Eboni never knew her father and always felt the void of not having his love. Although uncles and older brothers did their best to help raise her, it wasn’t enough. “With the awareness that he wasn’t in my life, I sought love in other places,” she says. And through the years, her search drew her into destructive relationships, exacerbated by substance abuse and homelessness. When her mother passed away, she was devastated. She rekindled her [...]

From the time he was little, Jermaine knew God was calling him to ministry. But so many traumas happened during those early years that the calling was drowned out. Jermaine had a safe place he’d go to escape, the space under the stairs where he surrounded himself with the things he loved. His father couldn’t love him because he didn’t stay around to know him. His mother couldn’t love him because she was an addict. [...]

“The Mission gave me a place to trust God.” André – like a lot of teenagers – began using drugs early in life. As an adult, however, his destructive habits landed him in prison. When he was released, he experienced a season of sobriety. But when his marriage fell apart, so did André. “I felt depressed, abandoned, and alone,” he says. He turned to what was familiar to deal with the pain, but the drugs [...]

“I’ve been running for way too long.” Markita grew up in a Christian home; her mother was a minister. But after being sexually assaulted in high school, she lost sight of God – and suppressed her feelings of anguish and shame. She moved on with her life, earning two college degrees and starting a family. But when her 14-year marriage began to crumble, the distress of her past came rushing back, and she turned to [...]