The Maggie Wynn Podcast
Overcomer, walking in freedom, healing from past hurts, and trauma. Walking in Forgiveness, grace and mercy. https://maggiewynn.com/FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=547354566IG: Overcomer_Wif
The Maggie Wynn Podcast
From Trap Houses to God's House: The Unexpected Detour That Saved My Life
What happens when someone whose life has been shattered by trauma and addiction encounters the transformative power of faith? Christina's testimony will take you on an extraordinary journey from the depths of brokenness to profound purpose.
Raised by a mother caught in prostitution and drug addiction, Christina was forced to become a caretaker at age seven when her mother abandoned her and her siblings. This early responsibility fostered survival instincts that would prove crucial later in life, though her path first led through the darkness of gang involvement, drug dealing, heroin addiction, and dangerous criminal activities.
The turning point came unexpectedly when someone who had recently found faith boldly called Christina out of a trap house, telling her Jesus had a plan for her life. Though she had no religious background, this encounter led her to a women's outreach program where her transformation began—a journey that would take three attempts to complete.
Christina shares a powerful metaphor that perfectly captures the limited perspective of those trapped in brokenness: like looking through fragments of a shattered mirror, we can only see pieces of ourselves, never the whole picture. This limited vision keeps many trapped in destructive cycles, unable to recognize their true identity or potential.
Today, Christina ministers in prisons weekly, teaching "Breaking Free" and "Overcomers" classes. She regularly serves homeless communities, bringing hundreds of sandwiches and essential supplies to those living in encampments. Her upcoming book, "Masterpiece of Broken Pieces," will detail her journey from addiction and rejection to wholeness.
The most inspiring aspect of Christina's story is her refusal to remain trapped in a victim mentality despite experiencing severe childhood trauma. Instead, she embodies the "beauty for ashes" exchange described in Scripture—her past transformed into a testimony that helps others find freedom from their own brokenness. As she powerfully states, "When everyone else walks out of your life, God walks in."
Ready to begin your own journey of healing? Connect with Christina's ministry and discover how brokenness can become the very foundation for a purposeful, transformed life.
Christina, I know that you've been doing prison ministry. How often do you go to the prison?
Speaker 2:I go every Saturday. I do two units. On Saturdays I do the Marlin unit and the Hobby unit. I teach a class called Breaking Free at the Marlin unit and I teach a class called Overcomers. I was doing Experiencing God with the G4s, but now I'm doing the Overcomers there at the Hobby Unit. And then on Sundays I do a variety of wherever God has opened the door. This last Sunday we were at the Ferguson. Actually we were going to be doing three prisons. We did the Ferguson Unit, the Ferguson Trustee Camp, and then we were headed to the Wainwright, but unfortunately we didn't get to get in the Wainwright. And this Sunday I'll be taking a break and be in my church to be refreshed, you know, just to take care of some personal things within my own personal life, and then the following Sunday I will be back into the prison.
Speaker 2:I come from a lifestyle of brokenness.
Speaker 2:My mom was a prostitute and a drug addict and in that she raised us, you know, I guess the best of her capabilities, of what she had.
Speaker 2:She was a broken young lady herself and at the age of seven well, even in that, with being with my mom, you know, I had to look out for my brother and my sister, and I think I really, truly believe that God gave me the instincts then to be able to take care of both myself, my sister and my brother. And once she abandoned us with my dad at the age of seven, where I no longer was a child, I had to become another and I began to really take care of my brothers and sisters, because my dad was caught up in a lifestyle of womanizing, was really a lot of times wasn't in the home, so we were left the majority of the time by ourselves, and it was the grace of God that gave me the ability to be able to think and be able to provide and be able to find ways to get food, ways to make money, ways to get the help that we needed so that we could survive.
Speaker 1:Because you don't think about those things when you're in that moment, right. And so I think for some people they don't even realize they probably need healing right? Yeah, because we don't need healing until when.
Speaker 2:I believe when you hit rock bottom and when you begin to realize that all the, all the things and the, the party, and the drugs, the men, women, whatever it is that you're involved in runs out, when that all runs out and you begin to find yourself still empty, then you begin to realize, like, what am I doing here?
Speaker 2:And I believe that the reason why we can't see it when we're in that lifestyle is because we're actually in a broken state within ourself. And when you're broken, if you've ever tried to look in a mirror that's been shattered into many pieces, you're limited at what you can see through that mirror. You might be able to look at the mirror and see a reflection of yourself, but you're not going to see yourself as a whole person. Every piece of that broken, fragmented mirror is only going to allow you to see limited space of yourself within that reflection. And I think that, spiritually speaking, that's how we are and we're in our brokenness and that's why we can't see ourselves as a whole. We can only see those limited, fragmented pieces of what the enemy has allowed us to see. Because we can't see that we're broken, because we can't see ourselves whole, we're looking through fragmented lenses that we see through whenever you came to the Lord and surrendered.
Speaker 1:I think the last time you shared about it that you spent time with the Lord and surrendered. I think the last time you shared about it that you spent time with the Lord, and that's when you were able to find your identity. You were able to find the fact that God loved you. Talk about the love of God towards you.
Speaker 2:It's Him that draws us out. The Word of God says no man come unto the Father unless drawn by the Spirit of the Lord. And I really believe that in my addiction, throughout my lifestyle, living in the brokenness that I was living, that there were times that God was trying to get my attention, but the world that I was involved in was such a huge distraction to me that I could not hear God calling me out of that, until I came to a place where I found myself empty, really empty, and hit rock bottom and I had gone through the last hall of addiction. You know come from a very broken background. Even in the church, you know, a lot of times we think that just church is the answer. In reality, that's not just the answer. That's part of the plan, yes, but just going to church doesn't make you a super Christian. There's a lot of people sitting in the church as we speak that are just broken individuals that they never grow up, they never mature in the things of God.
Speaker 2:Amen, and it was. That was my life in the beginning. Actually, in a trap house I was on heroin. I had got caught up in the lifestyle. I started out as a drug dealer, you know, of course, caught up in the gang violence when I was younger and clubbing partying and you don't see it, you're a fighter yeah, very much so, and but see, but god will take those things and turn it around for his good.
Speaker 2:You know, I might have been a fighter in the world with my hands, but now god has changed that to give me that same tenacity in the spiritual realm to fight on my knees and to fight in prayer, to fight in fasting and to fight for the souls, for the fight for those that are hurting in the lost. Amen. And in that, you know, when I came to that place, what ended up getting caught up in the gang lifestyle and got them, you know, got out of the gang, started, became it, became a drug dealer and sold a lot of drugs. And it's not to glamorize that, but that that anyone will get you caught up in that lifestyle and make you think that you're untouchable. But in reality it's just a deception and a door that'll lead to another door. And in that I began to get turned on to.
Speaker 2:I got introduced to heroin and being introduced to heroin, I became a heroin addict and began to intravenously use heroin and in doing so I began to work in the strip club and prostitute on the street to do armed robberies. We used to rob trap houses at one point and take their money and stay high for months at a time and just you know this is a crazy lifestyle, putting my life in jeopardy. But it wasn't until I went in this trap house. The very first time that somebody got saved came back to the very trap house. They used to buy drugs.
Speaker 2:And first time that somebody got saved came back to the very trap house they used to buy drugs and called me out of that trap house and said that Jesus had a plan for my life and that if I didn't respond that I would die. And at that time I didn't know who Jesus was. I had never heard the gospel, I didn't grow up in a Christian home and I actually thought that maybe it was somebody that I burned, named Jesus, you know, and a guy just looked at me like girl. You really don't know, do you? And you know I thought it was somebody I've heard you know like for some money and he took me to the Victor Outreach Women's Home and that was where the seed of salvation was planted in my heart. And a lot of times we think, because the seed is planted within our heart, that everything is all good and.
Speaker 2:I gave my life to the lord. Praise god. It's going to be all you know. Okay, from you know here.
Speaker 1:But in reality we don't realize is that we've now joined the opposite force of what we were running with and you know, one of the hardest things that I've noticed, that when people come to the lord is that and even for myself and it was it was hard for me to um, to believe that god, that it was going to be good. Yeah, because all of the things that I had done then now stepping into being, you know, going to church and trying to get healing all of those things, then you realize, wait, a minute, things are supposed to get better, but they were getting worse and then that's where we quit and we want to give up because we are so.
Speaker 1:We want that instant gratification, we want that those prayers answered right away, just because we made a decision. But I think that it comes with the faithfulness because god meets us at the very, almost, at the last minute. That's where miracles come in and the only time, the only way that we can know the power of god.
Speaker 1:I think for because the miracles are for the unbeliever and when you you come to the Lord, you come to the Lord knowing that I'm believing in you and I don't know what you're going to do now, but I'm going to trust you. But we want to see him do things instantly and it requires a trust. It's a relationship. It's a trust relationship that I may be losing this, I'm losing that things are going bad, but I trust you even in this, that if my mother and father forsake me, you will never forsake me. If this doesn't happen for me, I'm trusting you. I'm holding onto your hand that you are in total control, and so I believe that I want you to talk about that, like so tell me what were the steps or how did you know? You just could not quit.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say this a lot of times when we do quit is because, like when we're in our addictions, right, we always me, and I can speak for myself I always looked for things in my past to justify why I was doing it in my present. And that means I would look for the pains of my past to justify why I would be getting high or why I would be out in the streets. And I think that sometimes, when we come to the Lord, we almost have that same mentality. Well, I'm just going to look for a reason why God is not going to come through and why God is not going to show up. And if he doesn't, then you know what? I'm just going to throw in the towel when, in reality, when in reality it comes, with us knowing that we have to come in with a mindset saying no matter how hard it gets, I'm going to continue to move forward, because it was hard when we were on the streets. It was hard when we were in our addiction. It was hard when we lived the lifestyles that we lived, but we still didn't give up. But in Christ we have greater, you know, because he empowers us. You know when we feel, you know, I mean when I first got saved. I mean I cannot sit here and say that, oh, it was just. You know, it was awesome.
Speaker 2:And no, I went through trials and tribulations, because change is always hard. Nobody wants change. It's easy to conform and just go with the flow and the system of this world. But when you go against the system and you have to change, change the mindset, change our actions, change our responses, change the way we, you know, even the way we dress, change our appearance. That requires work, it requires intentionality. We just want to stay with what's comfortable and I can't say that for everybody. I'll just say, you know, speak from my own experience and what I've had to walk out.
Speaker 2:But it was when I got, when I, when I got out of prison I got out in 2001 and I began to evaluate and I began to think about things and I began to realize that I did not want to go back to the lifestyle of addiction. I did not want to go back to wondering where I was going to get my next high. I didn't want to go back to wondering if I was going to get evicted or I was going to get kicked out, or you know, I wanted to live a life that was better than what I had and in that it came with a full surrender. And I think a lot of times that's one of the things that's the hardest fully surrendering everything to the Lord and allowing him full control.
Speaker 2:Because when we're in the world and we're living in the lifestyles that we live in, we kind of feel a sense of control of our lives and what direction we're going. But when we step into the things of God, it's having to let go of things that we used to control and trust that he's in control. And that's one of the hardest things. But it was when I went through the Victor Outreach Women's Home for the third time. It took me three times to find it.
Speaker 1:it took me three times to finally graduate. It took me three times I went through the walk-in-off-rehab class three times.
Speaker 2:I went through. This is a one-year residential program. It took me three times to finally graduate the home, but it was the third time that I really found myself and I really believe it was a super international, a super supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit that put me in that home, because had not the Lord put me in that home, I really, truly believe that I would not be here today.
Speaker 1:Well, what about the people that don't have that intervention? What can they do? What would you advise them now if they're wanting to get out of that?
Speaker 2:Lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say, excuse me. I would say connect, get plugged into a God fearing church, get connected to a Holy Ghost filled church and get connected with men and women that are walking that walk and that way, when you are weak and you can keep transparent, it's going to take a full transparency of you being transparent, of your weaknesses, being transparent of your, your failures, being transparent about your, about you, so that they can help you unpack all that baggage of the past, unpack all those things that hinder you from from moving and advancing forward, so that you can be safe. I've always heard this. You know, if I want to be a business owner and I've never owned a business well, I'm going to put myself in position around people that are business owners and are successful because they know that way, they've walked that way, they've gone through the pitfalls, they've made the mistakes, they've, you know, had to overcome whatever they've had to overcome to be successful. So I want to be next to somebody.
Speaker 2:If I want to walk somewhere in the things of God, then I would put myself with someone that's been successful, someone that's walking it out, someone that's genuine, someone that's not just putting a front so that they're in front of me, but someone that's transparent 24 seven and they've made themselves available so that that way you know, when I have a need or I need somebody to talk to before I make that mistake, that I can talk to them and they can pray for me and they can encourage you know, encourage you, um, so that that way, when you're in those times where you feel like giving up and throwing in the towel, but know that if you have found yourself in that position where you do throw in the towel, you know what the Word of God says that a righteous man falls seven times and he gets back up.
Speaker 2:My advice to you is to dust yourself off and get right back up. Dust yourself off and get right back up. It doesn't matter how many times it takes you. You need to continue to get up and dust yourself off and get back up.
Speaker 1:Where is your home church?
Speaker 2:Casa de mi Gloria. Do they?
Speaker 1:offer ministry for people that are wanting to be set free.
Speaker 2:They offer two things. It's the healing room. Yes, the healing room is those that have trauma situations of the past or maybe you feel oppressed or you feel like there's strongholds in your life. You are more than welcome to show up at 3818 Lawler road, uh 7 PM. They have a deliverance class, healing and deliverance classroom where they can go back there, and they have individuals that are part of the prayer team that will help pray through that. And well, I just taught that at the Marlin unit.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I teach the Breaking Free class and that was the actual class of our last week and I was so excited to share it with the women because there was so much to be played out in that because, actually, tamar was raped by her half-brother, amnon, and he had tricked her. He had tricked her to come in. He had a lustful passion for her and he was, you know, faking that. He was sick and had her come in to serve him and he put her in a position of vulnerability where she did not know that she was being set up. And a lot of times that, you know, exemplifies our life and things that have happened to us that we didn't have no control of, but we were stripped of our innocence. You know she was. It says that when you read there, it says that she was David's daughter. So, represented, the robe that she had on represented that she was the daughter of a king. And how many women know that? We are the daughter of a king? Young men, you are the the son of a king and you know it could be vice versa. It's not just a woman's story. But you see that she was the daughter of a king and she had went in to serve her brother, unknowingly, knowing what he was going to do to her, and he ended up raping her and in in that rape she was begging him not to throw her out because in that custom she would never be able to marry. So he not only raped her of her innocence, but he also raped her of her future, of what she thought would be her future. And what was most painful was that when he put her out, he put her out, you know, like he just sat her out like trash and put her out there. And how many know just sat her out like trash and put her out there? And how many know that sometimes we feel like that when we've been violated and things have been stripped from us. And then you have the situation where Absalom takes her into his home to take care of her because he knew that she would never be able to marry. But what was most painful is that you see that King David, king David himself was her father, father, and says that he was very angry and upset with his son for what he did, but he never stood up for her.
Speaker 2:And how many know that sometimes we've gone through situations and circumstances in our life where we feel like maybe somebody should have stood up for us, somebody should have spoke up for us, somebody should have brought justice for us, but they didn't. And we ended up finding ourselves almost like Tamar. And Tamar said that she ripped her priestly robe, which represented her being pure. And how many know that when the enemy strips us of what we felt, of our innocence, we feel unpure, you know, we feel like we've just could never be whole again. But in reality we could have. But she gave up. And it says, you know, when you go on to read, absalom takes revenge on his brother and kills him for that.
Speaker 2:But we ourselves, you know, when God gave me beauty for ashes, that was my life broken. You know I had been raped at a very young age, molested, you know, I felt a lot of the same of what she went through. But when God gave me beauty for ashes because, see, ashes represent a mourning you know she was in mourning. You know, when they put sackcloth and ashes and she, you know, put that on herself, that she was in great grieving. She was grieving me that if you give me your ashes, the things that seem so burned up and could never be fixed or never come alive again, if you give me those ashes that seem so burned up to you, I will give you beauty in exchange.
Speaker 2:But, see, it wasn't that I could just hang on to my ashes and expect beauty. It came with an exchange, a great exchange. I had to give him all the things that didn't work for me, all the disappointments, all the broken relationships, all the you know, the molestations, all the rapes, all the things that have happened to me in the past. You know I had to give that in exchange, in exchange for the beauty that God gave me and it, you know, and welcome to everybody Once again, those of you that are watching, either by Instagram, tiktok, facebook, youtube maybe this is something that you've experienced in your own life, where you feel like man. What could God do with all this brokenness? What could God do with all these ashes? You know nothing could, nothing good could come of these. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell, because if you give God an exchange those ashes, I guarantee you and promise you God's word will not fail. He will do what he says he will do and he will give you beauty for those ashes.
Speaker 1:What do you think about those people that probably question themselves and say did God do this to me?
Speaker 2:I felt like that when everything happened to me. I felt like, where was God? You know, where was God when all this happened to me? Where where's God? How could God allow this? How is this going to prepare me Now?
Speaker 2:The Romans 8 28 does say that you know that God. You know that all things work together for good for those that love God and that are called according to its purpose. Now he will take all those broken things that have happened to us. He'll take all those, everything that's happened to us of the past. Now he, when we give it to him, he will use all those things for his good, for us that are called according to his purpose. But because those things have happened to us, now everything goes through him and people could say, how can a good God allow these bad things to happen to me? Because what do you tell somebody that's a rape victim? She didn't have that choice to become raped. You know, and it's not that we choose it or that God has allowed it. We have to understand that the word of God says in Ephesians 6, 10, you know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and spiritual wickedness is, you know, in the heavenly realms. That means in this, we're in his realm.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, for me and I'll say this with very sensitive to those that have, because I was raped, very sensitive to those that have because I was raped and when the Lord showed me, because I had blocked it out for a very long time when I came to the Lord and I went to the classes of walking in freedom, when I began to understand what happened to me brutally, I was brutally raped. When I came, finally, and it was healed to a certain level, the Lord said you know, you had no business there. You know, this is the Holy Spirit. Began to say you made a decision. When I had warned you, and I believe that the Holy Spirit warns us.
Speaker 1:There was people that told me don't go. That day. There was other people that would say you need to stop. You need to stop going there, you need to. You know, the first night that I went, there was a shootout and that should have been a red flag for me not to go anywhere and I still wanted up going the next weekend. And so it's like God warns us of those dangers but we don't listen and we think that we're we're mighty, and so to me, whenever that happened, you know, it was like God was. The Holy Spirit began to show me. I tried to stop you. I tried to come and bring help and you just decided to go. And so that night that that happened, even at that moment, even when it happened after, because I was drugged, it was like the person that was there helped me to get out. It was God that helped. It was still God helping me. I looked back at it and I realized, man, if it wasn't for them, I think I would have been dead.
Speaker 2:Well, that has to be a hard scenario because I was nine when I was raped. So I didn't have a choice to be there. My dad had left to the club. I was nine years old, we were left by ourself. It was me and my brother and my sister. And I wake up to a man on top of me ripping my clothes off and raping me, with the front door wide open, with another man waiting outside to violate me. So with that I didn't get to make a choice to say.
Speaker 2:Now I do believe that God warns us to not put ourself in certain positions, to be in certain places, because we know better. God is telling us. We say it's our gut instinct, but it's not. It's the Holy Spirit showing you don't go there, don know to go another route. But there's a lot of community that are men and women that have been violated and raped at a young. And when I was molested, you know I was 10 years old, 11 years old. I didn't have a choice to say I, you know I don't want to be here. You know I was trusting that, the atmosphere that I wasn't living in, that it was safe, but in reality it wasn't.
Speaker 1:And I think, because we make decisions thinking like you know, I'm just going to leave them with family and I'm just going to do that- and then trusting them and not realizing that.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I went out partying and I'm leaving my family member, my baby, with someone that supposedly I trust with, and yet that happens. And so we have to remember that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. And yes, there are decisions at a certain times that we do make and there are some things that we don't. But the word of God specifically talks about those. When you hurt someone that has no will at that age, that is better for you to put a milestone around you, your neck, and dip yourself into the ocean, that means that God is going to to be on your side, he's going to help you, he's going to be there for you, he's going to comfort you. So there's. But we have to remember, like you said, there's the sin of man in the very beginning that make those decisions.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't choose for me to be molested either, but they trusted somebody. Or I didn't choose for my family member to be to be raped. That happened because I trusted. So I have lived every scenario. So what? That's what I'm saying that we, we do live in a fallen world and we, we cannot live in a victimized mentality to say, oh, poor me and not that many of us say that, but to say you know, poor me, no, you're a victor. You know, regardless of what happened, you know God didn't allow it to happen. God didn't permit that to happen. He goes. The enemy wanted to kill you, he wanted to destroy you, he wants to ruin your life, but God said he came to give you life, and more abundantly. And how we do that is we come to the Lord and repent.
Speaker 2:Like you were saying, that sometimes we can have that victim mentality, but that comes with that brokenness and when we come to a place of becoming whole and healing, then that brokenness becomes walking in victory, walking in wholeness. And without Christ you're going to always have a victim mentality A lot of times I can't say every 100% of the time, but a majority of the time because it's through Christ that God gives us the power to forgive, that God gives us the power to understand that. You know these individuals that hurt us, you know were operating out of a spirit that was within them, operating through them, and I just always try to remember that, like the word of God says, you know that this is a spiritual battle. You know it's not us against the individual next to us, but it's us against the spirit that's operating through that person. But it was through that brokenness when God began to heal my life, was when I began to have the victory, to be able to have the ability to be able to be forgiving forgiving my mom, forgiving my dad, forgiving the those that have abused me, hurt me even.
Speaker 2:You know being in the club life, you know being victimized and raped in those scenarios, even forgiving them, because without Christ, all you are is you're just walking in darkness.
Speaker 2:You know you're walking in the, and that's what darkness produces destruction. When you're in darkness, that's what that path is destruction, and that's what you bring in the lives of those that are around you. Destruction Now, like the scenario that happened with me, was the choice of my dad, you know, because of the negligence on his behalf, we paid the price for that, you know, and even the negligence on ours, that we've repeat the cycle where we make the same decisions and now our children, you know, and you know grandchildren sometimes pay the price for those decisions. And this is where we have to come to a place of accountability and say you know, as adults, you know we can't stay continuing living in those same lifestyles and expecting different results, because that's called insanity and a lot of times people don't want to give up those behaviors and they think it's okay. You want different results and want the blessings of God, but you're not willing to give up the lifestyle that produces the destruction.
Speaker 1:And I think sometimes we come into the Lord, bring in those same traditions. I call them habits. We don't come in with a full surrender, saying.
Speaker 2:You know. That's like the word of God says in Romans 12,. One and two. He says do not be conformed by the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1:And it's almost like I heard. I heard this. This is just an example so you can understand what we're talking about. When you come to the Lord and you know, back in the world you, before you knew God, you used to buy stuff that was stolen from someone because it was cheap, right, half price, half price and then, and then, and then, when you come to the Lord, you think it's a blessing and you're still buying it. It's not a blessing. It's not a blessing. You're still living in the worldly ways. So you have to make those changes you know I was telling you earlier, like how can we reach those family members that are in addiction?
Speaker 2:Well, actually it takes someone reaching out. That's step number one. What that looks like is either contacting somebody in your church community, you know, contacting, you know either of us on the podcast so we can connect you with someone that can help you or put you in the path with someone that can be of assistance to you. Amen, and that's step number one, because a lot of times family members feel they feel ashamed, Like I don't want nobody to know that my son's a drug addict, when everybody already knows. But I did graduate the Victory Outreach Women's Home and became the Women's Home Director and ran the Women's Home for almost five years and ran the second phase home. But I strongly suggest, you know, and that is what helped me become who I am today, because it is a residential program and in that residential program every distraction is removed and.
Speaker 2:God is able to work on you and you're able to build a solid foundation and a personal relationship with the Lord. And in that is where you find in that personal relationship with Christ, with no hindrance, no distraction, that God brings the restoration between you and your family. He brings the restoration between you and your kids. He brings the restoration. And then you have to find yourself reintroducing yourself to your family because they don't even no longer see who you used to be and because God is the center of your relationship at that point. So if you're homeless, there's residential programs, there's victory outreach all over the city of Dallas.
Speaker 1:There's the victory temple. You were telling me about your sandwiches.
Speaker 2:You can give out some to the homeless.
Speaker 2:No I go to the homeless every week. I pick up on Thursdays anywhere on average of three to three to between three to 500 sandwiches a week and I take them to the homeless encampment areas. I go I don't go to the bridge, I go to a lot of the like 30 and Jim Miller. I go into the bridges, the encampment areas, the tunnels and I go down there and take food, hygiene bags. I take snack bags, I take clothes, shoes, coats, blankets, anything that God puts in my hand I take it right back to the street.
Speaker 1:I have some, some something for you. It's in the car Some backpacks.
Speaker 2:Amen. Not every one of them are on drugs either. There's some of them that just don't have the financial, like you said. There's some that I meet, that just get out of prison.
Speaker 1:It's getting expensive.
Speaker 2:They've just gotten out of jail and that's their only solution at that moment, because they're trying to navigate the waters and I run into them and I, you know, connect them with the resources that I do have, you know, try to get them out of that lifestyle before they end up getting sucked in, you know, further than they want to go.
Speaker 1:I know last time you were here you were saying about you were working on a book.
Speaker 2:Yes, but that's one of my biggest things this year is to finish my book, and it's called Masterpiece of Broken Pieces, because God made a masterpiece out of each and every one of my broken pieces. And it's about a journey coming from the lifestyle of addiction and rejection to a life of wholeness, because until we're in a place of wholeness, then we're able to operate in what God has called us, in our purpose and the capacity that God has called us to operate in.
Speaker 1:And when you see people from the world when you were in the world and they see you now, what do they say to you?
Speaker 2:Some of them say I know there is a God because of just who I was, and that's where I give God the glory. Because I was not, I was not looking to write that story. It was God that gave me the name, he gave me everything about it. You know, I mean supernaturally, and that's where I give God the glory, because I was not, I was not looking to write that story. It was God that gave me the name, he gave me everything about it. You know, I mean supernaturally. I just wrote down everything that he gave me and in that he would. You know, he just told me that in that story, you know, because a lot of people don't want to talk about the details, a lot of people they want to brush it under the rug, they're ashamed. I'm not ashamed anymore, god. He gave me back my dignity, he gave me back my self-respect, he gave me back every broken piece of myself and made me whole.
Speaker 2:It took me a few times, but the last time, in 2001, was when I said I don't want to go back down this journey, because I knew that if I went back I would not make it. I knew that I would die. I really knew that I would die and I believed that I would have died. From that time until this point, I have had five heart operations, you know, and I know that I would not have survived the lifestyle if I was to have gone back to it, you know it was the grace of God that held down that disease in my body until I got to a place to be able to handle going through the physical things that I would have to go through.
Speaker 2:And the story that God gave me is to be able to reach out to our hurting community, because a lot of people are broken and hurting and they can't understand why they can't operate and what God wants them to operate, but it's to help them come to a place of wholeness.
Speaker 2:That if God could do it for me like you said, for any of us if God could do it for me to be able to share the details of my life, because once that book is out, people are going to know details of my life that might be sitting next to me and they might not like the details of that. But it's not about that. It's about me being obedient to what God tells me to do, because there's somebody that's going to pick up that book one day and they're going to say, man, this lady went through all of this, I can identify, I've gone through this, and if she can make it out, and if this was the way that she made it out, then maybe I can give God a try in this way and see how he did it for her, that he could do it for me.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:And to watch them walk to a place of being and walking in victory, walking in overcoming those, those, those obstacles of the past. You know the trials of the past, the, the shame of the past. You know the feeling rejected of the past, everything that they've experienced throughout their past, that that that could be the very thing to fuel them to their future. You know, in christ. You know, because there is no other way but through him, it's never about you, it's always about others. And like I tell people when I overdose, when everyone else ran out, he walked in. You know, and it's in those times that you got to know that when everyone else walks out of your life, god walks in amen, that's good so I want to thank you for tuning in to overcome our podcast walking in freedom.
Speaker 1:I am with Christina Benav. I want to take the time to just allow, allow Christina to just minister to your heart and pray over you. And if you are tuning in, please uh please listen to the voice of the Lord, because maybe, for you, this could be the call that you've been waiting for. Maybe this is the, the confirmation that you've been waiting for. Maybe this is the confirmation that you've been waiting for. I believe she has a powerful, powerful voice of ministry and I believe that this message is for you, and if you want to invite her to your church to minister, you can also reach out to her and invite her. I believe that she will be a great blessing to your ministry and um invite her. I believe that she will be a great blessing to your ministry. Christina, I'm going to let you minister to the people, minister to our digital um disciples and then pray them out amen.
Speaker 2:I just pray that at any point in this podcast you know whether it be through sister maggie, myself, you know maybe you're that one that's in that place of brokenness and maybe it's you that has a loved one that's looking for a way out of the life of addiction. Or maybe it's you that you're a mother, that you have a loved one, or you have a son or a wayward child that's walking through that life of addiction. I went through a season where my son was on heroin from the age of 13 to 21, and I know what it feels like. But I want you to know that God has not forsaken you. The Word of God says in Hebrews 13, 5, that he will never leave you nor forsake you, that God is there. I want you to understand that you are not alone. That's one of the main things. You're not alone and there's no reason for you to feel ashamed. There's no reason for you to feel like no one would be able to understand your situation, because God understands. And if God understands that, he will give anybody that you come across the ability to have the understanding to be able to help you. So if you need help, like I said, you can DM myself, anybody that's attached to this podcast, and we'll be able to get you the right resources and get you in the right direction that you need to be in. I suggest that you know if you're, if you're looking for a church home, you're more than welcome to visit any of our churches. I go to Casa Mi Gloria, house of my Glory, at 3818 Lawler Road in Garland, texas, you know, and if you need a ride, you can reach out and we'll help get you there and help, you know, put you in position with somebody that can help get you there. To the services we do have Wednesday services for our Spanish community, we have a Thursday service for our English community and then on Sunday morning we have our 8 am English service, 9.30 bilingual and 11.30 Spanish, as well as our Noches de Gloria at 6 pm, and you're more than welcome to attend our services. It's a great place. It's where the Holy Spirit moves in a very, very, very powerful way and it's through an encounter with the Holy Spirit that's going to bring any kind of change in any of our lives. So with that, I will say that I do want to pray for you. We will be more than happy to contact you and pray with you directly, individually, but with that we're going to go ahead and close out this podcast with prayer.
Speaker 2:God, I pray that it would be god to give you the glory. God, that you could get the glory through each and every one of our stories. God, father, that it all points back to you. There's nothing that we could have done on our own. There's nothing that we could offer anybody out of ourselves, but we can give them. You, god, you are the healer, god, the one God that can make all things new. God, you are the one God that can bring and mend every broken piece. God, you can mend every broken piece of the past, every situation, every circumstance. God, that we had control of and didn't have control of. God, you know our hearts and you know everything that we've had to walk through and everybody that's watching what they've had to go through and what they're going through even at this current time.
Speaker 2:God, I pray for those that are battling with anxiety and stress and depression. God, that you let them know that they have value. God, that they have purpose. God, that you created them with purpose, with your purpose. God designed God. You're the one that you're the architect, god that holds the blueprints of their lives. God, that if we don't know what we want to do in life, or where we should be, or where we belong, god, that we can always come to you. God, you're the one that created us. God, who better fit to tell us who we are and what we were created to be?
Speaker 2:God, father, I pray for the mothers that may be struggling with children that are wayward. Father, that you give her strength and wisdom how to deal with her children, or her son or her daughter. God, that you encourage her faith. God, that you strengthen her. God, strengthen her heart and her mind.
Speaker 2:God, the grandmother, maybe, that she's battling with a grandchild, god that's out there. God, that you give her the strength. God, you give her the faith to believe for the impossible. Your word says that if we have faith, even of that of a mustard seed, god, that we could say into this mountain, to be cast into the ocean, god, and would have to obey. Father, I thank you for those that have tuned in, god. I pray that the seed that was planted in their hearts, god, that it be watered. God, you said in your word that one plants the seed, one waters, but it's you that brings the increase, god, that you would bring the increase in their lives, in their hearts, in their families. Father, we thank you, we praise you. We give you all the honor and all the glory in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.
