Building Faith –
Aleta grew up having a strong faith. But when a custody battle over her son didn’t go the way she had hoped and prayed, it shook her to the core.
”In that moment, my faith just completely broke,” she said.
Aleta also dealt with PTSD from a near-death experience. “I started drinking more and more to sleep at night, which became full-blown alcoholism… and you know, alcoholism leads to losing everything,” she said. “And so I lost my job, my car broke down, and then lost my apartment.”
She was due to go to treatment for alcoholism, so she ended the lease with her landlord on good terms. But right when she was supposed to leave, she got Covid and wasn’t able to go to treatment. This happened the second time too. When the third time rolled around, she was living at Base Camp, still struggling with alcoholism and not ready to enter treatment.
She moved out of Base Camp with a man who seemed safe. They lived outside in the woods. Unfortunately, that situation turned violent, so she applied to stay at the Mission’s Agape Home for Women and Children.
At Agape, Aleta found sobriety from drugs, stopped drinking, and found her way back to faith. “I think that God brought me here,” she said.
One day, while watching a video sermon, she felt a tug on her heart to get baptized – seemingly out of nowhere. A minute later, the pastor started talking about baptism and shared an opportunity to make this profession of faith!
“I was like, ‘this is just lining up too perfectly for me to not do what God just put on my heart,’” Aleta said. “And since getting baptized and rekindling my relationship with God and getting clean and sober… my whole life has changed.”
Aleta just got a job that she’s excited about. She’s achieving her goals of saving money. And she has gone from not being able to see her son to being able to see him for several hours each week!
“Now I have to dream bigger, which is actually kinda scary,” she said with a laugh.
A lot has changed for Aleta. She used to feel alone. Now, she is grateful for the support network of her Narcotics Anonymous group. She’s also glad to have a community with the other women at Agape Home.
“Agape and the women here are my family now. I really appreciate being here,” Aleta said. “It’s really changed my life. And had this place not been here, I don’t think that I would have survived in the woods.”
Aleta has been working on her self-confidence and self respect. One of her goals is to continue that important work.
“I was really struggling with my recovery, I was really struggling with my faith, I was really struggling in life in general and with everything, Lighthouse Mission has changed my life.”