We often find ourselves swallowed up inside our own despair. The weights that often come, heavy, and bearing down on us, without announcement and without mercy can sometimes take us by surprise and often knock us off our feet. It's during these times where you question reality. Question life. Question the people around you. But it's not until you lift your head and realize that with each new sunset, if you're fortunate enough to still have your breath in you're body, there's hope. There's a chance for something new and something different to completely transform your life.
Around 2007, after years of verbal abuse, my mother finally drew the last straw and decided that life with my father was no longer possible. The transition made me realize that its not a tri-level house with all its furnishings, land, and luxuries that make life pleasurable but peace. And love. And joy.
It was soon after that I too was kicked out of the abode I called a home and for the first time ever... face reality. Grow up. Take the reins of my life.
I went from home to home with simply a bag a clothes and some bare necessities. I even spent a while sleeping in my mothers rented room where, weeks prior, I was refused by my own kin because I didn't have any money. I didn't have a job. Yet, I was a sophomore in college and refused to drop out. Refused to give up.
Ironically, though everything had turned against me, I had peace. I'd be remiss not to mention that it was God's peace. Somehow I knew without any proof that everything would be ok and this would only be for a short season in my life. Something I would grow from. Something that I could learn from.
No one had the answer for me. No one seemed to be able to offer any source of help. Even if they really wanted to. For me, it was only God. It was only God who could have touched the hearts of the administrators of my university to add me on as a Resident Assistant. Just as abruptly as everything had transpired, everything threaded itself back together. All of sudden I had not just one job but three. And free housing. At first I had nothing. No food, no dishes... but hearts were touched. The church I attended gave out free bags of food on Sundays and a women that I worked with gave me all her additional/unwanted dishes and pots. Everything came together. I never wanted for anything through the whole situation. I always had food to eat even if it was given to me at the last minute on a whim. I always had a place to lay my head even if it was on a clutter floor next to someone else. I never had to lay on a street corner...Thankfully...
It was through this experience that I realized something had to give. Something had to change within our society. Our Father had called us to love one another yet I couldn't even stay with my own family for free when I needed it. Finally I felt an actual true and understanded passion for the tens of homeless people I passed by on the street corners on way to school everyday. And it was this that planted its first seedlings in my heart to start Alliance For Change Outreach Ministries.
As I looked over the pictures following the castastrophe of the Haiti earthquakes and reading the articles I couldn't even fathom what it may have been like for one's life to take such a drastic turn in a simple moments passing. I did however know that I definitely wanted to reach out in whatever way I could.
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