Grief, Depression, Addiction, Self-loathing. These are just a few of the many reasons people seek relief in the form of addiction. Thankfully, help is available at Christian Recovery and Transitional Housing Centers like Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center for Women & Women with Children & Master’s Touch Bible-based Recovery Ministry for Men.

You wouldn’t have known it, but inside, Nysha was just a scared little girl reaching out for help. No stranger to grief, her father died when she was a child. Over time, she learned to hide her fears and underling childhood depression as she insolated herself from a hurtful world. She never dreamed God would be waiting there to meet her in the depths of despair. But hope can grow, even in the darkest of circumstances.

Having grown up in the western suburbs of Chicago, Nysha had a childhood that, for the most part, many of us could relate to. Her life hadn’t been filled with violence or abuse. She hadn’t had to deal with addiction in her family. Like many, she went to church with her family. She finished high school and went to college. Still, in her adult years, she found herself dependent on alcohol. But the main reason was one that many of us can relate to as well: loneliness. The catalyst for Nysha’s feelings of loneliness and isolation came at the death of her father. She was only nine. Eventually, her mother remarried, and the family moved from St. Charles, the only home Nysha had known, to new town about 20 miles away, where her stepfather was a juvenile police officer. Although her stepfather was hard-working and took care of the family’s physical needs, he didn’t provide for the children’s emotional care. According to Nysha, “He treated his children like juveniles. You’re guilty until proven innocent kind of thing.”

Even though Nysha’s family went to church, she hadn’t formed a relationship with her Savior, so she didn’t turn to Him when she felt alone. Unable to find emotional support or a feeling of belonging in her family, she turned to her friends, but this turned out to be a temporary balm for her loneliness. Single and without children at the age of 40, Nysha found that she had little in common with the friends she’d made in high school and college, for their lives now revolved around their own families. Nysha recalls, “I got a little bit depressed. I was living on my own, so to take up time, I started drinking. You know, just casually. No big deal. But then it got to be more about hide the feelings of depression, or suppress them, or not deal with them.” Eventually, the drinking escalated until Nysha lost job after job. But finding employment that allowed her to work from home made it that much easier to continue drinking every day.

Alcohol couldn’t keep her loneliness and depression at bay though. Nor could the medication she’d been prescribed. In fact, only two weeks before Nysha made the life-altering decision to go to Lifespring, she considered suicide. She remembers thinking, “Would it just be better if I wasn’t here? It would be better for my family. It would be better for everybody not to worry. I don’t know what my purpose is here.” Little did Nysha realize that God had always had a purpose for her, and He was about to open the doors for her to discover it. That’s when Nysha’s family stepped in, telling her that she had to do something to get her life on the right track. Her mom had heard about Lifespring from a church friend, and since Nysha knew that she’d soon be living on the street if she didn’t change her ways, she decided to call Lifespring for a chance at a new life. “I have to say, it was scary at first—a new place, with new people.” But at the same time, Nysha said she experienced a sense of peace. Yes, there was peace within its walls because she no longer worried about bill collectors harassing her or the prospect of living on the street, but it was much more than that. God had led her to Lifespring so that she could develop a relationship with Him. Through the help of pastors and her mentor, Nysha learned that she was not in control, but that God is. At Lifespring she learned to put her trust in Him.

Trusting in God, who sacrificed His Son so that she could be adopted as one of His forgiven children, has taught Nysha to forgive herself. She’s learning to give Him all the guilt she’s carried around for so long. Without that burden of guilt, she’s able to view herself in a new way, as someone with a God-given purpose.

Trained as a medical coder, Nysha needs to be recertified every year. Because of generous donors, Lifespring was able to pay for Nysha’s recertification, something she wouldn’t have been able to do on her own. Today, she plans to move back to Arizona, where her sister lives, and work at the medical facility for which she’d been a contracted employee when living in Illinois, but which has offered to hire her once she returns to Arizona.

Today, she credits Lifespring with saving her life by giving her a safe place, one in which she got to know “people from all walks of life. But here,” she said, “we’re able to be open with each other.” Healing began once she was able to talk about the trauma in her past instead of suppressing it and refusing to deal with it. And, of course, the pastors, staff, and volunteers at Lifespring helped her to reach out to our loving Father, who has always been there to forgive her, strengthen her, and guide her. Her newfound trust in God has emboldened Nysha to tell her story, something she never would have done before coming to Lifespring. And she wants everyone to know that it was God all the way, opening the door for her to find a sanctuary where she could finally cast off her past and find her purpose and her true solace and strength in Him.

If you know someone in need of a safe place to recover and rebuild their lives call Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center for Women or Master’s Touch for Men at (630) 892-4239. People who liked this Story of Hope, also enjoy reading Naomi’s experience too.