Before I met Aunt Val and Uncle John, I was a very dark and depressed person. I didn't enjoy life. I didn't know how to enjoy it, because the kind of home I lived in was the kind that no child should live in. My father was very abusive, sexually, physically and emotionally. It felt normal to me because that is all that I knew. Aunt Val and Uncle John started coming to my church, they became the youth leaders for the church. I noticed something different about them. I was confused at why they were there because they weren't like anybody in the church or anybody that I knew. Aunt Val started having these small group prayer things at the church and she kept inviting me. I decided to go one day and it was totally life changing. LITERALLY! One of the other teenagers who was there led me to the Lord and I got saved that night. Not very much changed right away, but I felt different. I felt there was something protecting me. It was God and I knew that I could go to Him for things.

Aunt Val asked my mother if she and another youth leader could spend some time praying with me. My mother said yes. I started going over there about once a week and that is when a lot of things came out. I started to share with them the things that had happened in my past. And they would pray with me and God would come and comfort me through my healing through the memories that I was facing.  Aunt Val finally asked me if it was okay to share these things with my mom and I said yes. My mother came over and she talked with her. After about a week, my mom made my dad move out. When he moved out, things were still not going smoothly. My mother and I fought constantly. She had always told me to pack my bags and leave. When she said that the last time, I did. I went to my Aunt Val and Uncle John's house.

Being there for 3 years showed me what a real family was like. God put them in my life to be like parents to me and I feel very blessed to be in their family. My Aunt Val taught me how to cook, she taught me how clean correctly. My Uncle John taught me how to check the oil in my car, I learned how to change oil in a car. I learned how to work without complaining. When I did wrong they sat me down and they would bring Jesus Christ into the situation in some way. And they prayed with me. They were teaching me independence and how to depend on Christ instead of others. They helped me get a job at a Christian Camp where I had my own apartment and still work to this day. I am surrounded by healthy, loving people who support and encourage me.

 I am excited about the House of Hope that they are starting. I can't wait to see how God is going to use them in the lives of other teenagers. I can tell you that any teenager that comes to them will be loved and cared for and taught so many things about life and how to rely on God. God will be shown in the lives of those teenagers so much more when they leave than when they first got there. God used Aunt Val and Uncle John in my life in so many ways. And I know He will use them in the lives of other teenagers as well!

-Nicole, Age 20