asset. To 'let go and let God' is our commission. It's a command."

O'Neill joins some of the nation's most influential speakers as a Lyceum guest.

William Jennings Bryan, Booker T. Washington, Billy Sunday, Jane Addams, Billy Graham, Helen Keller, Will Rogers and Admiral Richard Byrd used Winona's Bible conferences and Chautauqua programs as forums to communicate both ideas and ideals to their respective generations over the last century. [[In-content Ad]]