My family prayed for me for 15 years to go to Teen Challenge. I remember Teen Challenge coming to our church many times! In 2007 I finally entered the program and I graduated in 2008! When I arrived at TC, I felt like I had come home. I had a peace that surpassed all understanding. Jesus Christ restored my life from the pit of hell. I had suffered from meth addiction for 15 years. I had a broken life and family. I have had several very violent relationships and suffered many extremely hard and lonely times; been in secular TX centers 4 times; lost my children to CPS, experienced divorce in 2004; shot myself in 2005; and nearly drowned in the ocean in 2006. I had been in jails, lived in half-way houses, been on the streets, in homeless shelters, and existed in drab dark hotel rooms.
On February 1, 2005 I was ready to take my life! I got a .357 revolver and went up a logging road. Even though I love my children and family I was angry at myself and on a road of destruction! I was screaming inside to the Lord as I cocked the gun and was getting ready to take my life when a car pulled up behind me. I was startled and jumped out of the car as the gun bumped the steering wheel and fired a bullet through the back of my left leg, shattering the tibia bone! This was a real blessing in disguise as I realized later God had saved my life again by this accident. Needless to say God put this bad girl in a major time-out. The next year of my life was spent in wheelchairs, in and out of hospitals, having 12 major surgeries, taking pain meds constantly and learning to walk all over again.
After I graduated from Teen Challenge I did not know where I would go in my life or how things would work out. I attended Clatsop Community college to continue working on a nursing career. Praise the Lord for his provisions! I got good grades and became a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. I also volunteered in a juvenile prison ministry through my church. Then God opened the door to attend Northwest University. I applied to the Buntain School of Nursing in 2009. I knew God had called me there for a purpose. I decided to follow God’s will, honor Him and follow hard after Him no matter how bad it was! God provided all my needs. While I was in Teen Challenge I felt the Lord had called me to go on a medical mission’s trip to Africa. In 2010 I went on a mission trip to the jungles of the south Sudan for two weeks with a team of students from NU. We worked in schools, did Bible devotions with children and provided medical care and first aid 3-4 hours every day. God provided all the funds and medical supplies for the trip and helped me fulfill the calling he had shown me while I was in Teen Challenge. God was faithful to help me excel in my studies in the nursing program. My senior year I was awarded a full year scholarship from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. There were 300 scholarships given out in America that year and mine was one of them. God is so amazing and so faithful to provide. All of my tuition and living arrangement were paid in full with the agreement that when I graduate, I would agree to work in a critical nursing shortage area. I graduated from the Buntain School of Nursing at Northwest University with honors and a GPA of 3.9 in May of 2012. I am now a BSN-RN working at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation in Bethel, Alaska. As I fulfill my contract in two years my student loans will be $40K less through a special repayment program! What a blessing!
Jesus loves each of us and He is calling us constantly! My message for you is this—don’t be foolish and follow the influences of the world like I once did—FOLLOW CHRIST!