My Story

 I would like to share a story to show how good and faithful our God really is.  This is my story.  From 2005 to 2007 I was homeless, a crack addict, being severely abused, and in and out of shelters.  The concrete was my bed and the sky was my cover for so many years.  I was assaulted with a knife, held up at gun point, and watched my best friend get raped and their was nothing I could do about it.  I smoked weed since I was 11 also.  As a homeless person I was spit on, looked down on, and talked about like I was trash.  I spent many hours in some kind of line, the soup kitchen line, the clothing line, the food line, and the shelter line.  A lot of people think that we want to be out there and seeing as how there are people who want to live that lifestyle, I was not one of them.  I spent most of my nights crying out to God to save me from this life or take me from this life.  

     One night I was staying in a hotel and was high on crack most of the time.  On March 17, 2007 I was sitting on my bed with a knife in one hand and a crack pipe in the other and my plans were to smoke all the crack I had and kill myself.  I felt worthless like no one could love me not even God himself.  God intervened that night and set me free from my addiction of crack instantly.  My addiction to weed was not so quickly gone.  It took about another month to get over that but I did.  About 6 months later I met this church group and two people in particular were Paul and Hance.  They were the ministry leaders.    They kept coming by and ministering both physical food and spiritual food.  One day about a month afterwards we were expecting a large storm and Paul came by to see where we were going to stay during the storm(hurricane).  We said right here in the streets.  He said no your going to my house for the weekend.  That was the first weekend of transformation.  One weekend turned into a week and then one day Paul said God told me to move you in and help you get on your feet.  It was my fiannce and I at the time.  So we moved in with Paul and shortly after that my fiancee was offered a job by a guy at our church.  About 3 months later, we got married and we moved into our own place, a small 30 ft trailer.  God kept us there a year and then moved us into a 3 bedroom 2 bath larger trailer on 1 acre of land with an awesome landlord.  We moved in for nothing and did not have to pay rent till the next month for cleaning up the place.  See God at work there? 

     In July of 2009, I started my freshman year at college and I am going for my bachelors in psychology with an emphasis on substance abuse.  God has done so much and given me so much that I want to be his servant and give back much more to those that need it.  If you think your situation is hopeless, trust in God with all you have, and He will transform your life to a wonderful and precious thing.  With his help you can do it.  March 14, 2011 I will be celebrating my fourth year clean from drugs and my 3rd year of not being homeless.  I will also be starting my sophmore year in college.  Last month I received the President's Lists Honors for getting and keeping a 3.97 GPA.  Right now I have a 3.7 GPA and I am in the Honors Program.  Next term I will be a student mentor for new students.  I never seen this in my eyes, but when you look through the eyes of God, oh the beauty and the awesomeness you can see.  I love the Lord with all my heart and soul.  I also have a heart for the homeless and the drug addicts and the abused.  I want to do whatever I can to help alleviate this problem in our country.  We need to stand together as communities and help those who need it.  Reach out to someone today and when you get a smile in return, know that you have been blessed.   Another thing God has done for me is to keep my intellectual ability in tact even through all the drugs I have used in my life.  When professors write that it was a pleasure to have a student of my caliber in their class, it makes me know that without God, I could not have done any of it.  God is the God of impossible!  Give Him your impossible and watch him turn it into a possible. 

 With much love from Jesus, Cheri