Nacogdoches/Livingston - April 2017

One Woman’s Story
      Almost every person who comes to GODTEL for help is broken in some way. Many have become addicted to different types of drugs or alcohol and they have lost families, jobs, possessions and have nowhere to turn. In desperation, they finally decide to give GODTEL or some other homeless shelter a try. Some come and go and come again as they struggle to get a grip on life. Some believe “bad luck” has brought them to this point in their lives but all need the strength, the peace, the power, the love, and the forgiveness found only in Jesus. Here, in her own words, is the story of a young woman who recently stayed at our Nacogdoches mission “I was widowed from my first marriage raising a 2-year old daughter, which I sadly failed at. My mother and father mostly raised her. It was two failed marriages after, I also had a son. “I fell into the Satanist life style at the age of 20. I never got into the large group. Think just from time to time small groups involved in witchcraft and the spirit board. I became a non-active member of the Church of Satan founded by Anton Lavay. All I knew growing up was how to cause suffering in one form or another. I spent years turning up the bottle trying to fill the emptiness I felt inside. Drinking did not solve the problem, it just caused more. I hated everyone. The drinking got to the point where I could not hold down food or water. I dropped to 64 pounds. I just wanted to die at this point. I was hospitalized for over a month fading in and out, with my blood sugar dropping often to the low 40’s. My muscles were even failing. Something was holding me in this world, I knew it was not Lucifer but I wanted no part it. “After about 2 months out of the hospital, I turned back to the bottle. It was not long I was arrested for simple drunk. I spent 31 days locked up for something that should have been just a few days. Seven of those days were in lock-down in a small cell with 182 bricks and no window. “After getting out of jail it got to the point of just anger at everything and my mom had to put me out of the house. Becoming homeless around the end of January is not an enjoyable thing. It broke me enough to speak with someone about my thoughts. It was the wrong someone and caused me to have to stay 7 days in a mental ward. This is where I was first forced to sit through Bible studies. I had no choice but to hear the word of God daily. I left there and spent 14 days at the Monroe Salvation Army. I still felt out of place so I started making phone calls. I found a Christian based shelter, the highway 80 Rescue Mission in Longview Texas, so I got on a bus searching for something I did not know much about. “In March of 2014, I met a Pastor that was meant to get through to me. I was saved March 22, 2014, baptized March 30, 2014 in Lake Dearwood. God made a huge change in my life. The hatred and emptiness was no longer there. I spent 9 months at the House of Hope helping in anyway I could. In December 2014, I moved in with the Pastor and his wife in Harleton, Texas to help her with the house work while she was fighting cancer. After she passed, I moved to Carthage, Texas to take care of another lady with cancer. I stayed after she passed but that was not where God wanted me because things started to go down hill. I started picking up the bottle again. It got to the point I wanted to die again. After I tried to take my own life in a failed effort, we started calling shelters. Out of 4 or 5 shelters, only GODTEL answered their phone on Sunday. I walked through the doors of that old historical building in Nacogdoches, Texas not knowing what to expect, but by the time of the evening Bible study I felt peace. After being there for a while and helping out wherever they needed me, I knew this is where God wanted me. I will be at GODTEL until God says move on. I am tired of running.” I wish I could tell you she is still here helping out, or that God had moved her on to another ministry, but from outward appearances, she has once again responded to the “call of the wild”—that wicked heart we all must contend with until Jesus returns. Please pray for our residents and our staff members. God has all the answers we seek but we must be willing to hear, trust, and obey Him. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned but John 3:16 says whosoever will believe in Jesus will have a wonderful, new, and eternal life.

​Nancy Gentry