Using the Past to Change the Future

When volunteer Vikki Calendar steps onto the Changing Lives Center campus, she has in her heart a hope for change, comfort to give, and a challenge to bring to the women we serve. She has a passion for planting seeds and watching them grow in the lives of
the women she mentors each week for the past year at the Changing Lives Center.
“You see the lives that are changed here,” says Vikki. “You see the depth of the darkness that this person was in, and you see what this whole facility has done to create change in the women’s hearts. Their lives have been turned around, completely.”

Our women in recovery are often emotionally and sometimes physically scarred by
their past. Many come to us straight out of abusive, dangerous home situations. Vikki is able to use the lessons learned in her own challenging background to empathize and give our women hope for the future. “When you see what they’ve been through, it’s humbling,” says Vikki. To see their circumstances and the pain they had to endure. It makes you realize what you have. It gives you appreciation and gratitude for what you have. It’s an awakening.”

Vikki initially connected into mentoring at Phoenix Rescue Mission to give back. “I had a mentor in my past who helped me a great deal, so I think it’s important to give back from what you’ve been given. To challenge them in learning God’s truth, and comfort them. When I came, I saw the fruit that they were bearing, and I thought, ‘Wow! I want to be a part of that. I want what I pour in to be fruitful.”