Participants:
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000246A
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00:01 What would you do if you are strung out on drugs
00:03 and headed down the wrong road in life? 00:05 Stay tuned to see 00:07 how God turned our guest's life around. 00:10 My name is Yvonne Lewis-Shelton 00:12 and you are watching Urban Report. 00:38 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report. 00:41 My guest today is Debra Hughes, 00:43 a woman with a great testimony of God's goodness in her life. 00:47 Welcome to Urban Report, Debra. 00:50 Thank you, thank you for having me. 00:52 You know, I met you when I was in Cleveland, 00:55 and I spoke at a wonderful church there, 00:59 and you came up to me at the end of the service 01:03 and we talked 01:04 and you shared a little bit of your testimony with me. 01:07 And it was like, 01:09 "Okay, we have got to share 01:11 this testimony on Dare to Dream." 01:13 I really love for people, for our Urban Report viewers 01:17 to hear what God has done in our lives. 01:23 And we all have a testimony, 01:25 so today we are gonna talk about yours. 01:28 Okay, so tell us 01:30 where you were born and where you grew up. 01:33 I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. 01:37 In another little part of Youngstown 01:40 which was Camels and other cities, 01:42 smallest city in the whole area, 01:44 I grew up there. 01:47 I was not necessarily say we were raised in a church, 01:50 but I come from a divorced family. 01:53 And once my father and mother got a divorce, 01:56 then we weren't going to church anymore. 01:58 But I would go whenever 01:59 I was old enough to start going on my own 02:03 and I didn't go all the time. 02:04 I would just go sometime, you know, now and then 02:07 take my little sister, another little girl, 02:10 that was my sister's age, 02:11 we would go often on days we want. 02:14 Now, were you 02:15 a Seventh-day Adventist Christian 02:16 or were you of another denomination? 02:19 Well, I was Baptist in those days 02:21 and I didn't know nothing about being a Christian, 02:24 I didn't know what it meant. 02:25 I just went to church because you are supposed to go. 02:27 Okay, okay. 02:28 And so you came out of a broken home situation. 02:33 Your dad was gone, 02:35 and so your mom was raising you and your sister alone? 02:39 No, I have three brothers. 02:42 Well, one half brother, two brothers, 02:44 and I have two sisters. 02:47 And basically, 02:48 you know my father wasn't out of our lives, 02:50 he was very present. 02:52 We would go up there, 02:53 I would go up and stay with him, 02:55 say summertime, for some of the summer, 02:58 on all of our holidays 03:01 and my brother would live with him off and on, 03:03 my sister would live with him off and on, 03:04 but my mother was my basic caregiver. 03:08 So you basically were staying at home. 03:12 Your brother and sister kind of stayed with your dad 03:14 from time to time, 03:16 but you stayed more with your mom. 03:18 Yes. 03:19 At what point did, when you were in high school, 03:22 what happened when you were in high school? 03:24 How were your high school years? 03:27 I was bad. 03:29 I got really good grades in school. 03:32 Kind of attention deficit, so I bored very easily, 03:36 so I do things to keep me excited. 03:38 I got a lot of spankings when I was a little girl, 03:40 and my grandmother gave great whooping, 03:43 so I didn't do them again. 03:45 But I was very creative, 03:47 I created new things to get into. 03:49 So one time I was in high school, 03:51 once I got to be 15 and so, I started, 03:54 you know, I had already been drinking, 03:57 just sneaking alcohol around in my mom's, 04:00 with my mom's friends 04:02 were over and out and I was a little girl, 04:04 I would sneak some beer 04:05 because, you know, I always liked to taste them. 04:07 I didn't like to taste the whisky, 04:09 but I would drink it. 04:11 You know, because you know, we had so many dysfunctions 04:14 that went on in our family, you know, we had. 04:16 And then we had, 04:18 you know, molestations, you know people, 04:22 just men in general that always seem to like me. 04:26 And I always thought of myself as a bad little girl, 04:30 and that was my prayer all the time, 04:33 "God, just make a good little girl." 04:35 But, it seemed as I got older, I got more and more rebellious. 04:38 Well, let's go back, 04:40 because this is something I wasn't aware of. 04:42 So, how old were you when the molestation started? 04:48 I believe I was six to seven years old. 04:50 Six or seven years old, and did you blame yourself, 04:54 you thought that you were a bad girl? 04:55 Yes, they blamed me. 04:58 They said it wouldn't happen if was a better little girl. 05:00 Well, I didn't never know what it was I was doing 05:03 that was making these people bother me. 05:06 I guess that was just their excuse 05:08 for what they were doing to me 05:09 and I would never talk about that with my mom. 05:12 So, your mom didn't know? No. 05:14 So, who knew that you were being molested? 05:19 Nobody, it was a secret. 05:21 So, just the molester and you? Right. 05:23 And was it someone in your family 05:25 or a trusted friend? 05:28 Trusted friend and a family member. 05:30 So, this started when you were six or seven 05:34 and that's when you started feeling 05:36 that you were a bad girl. 05:39 Yes, I felt. 05:40 Isn't that sad that those seeds are planted 05:45 and children don't realize that this is not their fault. 05:50 They are victims, you were a victim. 05:52 And yet you began to feel like, 05:55 I must be doing something wrong. 05:57 It's got to be something bad about me 06:00 that would make them do this to me. 06:03 It's so sad that it wasn't you, you were a victim. 06:07 And let me tell you this, 06:09 I had a friend whose mother was abused by her boy friend. 06:15 So he called her one day and said he was coming over 06:18 'cause he was gonna jump on her, 06:20 and she waited for him. 06:21 When she got there, when he got there, 06:24 she shot him and killed him. 06:26 She had to go to jail and that was one reasons 06:28 I never talked to my mother 06:30 'cause I knew how much my mother loved me. 06:32 She would have defended me, 06:34 and I was going to keep my mother. 06:36 Oh! 06:37 So you were afraid that if you told your mom, 06:42 that she would do something to the molester's 06:44 that would take her away from you. 06:47 Yes, her or my grandmother who was the maternal, 06:52 the maternal of our family. 06:53 Yeah, your maternal of her mother, 06:55 yeah, the matriarch of your family. 06:58 Yes. Yeah. 06:59 Between the two of them, I was afraid. 07:03 So, oh man! 07:05 So you kept it to yourself 07:08 but you began to kind of act out? 07:11 Is this when you started acting out, so early on... 07:16 Yes. 07:17 If it started at six and seven, you started drinking, 07:20 when did you start sneaking these little drinks? 07:24 Oh, anywhere between seven, eight years old, 07:26 you know, I would drink. 07:28 I would drink 07:29 just so I wouldn't hear them come in my room 07:31 if that was gonna happen. 07:33 Sometimes they didn't bother, they didn't do it all the time. 07:36 And, you know, I also had another girl 07:39 that would lived to next door to us 07:41 that always caught me in ugly things, 07:43 so my self esteem was very, very low, very low. 07:47 And my mother used to always tell me, 07:48 I was beautiful, 07:49 but you know she was my mother, she's gonna say that anyway. 07:52 So it took me a long time to overcome that 07:55 and that's part of the down. 07:57 Isn't it interesting too, Debra, 08:00 how as little girls how we internalize 08:04 what's being told to us. 08:06 So we think we are bad, 08:08 or we think that we are not pretty, 08:10 or we don't like our nose, or we don't like our lips, 08:13 or we don't like whatever it is. 08:16 That's right. 08:17 And those thoughts just get buried into you 08:22 so that choices that you make reflect 08:25 those beliefs about ourselves 08:28 and that's such a tough place to be. 08:31 So six or seven you started getting molested, 08:36 and then around seven, eight, 08:39 you started drinking here and there, here and there. 08:43 So by the time you were 13 or 14 08:48 what was going on with you? 08:50 Well, by then, you know, I would still... 08:55 You know, I started hanging around with the girls 08:57 that were all experienced in more alcohol 09:00 than anything else. 09:02 And, but we had another friend 09:04 that was with us whose sister sold drugs, 09:07 so every now and then she would come up 09:08 with different kinds of pills 09:10 and we would be in school taking them. 09:13 So between that and alcohol, and we be at school, 09:17 and skipping school to go out and drink 09:19 and, you know, comeback to school half drunk 09:22 and may be getting kicked out 09:24 and all, I just thought we was pretty wild bunch 09:27 and, you know, I felt good about myself. 09:31 I felt good about myself 09:32 because I was hanging around with the wild bunch. 09:35 And I got was wild just like them, very wild. 09:38 And, you know, my mother was pretty much 09:43 the type of person that allowed us to go 09:46 as long as we took care of our home business. 09:49 You know, whatever chores we have to do, 09:51 our grades were pretty good or good, 09:54 then we were allowed to go and experience life 09:58 as far as just go to the little dances 10:00 and go to the parties, we were allowed to do that. 10:03 so me and my crowd, we were pretty wild then. 10:07 And was your mother seeing this change in you, 10:11 does she know that you were experimenting 10:13 with these pills and alcohol by this time? 10:18 She never mentioned it, so I didn't think so, 10:20 you know, 'cause by the time we get home at night 10:24 she's already gone to bed. 10:25 So, you know, you just had to really going upstairs 10:28 and falling in bed anyway. 10:30 So, what was your rock bottom? 10:35 Basically, my rock bottom was really sick 10:39 and tired of being sick and tired. 10:41 You know, I grew up, I was in two marriages. 10:44 Both marriages were bad and they were both abusive. 10:50 But I stabbed my first husband 10:53 and I didn't feel remorse about it. 10:55 But what happened, why did you stab him? 10:59 Because he laughed at me. 11:02 Go ahead, explain it. He laughed at me. 11:05 He was talking about something 11:06 and we were arguing and something, 11:08 and he had one of the little sligh remarks 11:11 and he laughed, like that. 11:13 And I grabbed a pair of scissors 11:14 and threw them at him. 11:16 So at that point, you didn't have, 11:19 let's just say anger management 11:21 was not one of your strong point. 11:24 None, none. No anger management. 11:27 I was very quick to get angry 11:29 because, you know, when you realize, 11:33 and I didn't realize these things 11:34 until I came into recovery, 11:36 that I was so mad at myself and I didn't like me. 11:40 And so, 11:42 you now, I was taking it out on everybody. 11:44 Everything that I blamed myself for, 11:46 I was taking it out on everybody else on the world. 11:49 And at this point, when you stabbed your husband, 11:53 were you strung out on heavy drugs 11:55 or were you still doing alcohol and pills? 11:58 Where were you? No, we did, I did pills. 12:00 By that time I probably 12:02 wasn't even doing pills anymore. 12:04 I was, because it took a while after him 12:07 before I started getting back in to 12:09 all those psychedelics and stuff. 12:12 Back then I was just drinking and I am not gonna say 12:14 I was drinking the day I threw those scissors at him. 12:17 But you know, it doesn't take, I mean. 12:19 Once you have been chemically bound 12:23 to all these different substances, 12:25 they're still in your body, 12:26 that you still reacting to them. 12:29 So whether you have been drinking 12:31 that particular day or not you still probably 12:34 had all that stuff in your body 12:36 which impacts your mind and all that so, 12:38 and you didn't have Jesus yet. 12:40 No, I didn't. You didn't have Jesus yet. 12:43 And I'd always say 12:44 that I would never hurt any man again, 12:49 and call him my man. 12:53 And so, go ahead, so what happened? 12:55 And that got in to my second husband 12:58 who really controlled me. 13:02 Because, since I called him my man, 13:04 oh, he took over and he took me hostage. 13:08 So you went from one situation 13:11 where it was a bad marriage to like the flame, 13:15 from the frying pan in to the fire so to speak. 13:17 That's right. 13:19 And to another one where you were just controlled 13:22 by this husband. 13:23 Right. So, this was abusive. 13:25 Was he physically abusive as well? 13:28 Physical, emotional, mental, 13:32 now let me tell you, 13:33 it was some good times, we really had good times. 13:36 But that's when we were smoking Marijuana 13:40 or doing some drugs. 13:42 Whenever we weren't using, 13:43 I never knew what kind of mood he was going to be in. 13:46 Sometimes if I could see him coming here from work 13:49 'cause he had his own business, he was a good provider. 13:52 And if he had his own business and I see him 13:54 with a look on his face before he came in the house, 13:58 I was sure to get kids out of the back door 14:02 and we go running get in the car 14:04 and go out for a while. 14:05 By the time we come back, he might be in the better mood. 14:07 He was the same as me, triggered by anything. 14:10 So if work didn't go well for him, 14:13 he come home and I might hear about that. 14:16 So I tried to find ways to escape, 14:19 you know, it wasn't always easy. 14:21 Yeah. It wasn't always pretty. 14:23 So you know 14:24 it was so many times when it was just so bad 14:27 and that, you know, your children are going 14:29 through that too 14:30 because you find out later on in life 14:32 how they wish that you weren't there, 14:35 we didn't stay there anymore. 14:37 Although they loved their father 14:38 they didn't like being with there with him because of, 14:41 you know, because of mommy. 14:43 Absolutely. 14:45 You get whooped with a belt and stuff, 14:47 just right in front of them. 14:48 Yeah, there are so many women 14:50 who are caught up into abusive relationships 14:56 who don't really know what to do and feel like, 15:00 you know, there is this whole cycle of abuse. 15:03 So, the person's not abusive necessarily 24/7, 15:09 he could be abusive today 15:12 and then not abusive for a week, 15:15 two weeks, three weeks, a month whatever, 15:17 but there is this honeymoon cycle, 15:19 it's a cycle. 15:20 So everything is great 15:22 and then there is the tension building cycle where, like, 15:25 when you saw him coming in looking like 15:28 he might go off, you left 15:32 because, that was, 15:33 you knew that anything could trigger. 15:36 So it's like you are stuck and there is so many women 15:41 who feels stuck and people on the outside say, 15:44 "Why don't you just leave, but why don't you," 15:46 but it's not that easy, it's not that easy. 15:49 No, because you get used to stuff like. 15:51 Okay, if you leave, you better not take my kids. 15:53 And if you take my kids, 15:55 I am gonna find you and I am gonna kill you. 15:56 And I remember leaving one day 15:58 and going across the street and stand at this girls house 16:01 that were constantly hiding me 16:03 and he walked up and down 16:04 the neighborhood with his shotgun, you know. 16:08 So I knew, he is like and they tell anybody, 16:10 "tell her, if she comes back, if she don't come back home, 16:13 I am gonna shoot all of these children." 16:14 That's what he says, stuff like that. 16:16 So I go home, 16:17 you know, and he would be great with me 16:19 until it was time again, 16:20 you know, remember when that time came, 16:22 that's the way it was. 16:24 So, how did you get away from him, 16:27 and how did you find Jesus? 16:31 We both went to recovery. 16:34 You know, he spent a lot of money getting high, 16:36 and in those days I didn't know, 16:38 it was the disease or addiction. 16:39 I am thinking, 16:41 it's just spending too much money 16:42 and you need to go get some help. 16:44 Not that I needed to get some, just so you know, 16:46 but he did go and get some help. 16:48 And when he went to go get some help, 16:50 he was doing all right. 16:52 He went in to recovery about three weeks before I did. 16:55 But because of the fact that he was doing so well that, 16:58 he was changing, 17:00 I wanted to go too, I better go. 17:02 Well, I didn't like I wanted to go, 17:04 it some girl called him and asked him for a ride, 17:06 that's how I got in there. 17:09 He told her, he said, 17:10 'Okay baby, I will pick you up.' 17:12 Well the baby part didn't bothered me, 17:13 cause he called everybody baby, 17:15 that I will pick you up had me dressing too. 17:17 Oh! Okay. 17:19 So I want to a meeting, 17:21 the first time in my life and I was bored to hear, 17:23 I didn't understand what it was I was looking for. 17:25 And these women gave me a bunch of numbers 17:27 to call and stuff but I didn't call. 17:29 And when I left that meeting that day, 17:30 I went and got a beer. 17:32 I didn't relapse, I just didn't quit 17:33 'cause I didn't know what was, 17:35 I thought I was okay 'cause I went to a meeting. 17:39 A couple weeks later or a week later, 17:41 I decided to go on my own 17:42 and try this thing called recovery, just try. 17:45 It wasn't easy, I didn't go into rehab, 17:48 I didn't have the insurance to go into rehab, 17:51 so I had to call Churky get at home 17:53 and go to a meeting everyday, just go to meetings, 17:55 go to meetings and suffer every night. 17:58 This guy next door to us sold alcohol, he sold drugs, 18:01 and I wanted to go over there so bad. 18:03 I would lock myself in the room, 18:05 I would rock in my bed at night. 18:06 And he told me, "Pray every night. 18:08 In the morning pray for the obsession to go away 18:12 and at night, 18:14 thank God for taking the obsession for the day." 18:16 So I was praying in the morning and praying in the night. 18:18 When you know, you go to a meeting, 18:20 you hippy would bring up God, you think, "Oh, shoot. 18:23 Oh, no, I did not talk about God." 18:25 Hell, I know He don't have nothing to do with me, 18:27 He is not going to do nothing for me 18:29 'cause He don't like me," you know. 18:31 But I did what they said 18:33 because I was so scared in everything 18:35 and this is what I did. 18:36 I started learning day by day 18:38 that if this is what He is doing 18:40 and he doing it in another day, He going to do this. 18:43 So I thought of having to believe 18:45 that He was doing this everyday. 18:46 I had never done it before. 18:48 I didn't know 18:49 that I could pray to stay clean, 18:50 but just by praying I am staying clean. 18:54 I heard my husband say in a meeting one time 18:56 that he would let nothing stop his recovery, 18:59 even if he had to leave his family 19:01 and I am thinking, "Leave me." 19:04 Well, now that he is getting better 19:05 he is not gonna leave me. 19:07 So I started being worried that he was going to leave me, 19:10 but you know that's just the way 19:12 that it turns out. 19:13 He is still clean today 19:17 but his actions started going back 19:19 to some old behaviors. 19:21 Now I know Lord 19:24 and when He says something about jumping on me, 19:26 I thought you ain't got to do nothing. 19:29 And then, when he raised hand to hit me I said, 19:32 "Put your hand down," and he did. 19:35 And my faith in God just zoomed 19:39 but it didn't, you know, it still was a, 19:41 it was still a beginning for me. 19:43 You know, learning for him to keep me this way 19:46 on at one day at a time basis. 19:49 And I was asking him everyday and he was doing it everyday. 19:52 But then this girl came in and ask me to be her sponsor, 19:55 to sponsor her through the 12 steps 19:57 and I was working up with my sponsor, 19:59 I thought of helping her. 20:01 And somebody else came in and asked me, 20:03 somebody came in and asked me, 20:04 people started asking me more 20:06 and more as I was staying clean. 20:08 For I knew that I had 45, 50 people 20:10 I was sponsoring, 20:11 and I was using everybody to sponsor each other. 20:14 And we was using this prayer, everything that they ask me, 20:17 I would say, "What would Jesus do?" 20:19 And I brought everybody them little bracelets 20:21 that had that WWJD on it, 20:24 so they take and ask themselves that, you know. 20:27 But as I did this, I started reading my bible, 20:30 I started reading all of the Ellen G White books. 20:33 She was introducing me to concepts about God 20:36 that I had never ever even known. 20:38 You know, she is the one that taught me my bible. 20:42 How did you get introduced to Ellen White books? 20:47 I was already in Seventh-day Adventist. 20:49 My mother became a Seventh-day Adventist 20:51 when I was 15 or 14. 20:54 And every now and then I would go to church with her. 20:58 But once a day told me 21:00 'cause I have been baptized before, 21:01 but I got baptized in the Baptist church 21:03 because think you supposed to do that. 21:08 So we got to get baptized cause we have to get baptized. 21:11 But, when I started going to church with, 21:13 you know, going to my mom's church 21:15 every now and then I got convinced 21:16 on the Sabbath day. 21:18 So, I said, "Well, I need to be in this church," 21:21 because Sabbath day is the day, so I am going here. 21:25 And so I started going there and I eventually stayed there 21:28 or just stayed there. 21:31 Did you get re-baptized? Did you get baptized? 21:34 I got re-baptized three times or twice, yes. 21:40 Because you know, once I came in to recovery, 21:43 I got re-baptized 21:45 but I wasn't in recovery when I was re-baptized. 21:48 It wasn't, I got baptized again when I knew the Lord 21:51 because all my old days, the old behaviors, 21:55 the stuff that goes along with using drugs. 22:00 My body was dirty and I wanted my body, my mind, 22:03 and everything clean. 22:05 And when they put me under that water, 22:07 I saw this Garden up under there, 22:09 all these pretty flowers, 22:11 that's what I saw with my eyes closed. 22:13 And it's like wow, 22:14 heaven is just made up of everybody. 22:16 And then you know, 22:18 and I, I was always afraid of being dipped in the water, 22:22 because I couldn't swim that well, 22:25 so I was always afraid I would drown up under. 22:28 When he put me under 22:29 that I felt like I can hold my breath forever. 22:32 It is just a whole new feeling. 22:35 It is so amazing to, you know, you go down, 22:39 they call it in the water of grave, 22:40 you go down 22:42 and you are unclean and you come up 22:44 and your sins have been washed away. 22:47 Baptism is the most beautiful, amazing thing. 22:50 It's a feeling you can't even describe, 22:53 you can't even describe it. 22:54 It's so, you feel so clean because you are clean, 22:59 because all your sins have been washed away, 23:02 and you are starting fresh clean slate, 23:04 with God cleaned. 23:07 That's right, and when you go in to the rooms of recovery 23:10 they tell you they are going to help you 23:12 get a new way of life. 23:14 Well I didn't know what that meant. 23:16 A new way of life was just now using. 23:19 If I am not using drugs that's the new way of life 23:21 but that's not what it is at all. 23:23 It's just like Christianity, it's a new way of life. 23:26 Now, we have a God given program 23:28 and we start to acting like, 23:30 the things that God teach us are the ways 23:33 that we are supposed to be learning 23:34 how to carry our self. 23:36 It takes a while 'cause recovery is like, 23:38 it didn't take me overnight to become an addict, 23:41 it definitely didn't was gonna take me 23:42 overnight to be different. 23:43 Something people think that, "Okay, now I am in church, 23:46 I am okay," but no, I am still so full of stuff. 23:50 Twenty five years later, they are still stuffing me. 23:53 It ain't as bad as it was 23:54 but it still stuff that I know that He is still working on me. 23:57 I am a work in progress and now, 23:59 before it was little Band-Aid things, now it goes. 24:03 That's beautiful. God says, I got to cut you. 24:05 It's been 25 years since you have been clean. 24:08 Praise God! That's right. 24:10 What are you doing now? 24:11 We only have a few minutes left. 24:12 What are you doing now? 24:14 Well, I have a book, it's called Me and My Husband, 24:17 it's called the Uncompromised Truth, 24:20 and it is uncompromised truth. 24:22 You know, we talk about things in there that's in the bible 24:26 that we back it up with Bible scripture. 24:28 So, you know, you can get it on Amazon and stuff. 24:32 I am also women's Ministry leader now 24:34 that was so amazing to me. 24:36 You know, I held a lot of programs in, 24:38 I mean a lot of positions in the program of recovery. 24:41 I have spoken in so many different states 24:44 and so many different conventions and stuff, 24:46 as far as my life from what it was, 24:48 even in London and England, I have been over there too. 24:51 But, the amazing part is, 24:57 you know, having positions, 25:00 secretary, General Service Representative. 25:02 But coming home and somebody calling me 25:04 and asking me if I would be the Women's Ministry Leader. 25:07 Well, first thing I said was, "No, no. 25:09 I can't do that. 25:11 No way, I won't know what to do." 25:12 They said, "Well, you sponsored all those women, 25:14 we thought you might could do this." 25:16 And I had just asked the Lord 25:17 because I was back in Youngstown from Alabama. 25:20 And I asked Him, I said, "What am I doing here?" 25:23 I said, "I am not dong anything. 25:24 I am not being used in any way Lord 25:26 and I wish you would use me." 25:28 And so when they asked me 25:30 that which was about five days later and I said no. 25:33 And I said, "I can't do that." 25:34 and I said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute." 25:37 I said, "I just asked God," I said, 25:38 "I am gonna have to say yeah, I'm gonna have to say, yeah." 25:41 And that was like, 25:42 this is my fourth year doing this 25:45 and so, you know, it's not so... 25:48 God is amazing. Yes. 25:52 He is amazing. 25:53 I mean, every single day, everyday, 25:57 because I will never know what's next. 25:59 But we have a third step that says, 26:02 'Made a decision that turn my will and my life 26:05 over to the care of God as I understand him." 26:08 Once I have got on understanding 26:10 of who He is, 26:12 I realized I turned my will and life 26:14 over to my understanding of Him 26:16 and I believed that everything that happens 26:19 in my life is supposed to happen. 26:21 So I deal with it when it comes. 26:23 I don't get mad and get upset because it's there. 26:25 But sometimes, I will be, then I will say, 26:27 "Okay, Lord, you want me to do this." 26:31 I came home from Alabama and I was homeless, 26:35 20 years clean and homeless. 26:38 And I stayed with a couple but I wasn't happy there 26:43 because you know you started to thinking 26:44 that you are in their way. 26:46 And my son had a home, 26:48 but they were not living in an apartment, 26:49 so they didn't have room for me So what I had to do... 26:54 You got like 50 seconds to tell me what you did. 26:57 Tell us what you did. Okay. 26:58 I reads this book and it was and it said something about, 27:01 "Tell God what you want," 27:03 and I said, "God, I need a home." 27:05 And my friend came and said, "I got a place for you" 27:07 and she gave me a place to stay, 27:09 where I, it's just my own little room 27:11 in a homeless shelter 27:13 and I stayed there for like five months 27:15 and got my own place 27:17 and that's what happened. 27:22 You know, we have plans, I have plans for, 27:26 to open up a place for offenders to come here 27:30 when they get released to come and learn a new way of life. 27:33 Praise the Lord! I believe in everything. 27:35 I believe everything 27:36 what happened if you dare to dream. 27:38 All right. 27:40 And what, you know what, 27:41 how can we end on a better note than that. 27:43 Dare to dream, give your heart to Jesus, 27:46 and He will make a way for you. 27:47 Thank you so much sister Debra 27:49 for sharing your testimony with us. 27:51 We so appreciate it, and thank you for watching. 27:55 We reached the end of another program. 27:57 Join us next time, 'cause you know what, 27:59 it just wouldn't be the same without you. |
Revised 2024-04-23