From party girl to preacher girl.
From broken-hearted girl to bold and whole in Jesus.
I was born in LA, and when I was three years old, I moved to Fontana, California. My mother didn’t get to graduate high school. She got pregnant with me when she was a teenager. I grew up never knowing who my father was, and I never had the guts to ask questions about him. My grandfather became my father figure. But there was still a deep longing in my heart that I couldn’t explain. My mother eventually got married and had my siblings. My relationship with her was never good or healthy. When I was a teenager I struggled, I never felt loved or affirmed at home. I would run away often and have to get dropped back off at home by the police.
When I was eighteen, I found out that my mother accidentally shot my biological father. He passed away when my mom was pregnant with me. When I found this out, a lot changed internally for me. I wanted to have sympathy, but my anger and resentment grew. I decided to numb what I was feeling, so I began to look for love in all the wrong places. I partied and was getting drunk every weekend. I was full of vanity and I was materialistic. I slept around and lived like a party girl. At 19 I met a man, He was my boss at work. We entered into a relationship that we hid from others. It was purely sexual at first, and at 19 I found out I was pregnant. He decided it would be best for me to abort the baby. I didn't have any communication with my family and I was afraid of being a mother at that age. This relationship lasted for seven years and during our time together, I found out he never divorced his wife, and he was sleeping with multiple women. When I found out about the cheating it crushed me. It was the ultimate betrayal and I was never the same. I was fueled by hatred and revenge, but at the same time, I felt as if I couldn’t be without him. We got into many physical altercations that landed in being arrested.
I went to jail two times for domestic violence. My desire to leave was strong, but no matter how hard I tried, he always found a way to pull me back in. The promises were never kept, and the cheating never stopped. When he would try to leave, I’d beg him to stay. I completely lost myself as a woman and had immense feelings of shame and worthlessness. I hated myself and felt like damaged goods. I was in complete bondage. After 7 years, he finally admitted he was still seeing another woman and ended the relationship. This is where everything changed for me.
At that time, I had a coworker, a fellow bartender, who was praying for me to get saved and invited me to church. I finally gave in, and went to a healing prayer room. Multiple people prayed over me. One woman wrote down the words “speak” and “massive convention center with dim lights.” She said I would be speaking for the Lord one day, and I didn’t know what to think. After this incident, I was invited to a Wednesday night Bible study at a church, and that night, I ran up to the altar. I surrendered my life to Jesus and never looked back.
I got baptized and plugged into a local church where I started serving in the cleaning ministry. I scrubbed toilets for Jesus, and at the same time, he was scrubbing out my heart! One night I got up and shared my testimony with the church, and my pastor insisted I go to one of our high schools to share my testimony. That day, many students came to Christ. I was invited to teach young women the Bible. At this same time, my pastor's wife asked me to be a Women's Bible study facilitator, and I said yes. That yes led me to growth and leadership at that church for 5 years.
I started to get invited to preach at other schools, conferences, and women’s retreats. In 2017, I went to Thailand for a mission trip. The Lord spoke to me and told me I needed to receive more healing and attend a school of ministry at a different church. I graduated in 2019. In January of 2020, during a fast, the Lord gave me a vision. I wrote down Woman Affirmed, and He told me He would show me what to do with it later. When the pandemic hit, I suddenly felt a strong desire to do outreach for my single friends and sisters in the Lord. I had a Bible/book study at the park where we could sit 6 feet apart. I purchased the materials for everyone,e and Woman Affirmed was born. For many years, people encouraged me to do something for single women, but I had no desire to. I had given my heart to Jesus and vowed I wouldn’t marry unless it was His will and with the man He would choose. In 2020, I was nine years single.
Saying yes to God has been mind-blowing for me. He gave me another vision, Jesus, and a coffee date. He asked me to host this once a year for his daughters to show them how important it is to have intimacy with him. Today, I've hosted three Jesus and coffee dates and four Bible studies, served in Uganda and Cambodia, and I am currently a youth leader for high school girls. I've been featured on Christian radio and have spoken for online ministries in India, Jamaica, the UK, and other states! God has opened doors for me that no man can shut, and I can honestly say I’m just a broken vessel being used by a perfect God. That word given to me before I got saved is just one of many, and I know God has so much more in store for my life as He does for you as well.
