For as long as she could remember, Jennifer’s life had been unspeakably awful. When she was at her very lowest—nearly dead from attempted suicide—God made Himself known to her.
After decades of abuse, rejection, abandonment and misery, Jennifer was hopeless. She believed her life could never get better … so she decided to end it.
“I jumped off a second-story balcony headfirst,” she says. Jennifer spent the next six weeks in a coma. When she awoke, she instantly knew only one thing: “God had saved me for something better.” Though she had never been religious and never went to church, she began her faith journey right at that moment. It was the first feeling of hope she had experienced in many, many years …
Broken Childhood, Dysfunctional Adulthood
Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn, New York, with an alcoholic father. While his drinking caused complications for the young girl, he did at least love her. One day when she was 10, her mom — who had never been in her life —suddenly appeared and kidnapped Jennifer, bringing her to Phoenix. Because of his drinking, Jennifer’s father was unable to involve the legal system to recover his daughter.
“When I was torn from him, it felt like my life was over,” Jennifer remembers. “My mom was a cocaine addict, and she was prostituting. I had to walk the streets with her for hours on end.”
“Phoenix Rescue Mission means everything to me.
They’ve given me all I needed
to recover …”
Not surprisingly, Jennifer was rarely in school, and she developed serious problems. She began using marijuana and alcohol. At 15, she met a man in his thirties who became the father of two of her children, but he molested their younger daughter and went to jail. That betrayal broke Jennifer’s heart, made her feel like a failure as a mother, and she started using drugs heavily.
In the decades that followed, she endured one abusive relationship after another, suffering through violence, addiction, poverty and most every other hardship imaginable. When she could no longer take it, she attempted suicide.
Thankfully, God saved her.
Beginning a New Life
“The doctors told my kids I wouldn’t make it. When I did, they told me I would never walk again. I had to relearn how to walk and eat and talk. But I’ve been sober since that day,” Jennifer says. Once she got out of the hospital, she moved in with her daughter and began looking for a place that would help her grow in faith and transform her life. She found Phoenix Rescue Mission online and felt drawn
here. Now, it’s clear why:
“God has done so many amazing things for me at the Mission,” Jennifer says. “He has taken
resentment out of my heart. He has made it easier for me to forgive. He has taken my anger and confusion and given me my life back.”
Today, Jennifer has never been closer to her children. She loves pouring into them and into the other ladies at the Mission, encouraging them through the pain she understands intimately. Her heart is filled with gratitude for people like you who’ve made this transformation possible:
“Phoenix Rescue Mission means everything to me. They’ve given me all I needed to recover, from clothes and food to counseling, education and different types of work therapy. They have changed my life forever, and I’m so thankful.”
