Services and Programs - Changing Lives

An Unbelievable Gift

After years of what Jenice thought was a happy marriage— she was a stay-at-home wife and mother—her husband left her. Devastated, she did her best to care for their two little girls on her own. One day she dropped them off to visit their father . . . and he refused to give them back. Jenice was heartbroken. She did everything within her power to bring them home, but her hands were tied. She didn’t see them again for 23 years.

Being separated from her daughters drove Jenice into a deep depression. "All these years I ran from that pain. I didn't know what to do with it," she says, the memories still raw. "I began drinking and a few years down the road, cocaine came into the picture."

She eventually remarried and stopped using drugs when she became pregnant with her third daughter. But when the baby was three months old, she returned to her destructive habits. She left her family and began living the life of an addict—bouts of homelessness ... failed treatment programs ... repeated suicide attempts—lasting nearly two decades. "I wanted to die, because I couldn't bear the pain of what my addiction was doing to my life."

Then one day in January, a miracle happened. Her middle daughter, now 27, reached out to her. "She found me through my mother and she wanted to see me. I thought, 'God, why now?' I felt like I should have my life together—but I had nothing going for myself!"

Jenice's longing to be reunited with her two older daughters overshadowed her feelings of fear and regret, and she met both of them the next day ... for the first time in 23 years. "They're two beautiful grown women with children of their own, which makes me a grandma!" she says, with tears of joy. "And then I heard God's voice saying, 'Now I've given you so many reasons to get your life back together.'"

Jenice joined our New Life Discipleship Program in May and says it's the best decision she's ever made. "It's an opportunity of a lifetime to learn about God, His Son and the Holy Spirit." In addition to strengthening her walk with her heavenly Father and learning how much He loves her, she renewed her relationship with her mother and is getting to know her own children and grandchildren.

"It's an unbelievable gift," Jenice says. "It came through God, through the Mission and through my children." She knows her gift was made possible also through your financial gifts. And she's grateful—as we are—for your loving kindness. "It's a true blessing."



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