Doing a 180 Podcast on ITunes
My GiGi’s House: Finding Hope has arrived. Click here to order your copy today.
I had the privilege to have a short story published in Spark’s Summer Edition. Click here to read my short story called While in Paradise
On July 14th a devotion I wrote was published on Arise Daily Devotions. Click here to read My Comforter saw it coming
I was privileged to write a few devotions for Wholly Loved and on December 6th Crosswalk.com published The Book is Alive. Click here to read the devotion based upon Hebrews 4:12
Click here to read the devotion found on Crosswalk.com called A Post Can Destroy Your Witness.
Here is the corporate response to who I am:
I had the dream life, but God had other plans. God called me away from a successful career to be the Co-Founder of Against the Grain. AtG serves those who are often forgotten; those Jesus would call “the least of these”. As a nationally recognized sales leader, I learned how to build bridges and make connections with the heart of what people need. I now use this same ability to cut through the tough layer we use to protect ourselves and help people understand the root causes of their struggles and find freedom through Christ.
I did not grow up in the Church but I have learned to love as Jesus loves through a life of tough experiences. My husband of 32 years, has “always encouraged me to look at a person’s potential and not write them off based on appearances”. That advice has shaped the way I do ministry. I look past what we all can see and connect with the heart.
Now that I have told you the professional introduction to who I am…
here is who I really am.
I grew up in a dysfunctional home with a step-father who was an alcoholic and my abuser. My go-to behaviors were boys and studying. Studying because if you asked me to do something I did not want to make up something so I took very hard courses in High School, so I was always studying. And boys… because I was searching for a fathers love.
In 1985 I became a teenage mother and had moved to the Bible belt. I did not grow up in the church like my husband so you can imagine the shame and guilt that I felt knowing that people could do the math and realize we had not been married long enough to have a child. A few years into our marriage I had an affair. I really do not remember a lot of the details except that I was lonely, my husband was working a lot of hours to keep food on the table and my go-to behavior was guys. I told my husband about it and we immediately called the Pastor. The Pastors response was to talk about it that night and to never bring it up again. So that is what we did. WRONG..WRONG that was the worse advice EVER.
Forward a few years we moved even more south and got involved with a small Church. I felt like I had a lot to offer, so I jumped in with both feet. My resume included: Choir, Children’s Choir, VBS volunteer, Youth Group, Bible Bowl, Soccer Coach, and Fall Festival outreach coordinator. If the church doors were open we were there. The problem became that Church was a social activity not a relationship with Jesus. Even though I had this very impressive resume, I still never felt good enough to get into Heaven. I always felt there was more I needed to do so that God would forgive me for all my past.
I was a youth counselor for summer camp and I cannot tell you who was speaking or what the week was about except that the speaker said this: If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure, for sure that you will go to heaven? Because you see in the Bible it says in Matthew 7 “And on that day many will say to me: Lord, Lord did we NOT”…. and at this point, all I heard was my resume. Well before I knew it I was in the back talking with an older women who’s Bible was marked up with sticky notes and she was going through these scriptures…. all I knew was I wanted to go to Heaven….so I prayed the prayer she told me to and then I was back with the youth singing songs under the pavilion.
I came home to tell my husband what had happened and he did not believe that I had not already been a Christian and this is where our lives started to take a turn for the worse. I started listening to the Pastor at the church and because I was a new Christian I started taking everything he said as truth and did not study for myself. This church talked a lot about women submitting to their husband and my best friend even gave me a book on submission. I started losing who I was and becoming a doormat.
During this time I became very unsure of myself and my relationship with my husband took a turn for the worse. He had an affair with my best friend. I thought my life was over but through prayer, God redeemed our marriage and started the process of us living Against the Grain.
In 2003, we started a nonprofit called Advancing the Gospel. We have written a life recovery discipleship/ evangelism curriculum. To learn more about that click here to be taken to The 180 Website. Or watch this sample video of the 8-week course called New Beginnings.
I thought God was done writing my testimony and in 2011, I was the victim of a gang attack. I learned from police and clients that it was a warning to stop offering freedom to those held in bondage of abuse, addiction, and negative cycles. That attack made me even more aware of the awesome calling on my life and how serious it is to be on the front lines for Jesus. After a few months of recovery, I was back in the jails knowing that my attacker, who was never caught, may one day walk into class.
Today I feel that God has me on a journey to help people who may not know where to start to learn who He really is and break free from their past, the shame and guilt and start finding HOPE.
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