A Mother and an Addict. One woman’s journey from the pit of destruction to the path of glory…
Clara came to the Mission angry. Angry at herself. She had failed her children. She’d failed God. Addictions had overcome her life and she’d lost almost everything that she cared most about. “I saw myself going down a dark path,” Clara remembers. “Down a path that I didn’t like.”
Her children had been taken away ten years ago. The verdict: an unfit mother. She’d burned bridges with her children, some of whom now had children of their own. Her first weeks at the Mission were spent in pity, with Clara frustrated that she’d lost her children – and now her grandchildren – to her addictions. She was lonely and her life was slipping away.
As the weeks passed, and the season changed, Clara’s attitude began to change too. An angry and self-focused woman, Clara lived in community and learned to let other people into her life and into her heart. “Living in community is a big part of my change,” Clara says. “I’ve experienced the love of God through other people. I’m so grateful for the accountability.”
Clara is learning to rely on God. She’s starting to trust other people — and herself. And she’s able to see something clearly for the first time in a long time — the future. “God is changing me,” Clara says today. “I didn’t think I could change.”
God has also been doing something else in Clara’s life these past many months. He’s been working to restore the relationship between Clara and her son Robert. Robert, his wife Fa, and their two sons came to the Mission three months after Clara (read their story below). The relationship was initially fractured, but God has been knitting the family back together slowly.
“I praise God for that restoration,” Clara says. “God has a way of working things out. I anticipate a day when our relationship is fully restored.”
Your support makes life change possible for grandmothers like Clara. When you give to the Mission, you help break the cycle of generational poverty and addiction. Thank you!
