A Safe Place: Lifespring Domestic Violence Support & Recovery

Meet Dineah:

…overcoming a lifetime of fear and abuse at Wayside Cross Lifespring Center

Finding peace from a traumatic past at Wayside Cross Lifespring Center.

Going from abused, insecure mother of four to confident daughter of the king!

Jun 19, 2024 | Stories of Hope

The day Dineah encountered a God Who Sees.

How more women are discovering the Free, Faith-based transitional shelter, and domestic violence services and support at Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center .

What happens when the purity of God encounters the brokenness of humanity?

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.” This is a staggering statistic! Many of the women who come to our women’s shelter at Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Women’s Center have suffered at the hands of an abusive partner.

Not long ago, Dineah was one of those women. Her story is a familiar one. Traumatized as a child when someone touched her inappropriately, she ended up in an abusive relationship where she had children and remained until she could break free. Dineah also never knew who her father was, which left a huge void in her life. Everyone who has been abandoned as a child wonders why they weren’t enough, leading to a lack of self-esteem, trauma and often self-sabotaging behaviors. The combination of these traumas left Dineah with a lot of anxiety that she had no idea how to handle. At the young age of 17, she ended up in a domestic violence situation. At the age of 20 she, her abusive partner, and their two children were homeless. Eventually, they were able to get back on their feet. She had two more children with him, continuing to live in an abusive environment for 16 long years. No one could see the pain she was under.

Eventually it became more than she could bear. She needed help.

“Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, ‘You are the God who sees me…I have now seen the One who sees me!” ~ Genesis 16:13-15

Finally, when Dineah turned 33, she decided she had had enough and prayed to God for relief. God saw Dineah in her distress and just as He’d done with Hagar long ago, He offered her hope. “The God who sees,” found in Genesis, is translated “El Roi” in the Hebrew. El Roi is the God who numbers the hairs on our head. He is the God who knows every detail of our circumstances. He is the God who cares and makes a way of escape. He did this for Hagar long ago and He did it for Dineah! He is a faithful God who cares for those who feel hopeless and loves giving them hope. God heard Dineah’s cries, saw her tears, her years of pain and hopelessness; and when she turned to Him, He led her to leave her abuser! He nurtured that small seed of faith Dineah had in Him and helped it to flourish.

When Dineah left, she had no means of support and had to leave her children behind. This was the hardest thing she had ever done, and it broke her heart. She prayed and asked God to protect them until she could get them back. Soon after she left, God led her to contact Lifespring for help. She lived in a hotel for a week until, on January 19, 2023, Dineah came to Lifespring, and she has not looked back. It has not always been an easy journey, but it has been a good one.

“Be still and know that I am God!” ~Psalm 46:10

“I am thankful to Lifespring because they helped me to be still.” Dineah describes herself as a runner. Whenever things got hard, she struggled with just wanting to return to her kids and that really unhealthy relationship, but she still struggled with longing to be herself, and she knew that could never happen in that environment. Lifespring asked Dineah to give it 90 days and to learn to just be herself, to get to know what she wanted to do in life, to decide where she wanted to be in 6 months. So as things got hard, she’d ask herself, “Where could I best be me?” She learned to trust God with her future.

God brought Dineah to “a very God-loving community.”

When Dineah first came to Lifespring, she was just starting out on her spiritual journey. Lifespring has helped her to grow in faith even through the storms in her life. “Before coming to Lifespring I was lost, and now I’m definitely a different person!” She learned to put God first in her life and starts each day with the Lord. She can see now, looking back, why God brought her to Lifespring without her kids. Eventually she was able to get her children back, but initially she was able to put all her time and energy into her relationship with God. She was able to focus on Him, without “somebody pulling at my coat, ‘Mommy I need this.’” It was just her and God. Of course, she couldn’t have done it without the support of her Lifespring community. “The staff is willing to pray with you at any time…they try to find scriptures to help you stay on course…and they don’t shun you because you’ve dropped the ball. It’s a very God-loving community.”

There are three women that God has put in Dineah’s life through Lifespring that have helped her in her journey. God has used each of these women to speak life into Dineah and help her relationship with God to grow and thrive. Laura Geers was the case manager when Dineah first came to Lifespring. Though Laura has moved on, she still keeps in touch with Dineah, and they do devotionals together. Dineah refers to Laura as her best friend. “I love her to pieces,” she says. Her current case manager, Laura Kavender, has also built a great relationship with Dineah, who feels she can be open and honest and share her raw feelings with Laura, with no judgment. This is so important for anyone who has lived with abuse, to feel heard and understood. Lastly, there is Miss Sandra, who has become a very loving adopted mom to Dineah. “She can always tell when I am down and asks how she can help and offers to pray with me.” Dineah has gained lifelong friends and mentors at Lifespring who will continue to make a difference in her life and the lives of other women who go through the program.

When asked what her greatest challenge was before coming to Lifespring, she said, “My biggest challenge before coming to Lifespring was my lack of self-confidence.” Dineah needed help to realize that she was smart and could do things on her own and prosper without a man in her life. Eventually, Dineah came to realize that for the past 16 years, all the things that her partner had told her about herself were lies, used to control her and keep her in that abusive relationship. She learned to put her trust in God and to view herself as He sees her, a precious daughter of the King!

Lifespring helped Dineah in so many ways. Through the classes she took she was able to get her GED. Dineah is a graduate of the program at Lifespring Ministries and now has a full-time job at Family Dollar. She has worked there since October of 2023. It hasn’t been easy, she’s made mistakes like anyone but has worked toward correcting those things and moving forward. This has enabled her to grow at work. Recently, she was approached by the District Manager who said she saw potential in Dineah and thinks Dineah could manage her own store and will be training her this summer with that goal in mind.

Wayside Cross' Lifespring Center for Women provides free shelter and help for domestic violence.

This is where Dineah sees that the consistency and steadfastness that LifeSpring has taught her is reaping a reward. She sees that she and her kids have a future with real financial stability.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11

“The most important thing I have learned at Lifespring is to be steadfast,” Dineah says. Her life was always filled with inconsistency, but has now learned to have consistency in her daily life, from starting the day with morning devotions, to going to her job, and then coming home and going to class even though she is tired. This routine and consistency has helped Dineah to learn to be steadfast. “I’ve also had to learn to be honest with myself,” she says, “and to ask for help when I needs it. Being here at Lifespring, they help you to recognize those problem areas…to keep it in front of your head…this is how you can solve it…I have learned to be mindful to be honest with myself.” She has learned she doesn’t need to cover up her mistakes or to make excuses, but to face them head on. That is a huge step for Dineah.

God has truly given Dineah’s family a hope and a future and He did it through Lifespring Ministries

Dineah now lives with her three daughters and son in one of the apartments at Lifespring. Her children are 14, 12, 5 and 3. She has her hands full, raising her four children and working full-time, but she has a terrific support system in place and is so grateful for the help that Lifespring has given her to not only get her kids back and out of that abusive home, but also in helping her to make a life for her children. Dineah would not have the relationship with God that she has today without the loving care and nurturing that Lifespring gave her.

She has learned she is more than a mom. “I’m not only a mom, I am Dineah, too.” Lifespring has taught her about self-care and how that enables her to be a better mom. Now she knows she needs to fill up her tank in order to have what she needs to give her kids what they need. She has learned to allow her kids to be open and honest with her, and her children are reaping the benefits of what Lifespring has taught Dineah. God has truly given their family a hope and a future through Lifespring Ministries!

Dineah would like everyone to know that their donations to Lifespring Ministries are making a difference. She has no idea where she would be today without their help. Dineah shared, “I hope people will support Lifespring because we really need it.” God has taken Dineah from a truly hopeless situation and given her more than she could have ever dreamed of…a life free from abuse for herself and her children, a job and means of supporting her family, and most importantly a thriving relationship with the Lord and so much hope for the future!

Dineah shared, “I hope people will support Lifespring because we really need it.”

Lifespring Center for domestic violence recovery and support.

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Need Help, Call Lifespring Center 630-851-0187

Lifespring Center: One of the Christian Recovery And Support Ministries of Wayside Cross.

Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center offers single women and women with children, a safe place to recover from brokenness, addiction and homelessness, and it’s just one of six ministries at Wayside dedicated to serving Christ through His people in need. Join us in this journey of helping to transform lives and sharing the Gospel of Christ. If you would like to learn more about this 95 year old ministry women’s program looks like, click here.

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