Amber grew up in a home where drug use was commonplace and drug addiction was a way of life. She told herself she'd never follow that path but ended up not being able to avoid it. Amber's favorite verse is Romans 5:8 because she saw firsthand in her own life just how much God loved and pursued her even while she was living in darkness and cared nothing for Him. Amber's story is an amazing tale of God's providence which brought her out of darkness into the light and turned her into an ambassador of that light for others. There are so many little stories that Amber shares which illustrate God's providential grace. Amber also shares what she now does as a case manager with SafeHouse Ministries to help people go from homelessness to having their own permanent home.
Amber grew up in a home where drug use was commonplace and drug addiction was a way of life. She told herself she'd never follow that path but ended up not being able to avoid it. Amber's favorite verse is Romans 5:8 because she saw firsthand in her own life just how much God loved and pursued her even while she was living in darkness and cared nothing for Him. Amber's story is an amazing tale of God's providence which brought her out of darkness into the light and turned her into an ambassador of that light for others. There are so many little stories that Amber shares which illustrate God's providential grace. Amber also shares what she now does as a case manager with SafeHouse Ministries to help people go from homelessness to having their own permanent home.
When I was sitting in jail I think that was like my divine point in that moment as far as my recovery goes Cause I was sitting there and I'm, at this point I'm like 30 years old and everybody around me is young and I'm having to call my mom and ask her like, cause she was on a sober kick at this time. And I was calling my mom and I was asking her to put money on the phone and all my books and that's embarrassing at 30. You should be out of that. For a long time. I thought my favorite verse was Philippians 4 13, but it's really Romans 5 8 Because he loved us even in our darkness man.
Phil Shuler:HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Phil:Good morning. This morning on the podcast, I have Amber she works with us at Safe House Ministries. She's coming on today to share her personal story and the struggles that she faced in growing up and then what the Lord did in her life to turn things around and how she got connected to Safe House. So Amber, it's so good to have you.
Amber:Hey, good to see you.
Phil:Just to start out, I would love to ask, if there is one word that might best describe you, what do you think that word would be?
Amber:Probably an overcomer. Haha,
Phil:that's a great word. Yeah. What do you mean? What makes you say Overcomer?
Amber:Cause there's gonna be trials and triumphs in life. You just gotta overcome it, man. And just keep pushing forward. Cause it's not done until it's done.
Phil:Yeah. sOunds like you've been able to overcome a lot of things. That's a good word. Yeah. I think there's a good song that goes by that name as well. By, I think it's Mandisa. You familiar with that song? Maybe. Overcomer? Not sure. You might have to look it up. Definitely. Amber, could you just maybe Sheer starting out childhood. Were you born here in
Amber:Columbus? Yeah, so I'm from Columbus, Georgia. I had a traditional but hectic family. We're pretty big. Grade school was like Fox Elementary, Double Churches Middle School, Jordan High School. Both of my parents are in active addiction. They have been my whole life. And that's not to say that I had a bad childhood, because I didn't, but I bounced around from my aunt's house to my grandma's, back to my mom's, back to my dad's, and it was pretty diverse. It's, yeah.
Phil:Were your parents together, or were they split? Sometimes you'd be with your mom, your dad, your grandma, your aunt.
Amber:You Yeah, they were split. I mean They hang around, they hung around each other and stuff, but definitely not together. That'd be just weird probably.
Phil:Okay, were they ever married or just never really and you,
Amber:you just I think they were together for a small bit of time, but then just at some point they realized that's not where it
Phil:was. But you had a relationship with each of them?
Amber:Yeah, I have a close relationship with my parents actually. It's, it is what it
Phil:is. Yeah. So what was it like growing up? Was it rough? Or did you
Amber:I would say now looking back, despite my parents situation, they did the best they could with me and my siblings as a childhood. I Don't think it was like rough. There's definitely kids that had it a lot worse, but it wasn't normal either. Yeah,
Phil:yeah. What kinds of things did you, became, were normal for you? What kinds of things did you see and
Amber:It was pretty normal for me to wake up and nobody's been to sleep in the house in the night or in middle school, they'd be like, are you going to school today or not, and by the time I was in ninth grade, I was pretty much I wouldn't say taking care of myself because financially I wasn't, but I was able to just do what I wanted to and how I wanted to. And then my parents by then were off in prison. So when they came home, they were trying to do reformed and trying to be a parent and it was a little too late for that, but now I can say that they tried their best. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Phil:So you taught yourself figured out what you thought was right or wrong or what you wanted to do and then Just ended up fending for yourself, I guess
Amber:once my aunt passed away that I lived with in middle school and most of high school. It was pretty much like that Yeah, she had passed away like a year before I graduated From cancer and so by then I was already working as a server at Logan's Roadhouse is closed down now, but I was working as a server. So I was able to maintain and take care of stuff by myself. And then once high school was over with, that was it. I moved out. I was like, this is done.
Phil:Yeah, Logan's Roadhouse, that was the place with all the peanuts on the tables, right? Definitely. I miss it. I do too. Yeah, I went there several times. Awesome, so you were a server there. How long were you, did you do all through high school?
Amber:Yeah, I started at Logan's when I was probably about 16, like as soon as I was old enough to. Yeah, I went right into it.
Phil:What was high school like for you?
Amber:High school was a breeze for me. I wasn't I wasn't into sports or anything, but I wasn't one of the kids that struggled either socially. haD friends, just your average, was able to maintain grades well, and just, it was a typical high
Phil:school thing. In high school, or when did you start getting into the world of darkness and just? Taking that path down into.
Amber:I've always known about it, like it was never a secret in my household what my parents did. Rather it been in the form of cocaine or methamphetamine or whatever it was. And so I was always like super aware of things and I was always like, I'll never be that kid.
Phil:And then I So you saw your parents and you're like, I'm never gonna do that. don't want any part of that.
Amber:Yeah, I was like, never.
Phil:So growing up, you saw your parents, you saw what they were like and what happened to them with the drugs and you said, I don't want any part of
Amber:that. Yeah. I was like never going to do it, but then you know what they say, never say never because here comes high school hit and I started hanging out with the wrong crowd or whatever. And it was like, first it was weed, which was like no big deal to everybody, but then, and I'm not even sure it was the gateway to it, but It was weed at first. And then once it was started with weed, it slowly transformed into prescription pills. And I realized I like, Oh, I like the uppers more than I like the downers. And so then I went from doing that. By the time I got out. High school I got with this boy in a course. I was crazy about him and slowly, we started experimenting with like cocaine and it progressed. By the time the end of the relationship happened, I started doing meth. I was probably like 20 at the time.
Phil:Wow. what was that period of time like when you were doing meth and
Amber:that's hectic. I use from about 20 to 27 or 8.
Phil:Yeah, like 20 years old to 28 years old. Yeah,
Amber:the myth I used I was like in high school I would socially use but you know that but my hardcore was probably from like 20 to probably 28 29 and it was just very hectic. It was in and out of jails I had been to the love lady. I What is I don't know what
Phil:that is. What's the love lady?
Amber:It's a rehab in Birmingham. It's for women and children. They, you go to, it's like a Christian based rehab and up there you can, if you have kids after 30 days, you can bring your kids. It's a really cool little program. And is, they work with you on your intake fee and everything else. And it's a working program. So you are required to get a job. But whenever I was there, I just knew I went for the wrong reasons, to be honest. I went because my sponsor and my aunt were like, you've got to change. Something's going to, happen if you don't. I was probably about 21 at the time. And I went up there and I was like, okay, we're just going to do it. We're going to get through this and make everyone happy. And even then with that being a faith based program, you would think that I found God really, and that I dove deep into him. But even then I was like, I knew who he was, but it wasn't something like that. That wasn't my breaking point in that. Yeah, so I went up there. I did the program came home and I was sober for about two years and then started hanging out with the wrong people again and just Slowly transit, it was like, oh, I'm only gonna do it on the weekends or I'm only gonna do it before shift because at the time I was a server at Charlie's and I was like, I'll get high after I get off work so nobody at work will know and I won't mess anything up. And then, that only works until it doesn't work. Yeah.
Phil:Wow. And it just progressively got more and more.
Amber:And then as it went on, like I started going to jail more, I think I went to jail in Lee County like eight times in two months for shoplifting and possession of marijuana and tampering with evidence. It was just like a bunch of different stuff and that's when I realized like this is spiraling out of control.
Phil:Wow. So when you realized that, what did you do at that point?
Amber:Nothing. I just kept using I knew it at the time. My husband who at the time was my boyfriend, he was also selling drugs. So it's it's I've never had to do certain things that other girls had to do for drugs and I've never had to go without. So I was blessed and God always kept his hand on me because I've never had to experience much of a homelessness or, a struggle. Because of my parents and because of the boy I was with at the time and everything and So I just kept using him and he went to jail and when he went to jail He was in jail for about a year and the whole time I was just like out here doing whatever and I went buck wild No, it was crazy. Like I was in and out of jails and they sent me to It's called DRC The Daily Report Center, and that worked for about a month, and then I stopped reporting and stopped going, and so then I remember it like it was yesterday probably about two months after I stopped going, I was just out doing whatever, I got off of work, and I went and got some drugs, and it was probably about two o'clock in the morning at the time, I was working at Marco's Pizza, and we got pulled over, And nobody wanted to claim any of their drugs, but I told him, I was like, I'm either going to tell them that they're yours or you're going to claim them. And so he claimed his, I claimed what was mine, and then I went to jail. And something told me like, I'm just going to try adult drug court. And everybody was like, oh you shouldn't do it, it's this, that's a setup, it's a trap. I did it anyways and I got released to Journey to Recovery. At the time I was probably about 20, let's see, I've been out of rehab for 3 years. So yeah, I was like right at 28. And I went to journey. When I first went to journey, I was like, this is not for me. I'm just doing this to get out of jail. This will be just another pit stop like the love lady and like DRC. But something happened and I just slowly progressed and slowly dug into my recovery and first it was because I needed to get my license back. And then, second it was because I needed a car. And, of course, after a period of time you can start working. So I was working and saving money and stuff. And eventually it became because I wanted to do a new lifestyle. And I wanted change. I still didn't really have that divine moment. Because I was sneaking out and I was getting high still. And I was Doing this that and another and having my husband sneak in and just doing things I wasn't supposed to and I knew that it would eventually catch up to me. And one day Miss Carol She was a group leader over at Midtown Her and the lady that drug test was like, you're not leaving until you take a drug test today And it hit the fan. So then I went and did 30 more days in jail. When I was sitting in jail I think that was like my divine point in that moment as far as my recovery goes Cause I was sitting there and I'm, at this point I'm like 30 years old and everybody around me is young and I'm having to call my mom and ask her like, cause she was on a sober kick at this time. And I was calling my mom and I was asking her to put money on the phone and all my books and that's embarrassing at 30. You should be out of that.
Phil:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
Amber:I can imagine. So I came home after doing 30 days, and I just the director of the program was Harry Tatum at the time, and he asked me, he says, Is this what you want forever? What's your goals in life? To be a convict and a felon and a dopehead? And I was like, Gave you a little straight talk, huh? Yeah, exactly. And I realized then that's not what I want. I want to gain something from life, and I thought about it, and that's when I decided You just got to do what you got to do. If you want it, you got to go for it. So that was
Phil:the beginning of the turn. Yeah. Definitely. Awesome. What happened
Amber:from there? From there I completed Journey to Recovery. I moved into Transition. I probably stayed in Transition longer than anyone else. It took me like a year and a half, two years. And but in that I got established and I took my time with my recovery. Awesome. I had a friend, then my husband came home from going to jail at the time and we still haven't really been around each other that much and he decided to go to a faith based program in Anniston. And so while he was there, he was doing his thing, I was down here doing my thing as far as like working on ourselves and building ourselves up before we can, because before you can worry about anybody else, you gotta fix yourself. So you can properly love and care about someone. Yeah. And we were both working on ourselves, and then, in transition, I just started digging into it and really just started realizing like, okay, I need a job where I can afford to take care of myself. I need to find a higher power or whatever that may be at the time. I still didn't realize it was going to be God for me, like I said, I knew him, but I didn't have a relationship with him. And then A friend that helped my husband get into rehab. He started coming around and he didn't have a car. And he was like, Hey, let's go to church. You can give me a ride to church. You can give me a ride to church. And I was a pushover and I was like,
Phil:he's like, Hey, give me a ride. So you got the church because you're giving him a ride to
Amber:church. Exactly. He was like, come on, let's go to church. You can go this week. And then whenever I started going, one of my childhood best friends were there, and you start slowly meeting people that you knew before, and then you start building relationships with those people, and it draws you there. And then I just, I started pouring into it, and started realizing that it's gonna be God for me. Wow.
Phil:What church was
Amber:that? The Fort Church. Yeah? Yeah.
Phil:How long ago was that, that, that happened?
Amber:Probably a year and a half, two years ago? Wow,
Phil:that is so
Amber:cool that he's been home for about a year now, so probably about two years ago. Yeah,
Phil:he being your husband's husband? Yeah. Okay.
Amber:Cause I started like right after he went and then To church? Yeah. Okay. Once he started, when he went to the center Ronnie, that's the guy that helped get him into the center and stuff, Ronnie and Steven. So when they got him into the center, Ronnie didn't have a ride and he was like, Hey, you gonna come get me? You gonna come get me? And I was like, I guess so. Thank God he never gave up on those rides. Wow.
Phil:That is amazing. I love that. Yeah. That is such a God story. Like the providence of God and how he just works things out according to his plan. Cause, cause he's got a
Amber:plan. Yeah. So many times I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know. I like. And now that I look back of it, back on it, through this whole podcast, I realize that he's guided me the whole way. He's molded me into what he needed me to be. And I'm still the Clay and he's the Potter,
Phil:yeah. You started going to the Fort Church. You didn't like it at first. You were just helping your friends. And
Amber:at some point I didn't like it, but it was definitely not my thing. I was just like, hey, okay, we'll do it. Yeah.
Phil:But then you started, it really started growing on you, and you were like looking forward to going and
Amber:Yeah I had a little cousin that had to come stay with me in transition because she had a major situation happen. And I realized then that I gotta set an example. And show her that it's not okay to deal with certain things and you've got to build on things and stand on it. And I really didn't know how to do that because I was fresh out of rehab and I was fresh in my recovery and just didn't really know. And so the only person that would know was God. So that's when I really just started pushing into it and being like, okay let's go to church. Let's do this. And then it's funny how you think you're doing something for someone else. But really, they're helping you get to where you need to be in life.
Phil:That is awesome. I love that. That's really so awesome. So being there, going every week to the Fort Church you learned, you got to learn more about God and about Jesus and just begin that actual relationship with
Amber:Him. Yeah, definitely. When I started going, I realized that he's not the harsh God that everybody thinks he is. And he's not this, in the Old Testament, he's portrayed as such a harsh God and that he's so judging and you got to do, but then I realized like the prophets added extra rules that didn't need to be there. And in the New Testament, you learn more of how he's merciful, he's forgiving, he's just God of peace, and you realize that through him, if he can forgive you, the God of gods, the man of the man, then why can't you forgive yourself for what you've done? Yeah. And I learned like pretty much through him just how to love myself again and that I am worthy. That's awesome.
Phil:Wow. I love that. So it sounds like at some point along the way you. You received Jesus as your Savior, asked for forgiveness, and became a child of God.
Amber:Yeah. I think it was last year not the summer that just passed, but the summer right before that, me and my best friend that were like childhood friends, we had a fallen out because I I did some, I did her wrong in a sort of way and then later on in life we reconnected and we've just been over that. We were, we both dug into the Bible really deep around the same time and it was funny because it wasn't planned, it wasn't, and we were just talking one day and we're like, let's get saved. Wow. And so me and her got saved and it's just been rocking ever since. That's,
Phil:I love that. That's amazing. That is so amazing. Yeah. Just so so as you were going to church at the fort you began to read and study the Bible on your own As well.
Amber:Yeah so For a long time. I thought my favorite verse was Philippians 4 13, but it's really Romans 5 8 Because he loved us even in our darkness man. Like he was never changing up We were the ones that changed and he like, just let us come right back in
Phil:That is an amazing verse Yeah. But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, while we didn't want anything sinners. Yeah. He loved us. He was there. Yeah. He loved us and died for us when we could care less.
Amber:Yeah. We're, it just shows how selfish human beings can be at times and how we're just like, bump it. And then God's still come on man, come back home. Let's go. What are we doing today?
Phil:Oh, yeah. His love is amazing. Yeah. His grace is amazing. That's awesome. So then from there, what's happened?
Amber:From there, I reconnected with Jamie, she was at the fort. Jamie Lee? Yeah, Jamie Lee. Okay. She was at the fort and we slowly reconnected and then I had graduated drug court and me and my cousin moved into our own apartment and we were doing things but I just was not satisfied at my job. I was working at First Credit Services in O'Charlie's. And I love serving, so like I've held on to that through all these years, but I was working there and the first credit services I was a collector, a debt collector, and I just, I wasn't getting sped, I was like, just like whatever, I didn't like it, and so on a whim I was just like, alright, this is it, we're gonna do it, and before I could quit I got fired because I was on my phone one day when I wasn't supposed to be, and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And then I quit O'Charlie's and I talked to Jamie and at first it was like, I don't know. We got to see. And then a couple months later she called me and she was like, this is a new position and just opened up. We're doing this on the seat of our pants. Let's go into housing. And I was like, okay. So
Phil:Jamie Lee reached out with an opportunity to come work for Safe House Ministries. Yes. So what was that first role that you had at Safe House Ministries?
Amber:The first role and the only role I've had is housing case management. Okay. So what I do is you've got to be direct homelessness and you got to reach out through the resource 2 1 1, United Way. They send your referral over, blase, and slowly we get you housed. We prevent homelessness, which is the main goal for Safe House anyway. To prevent
Phil:homelessness. So your role as a housing manager, housing case manager, is when someone's homeless, they do the intake and assessment through the 211 of United Way, then they get assigned to you as their case manager and you work through the process to help them go from being homeless to actually having a permanent home.
Amber:Yeah. I work alongside Drew Johnson and Kathy Robison. Yeah. It's a good team and they're the superiors. So I get to learn a lot from them. They've been around the ministry a lot longer. So it's not just like I learned about my job more. I learned about the ministry more with them and it's just, I think that we make a good team. That
Phil:is awesome. So what is, what does the process look like from. Someone that's homeless. What is the process that you walk them through to get housed?
Amber:Once we get the referral, we have a sit down meeting and we just. Make sure they have all their forms of ID, you got to have certain paperwork done and then we get in contact with the Agencies like the power agencies the Columbus water works not those sort of such things We get their arrears paid and we get their deposits made. And then once they get that far, we have a sit down with the landlord and everything. And we just go over it and see if this house is right for them financially, room wise. There's, you got to think about the future because after the assistance, like you don't want to be back out on the streets. Yeah. Most of these people have children, they got to think about that. Yeah. And then we get them housed. We have resources for people that don't have furniture. And then of course, Ms. Kathy has resources for jobs and everything, so we can get them employed and help them get on their feet and maintain, because that's the game plan is to be a productive member of society. Yeah,
Phil:that's awesome. So really, so safe house. It takes care of everything on the front end, working with the client, just starting with the documents, that ID and the birth certificate and social security card, all of those things. Yeah.
Amber:So if you don't have those things, there's a resource called VoteRiders that comes into Safe House. And when they come in, you can meet with them. And of course it takes a little bit longer because it's a outside resource, but you can meet with them and they can help you get your things that you need, like your birth certificate or your social security card, even your state ID. They go as far as to paying for Uber at the state. Not at the state, but a Uber for you to go out to the driver's license bureau and get your ID. There's a lot of cool resources that I didn't know was here in Columbus that I now am aware of.
Phil:That's awesome. Yeah, Safe House partners with a lot of other organizations to work together.
Amber:Yeah, it's definitely a group effort. Teamwork makes the dream work.
Phil:Yeah, awesome. And then, so you work with the vendors or landlords. You get all the documents in order we're able to help with the money for the security deposit, the first month's rent, or what does that look like?
Amber:So what it is we definitely pay the rent. And the deposit for the first month and then it's a month to month basis. Let's say you get in there and get this phenomenal job and you're able to maintain for yourself. Then we come up with a game plan and how we're going to do that. Maybe you can take off after the first month and then that way you can leave resources for the next person. But then maybe the next person came in with a job and something crazy happened and the job shut down or something. And They need a little bit longer, so then we were able to offer that. Okay. It's really just a month to month basis. It's nothing like, there's no time or anything. We just take it month to month. Yeah.
Phil:The goal being we want to help that person become stable and to get to the place where they can take off and take care of themselves and their family for the long term.
Amber:Correct. Bingo. Awesome. That's exactly the game plan because you never want to see a family go back out there.
Phil:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't want that cycle of homeless get into a place then shortly thereafter you're homeless again.
Amber:Yeah. Unfortunately it does happen sometimes when, once people get off the assistance and then once people get off the accountability, sometimes things happen, but typically it's. We're pretty much set for the gold.
Phil:Yeah. That's good. Amber, I will let you know that I have been in leadership meetings at Safe House Ministries and people have spoken very highly of you and of how well you're doing your job. And so thank you for that and kudos. You're helping a lot of people. It's making a difference in a lot of people's lives.
Amber:I'm just glad that God put me in the position and Safe House gave me the opportunity to be able to help these people and, be able to pay it forward in a sense.
Phil:Yeah. Awesome. It sounds like you feel like you found just a purpose in serving the Lord with Safe House to help others.
Amber:Definitely. Definitely. I definitely think the whole point of things is to show love and to show kindness in the world. In the world we live in today, it's such a rough place that it just takes being nice to one person. And that could change their whole aspect of things. Yeah.
Phil:Yeah. So you're married. You and your husband are doing well. Do you guys have any
Amber:kids? No. He's got two kids that are grown, but no, we don't have any kids. Okay. It's funny you ask, because I always have kids with me. Really? Yeah. I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and he's got grandkids, and two grown sons, and so In that, we have a lot of kids that hang out at our house, and it's funny, we went from being the trap to the place that everyone's supposed to be at. That's awesome. Yeah, just watching the process, and at night, when the kids are there, I'll be like, did you ever think we were going to make it this far?
Phil:Now you're the safe and positive place for everybody else to just come and hang out.
Amber:Yeah, we try to be. That's
Phil:good. That's so good. Awesome. Yeah. And things are going well. You're loving the Fort Church. Definitely. Are you guys serving there at the church in
Amber:any way, or? Yeah. We live in a leadership house through Take the City, and so we do outreach once a month in our neighborhood, and we'll just grill out, maybe throw a bounce house up or something, and let the kids come and play, or let parents just come and, with, In that we talk about God or just talk about like daily things. You don't pressure people into situations. You got to build a relationship before you can get to that point. And then we do small groups at church. Very positive thing. Pretty much in small groups, we just break down what happened on Sunday and give our personal view. If you didn't understand something, you can get more understanding about it. You build relationships within the church and then. Also, we have Love and Kindness every Monday. Me, Ronnie, the guy I was talking about that pressured you to go into church. Me, his wife, and my husband were doing the first Monday, but we just passed the torch on to someone else. But like I said, once you get sober and stuff, you find all these resources. in Columbus, Georgia to just help you stay positive or get there. And so now it's just about spreading the word for those resources.
Phil:Yeah, there's, there is so much help and so many people that are wanting to come alongside and help. Yeah. That's good. It's great. Yeah. That's really good. Amber, is there any question I didn't ask or anything that you feel like would be good to add?
Amber:No. Okay. I think we did great. Okay.
Phil:Any maybe one or two little bits of wisdom or last pieces of advice that you might want to share?
Amber:Just have fun in things. You don't have to take it so serious. Like in life in general, everyone is so serious with work or with the situation of homelessness or, they forget to smile and just take a breath and step away from it. And that's what it's all about, man. You just gotta be free in it.
Phil:Wow. That's good. That's good advice for me. I'm a very serious personality. It's good for me to think about, I just need to, I need to lighten up and just have more fun and just joy. I had to tell myself that a lot.
Amber:deFinitely because if it's not done, it's, it's not done that day. It'll be okay. There's always tomorrow. It's not the end
Phil:of the world. Exactly. It's all about perspective, isn't it?
Amber:Yeah, I wish my husband's probably gonna listen to this and be like, I wish he's, she doesn't seem like that all the time.
Phil:You have some serious moments? I'm
Amber:very, I'm a very like, when I get stuck on something, I need a fix right then. Like
Phil:if something's not working or if you just gotta fix a problem?
Amber:Yeah. I want to know the solution right then and they can like might take a little bit of time but while I'm waiting, I'm worried about it. I'm like, just stop. It's okay.
Phil:So he tells you to lighten up and not worry about it so much. Yes,
Amber:definitely.
Phil:Awesome. Awesome. Amber, thank you for being here.
Amber:No problem. Thank you for having me.
Phil:Thank you for sharing your story. You have a really neat story and you're young, so I think you've got a lot yet to do that God wants you to do. So I'm excited. I'm excited about your work continuing at safe house ministries as a case manager for housing and. And just about all the people that you're going to reach there and how you're reaching out to your neighbors. I think it's
Amber:awesome. Thank you. I'm glad to see and just, I don't know, I'm ready for whatever God brings. Good. All right.
Phil:Thank you. You mind if I close us in a word of prayer? Dear Father, I love you. I praise you. I thank you for Amber. Thank you for what you've done in her life. Thank you for how you've been there from the beginning. Even before she knew you, even before she knew you cared about her, just like she said, as Romans 5, 8 says, you loved her and you love all of us. You loved all of us when we cared nothing for you, when we were sinners, just living however we wanted to live, hurting people, not caring about you or anybody else. You loved us. Even then, and you wanted to reach us and save us. Thank you for saving my soul. Thank you for saving Amber's soul. Thank you for the work of regeneration and blessing you are doing in her life and how you're using her to help so many others. Keep her strong. Keep her husband strong. Keep them both walking with you and the path that you have for them and use them to do great things to bring the light greater and greater here in Columbus. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Amber:Amen.
Phil Shuler:We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.