Jackie has a wonderful bubbly spirit, and from what I've heard is also an excellent baker! But she has struggled greatly in the past with substance abuse, first with opiates and then with alcohol. Alcohol became the "substitute" for weaning her off opiates, but when the drinking became excessive things began to fall apart. Jackie needed help, and more importantly, she wanted help. In Columbus, GA help will always be there for those who want it. Jackie found her way to SafeHouse Ministries substance abuse program, Tomorrow's Hope, and our women's shelter, Grace House, and she is now building a sober, stable, and more beautiful life than ever.
Jackie has a wonderful bubbly spirit, and from what I've heard is also an excellent baker! But she has struggled greatly in the past with substance abuse, first with opiates and then with alcohol. Alcohol became the "substitute" for weaning her off opiates, but when the drinking became excessive things began to fall apart. Jackie needed help, and more importantly, she wanted help. In Columbus, GA help will always be there for those who want it. Jackie found her way to SafeHouse Ministries substance abuse program, Tomorrow's Hope, and our women's shelter, Grace House, and she is now building a sober, stable, and more beautiful life than ever.
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 Jackie and Jackie was again recommended to me by some of my colleagues at safe house ministries she is in the tomorrow's hope program and has come highly recommended as doing very well right now and she's been willing to come and share her story. So Jackie, thank you for being here this morning.
Jackie:Thanks for having me.
Phil:I'm very glad to have you. Jackie starting out. I would love to ask you if there was one word that could best describe you, what do you think that word would be?
Jackie:Bubbly. Bubbly? What
Phil:makes you say bubbly?
Jackie:Bubbly, I'm very, I don't know, I'm outgoing and I'm very bubbly. I like to meet people and talk to people.
Phil:That's awesome. That's a good quality. Yeah. Yeah. It makes you very personable. Awesome. I'm sure it means that you have lots of friends too.
Jackie:I do. I try to. Yeah. That's good.
Phil:Awesome. Thanks again for being here this morning and just for being willing to share your story. Oh, thank
Jackie:you.
Phil:So how about we just start at the beginning. Where did you grow up? Did you grow up here in Columbus?
Jackie:I was born here on Fort Benning and we were here until I was about five. And then we went to Germany for three years.
Phil:Okay.
Jackie:And we did the whole military thing. Do you
Phil:remember much of that time frame?
Jackie:I remember quite a bit, actually. Yeah? I feel blessed. I got, I remember going out. Yeah, I remember going to school and then going out. We got going off the base into the, I don't know, the little German towns and stuff.
Phil:Yeah. I bet that was really neat.
Jackie:It was. It was a good, a lot of culture there.
Phil:Okay. Awesome. So what happened from there? Like you guys came back to the States after that tour?
Jackie:We did. And then we went to Louisiana for a couple, for a year or two, then to Texas, then up to Pennsylvania. And then they brought us back home to the South. All
Phil:right. So it sounds like it was a good childhood.
Jackie:It really was. It really was. I got to see a lot and meet a lot of different people from different backgrounds.
Phil:Okay. Awesome. Awesome. How about the teenage years?
Jackie:We moved back here when I was 15 and that's when, and we moved out to the country out to Marion County and then it was, it was good. I had made some, it was nice. It was different cause I was so used to moving around and going to different schools and we went to a school where everyone grew up together from kindergarten. So first I felt like an outsider, but then as I got to know people, I made some really amazing friends that I'm still friends with today. Okay.
Phil:That's awesome.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:Yeah. Good. High school went well.
Jackie:High school was good. I had some really great friends. I had three really great friends that I'm, two of them passed away since, but one of them, she's still there and a great teachers and I was just ready to get out of school. I was ready to go to college. Yeah.
Phil:So you graduated high school then I think you were telling me you went to culinary school.
Jackie:I did. I went, I didn't go directly to culinary school. I went to CSU for a little while, then I had a car accident and I decided I was like, I don't want to do this. I just want to make pretty cupcakes. And so when I was about 24, 25, I moved to Atlanta for culinary school.
Phil:Okay. were you. Clean at this time, like not getting into trouble doing anything, things were going well.
Jackie:I had started drinking when I was about 18, but it wasn't nothing serious. I was just here and there on the weekends, and then I had a car accident week before my 21st birthday, which I feel blessed. I had the accident because we were playing in this big party when I turned 21 and I had the accident. And then the guy who started, who caused accident was like, Oh, she's been drinking, she's been drinking. And they tested me. There was nothing in my system because I was coming back from CSU that night and I didn't, my addiction didn't even start then. I was still every now and then because I was recovering from a car accident. I couldn't walk for a while because I shattered my hip and pelvis. Wow.
Phil:That sounds like a very serious car accident. It
Jackie:was very serious. It was very serious.
Phil:Wow, but it looks like you're doing well now, so you were healed and recovered fully from that?
Jackie:I still deal with some things.
Phil:Yeah. Okay. so culinary school, your early twenties drinking some, but not out of control at that point. Not out of control. Okay. What then? Where did things go from there?
Jackie:So I moved back to Columbus after Atlanta. I stayed up there about a couple of years and I moved back and I got married, had my son and then In 2016, about 2016, 2017, I started having issues with my knee and my hip from my car accident, and it took a minute. All the doctors I was going to my insurance from my company didn't cover the Jack Houston or the North side to have my right surgeries. I had, I have hip replacement surgery and my PCO replaced in my knee. Wow. And they put, they sent me to the pain clinic and I was getting, they put me on all these opiates. I was doing everything good at it in the beginning, but it, my pain was so bad and I was also working running one of these restaurants, Houlihan's here in Columbus and I just, I don't know what happened. I just started using my medication way too much. I was overtaking it and I got addicted to opiates and it took a couple of years for me to finally, I started Substituting alcohol for the opiates and that's how I got myself off opiates after about three years of taking massive amounts of opiates I mean I was doing anything I could I was, to get them and I was overtaking them I have to give my daughter's excuses as to why I was running out why it wasn't in my system Wow, and it's just it was bad. It was really bad So I got myself off the opiates and I started drinking it but it wasn't you know, heavy drinking. It was it was heavy drinking. It wasn't like excessive. And so I was drinking here or there. And then it just, my marriage, we ended up, we parted ways. And then during COVID is when things started getting really bad. I lost my best friend from high school. He passed away from his addiction. And I just, I don't know. I don't know what went off in my head. I just gave up and and I started drinking to the max. It just slowly, it just started going. I was working full time with Tractor Supply and I just started drinking and I was drinking at work. I was drinking constantly and then I left my job and I ended up getting remarried to an amazing man and. I don't know we both were in our addictions at that time and it just went out of hand.
Phil:So just kept
Jackie:spiraling and I would get jobs and I lost two to three amazing jobs during my addiction with three amazing companies because I just I didn't go back. I would start drinking. I would be working and then,
Phil:so that everyone could see you're intoxicated at work. And
Jackie:now I think about it. Yes. I think about it now. I've been thinking about it, processing it a lot lately. I'm like, how did no one ever say nothing to me? I'm like, I can smell it when I pass by someone on the street now. I'm like, Oh, I smell alcohol and I'm like, how did no one not know, I'm like, someone had to have known I was drinking.
Phil:So there wasn't any progressive, Hey, you need to fix this or going to get fired. It just was. All of a sudden, you're fired.
Jackie:Oh, no, I was never fired. I left. I just didn't go back. Yes, sir. Oh, wow. I just didn't go back to work. I would go on a bender and be like, I'm just not going to work
Phil:today. Oh, wow.
Jackie:Which is terrible because I have a good work ethic. I've worked up my way up in all the companies I've worked for. And I just really, I feel like just a bad person. Just not going back, not calling them, not answering the phone.
Phil:Yeah. Because I
Jackie:chose alcohol over, over everything.
Phil:How was that impacting your home life?
Jackie:It was terrible. Cause you know, my husband and I, we were, cause I couldn't keep a job. We were arguing a lot and then it came to the point, where I was drinking in front of my son and around my son and I finally had to tell his father, I'm like, Yeah, I had to come to a point where I'm like, listen, he can't be here because he can't be around me. I'm sick and there's something wrong. And until I can get help and fix my life, I was like, he can't be around me. And that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
Phil:How old was he at that point?
Jackie:About seven.
Phil:I admire you for that. I'm sure that took so much courage and. I can't imagine how hard that was, but for you to come to the place where you're, you recognized this is not good for him. Yeah. And then, so you reached out to your ex husband and he told him. I told him. And he took Ezra and Ezra started living with him at that point.
Jackie:We, it's always been split. Like I had him half the week and his father had him half the week and I was like, he just can't, he can't be around me with this, cause I was fighting with my husband and it was not a healthy environment for any of us, and So I ended up having to do that. And then my husband and I, my husband was actually the one who helped me detox from the beginning. He, one night we're sitting there and I was going to be getting Ezra the following weekend. He's Hey, I think it'd be a good idea if you went and detoxed. Before you get your son because you cannot be with him doing his drinking and I went and That's when I decided to go to treatment I've met an amazing nurse there who she came in my room goes have you ever thought about Treatment because I've already detoxed like twice two or three times that year
Phil:So you would just quit on your own? No,
Jackie:I would go to the Bradley Center and detox and then I would come home and I wouldn't drink for a couple days. The first time we went, I didn't drink for a couple weeks. I got out the night before the national championship, the first time Georgia played Alabama. My husband's an Alabama fan and I'm a Georgia fan. Oh, wow. He, we went to this bar and I was the only sober person in the bar because I was drinking club soda. And I was proud of myself, after detoxing for seven days. I bet that
Phil:was hard.
Jackie:What you talking about? It was super hard and I did it, but just that, that it was always there, cause my husband was still drinking at the time, the triggers, I guess you'd call it. It was always there, he'd be drinking a beer and I'm like, finally, I'm like, oh, I need one too. I can't do this, and I did it a couple of times and finally that in September of 20, 22. 2022 is when he was like, Hey, you should detox before you get your son this weekend. I was like, all right, great. And I went and I spent it up spending three weeks at the Bradley center. I met an amazing nurse. She came in my room was like, have you ever thought about treatment? And I was like, no. And she talked to me. She said, Hey, listen, I went through this treatment. There's this program here with the safe house, in the grace house. She goes, Really think about it and she helped me and I'm still friends with her to this day I tell her about my what's going on. And so I went in and I got accepted to tomorrow's Hope I got accepted to the Grace House I went and I spent about four and a half about four and a half months with them and last February. I don't know I've I don't, my head wasn't in it cause I was doing it, but I was doing it for everybody else and not for myself.
Phil:Yeah.
Jackie:And I was like, I don't need this. And I ended up leaving. I got myself kicked out of the program. I drank and I shouldn't have, and I regret every moment of it. But sometimes you, when you're not ready, you're not ready. And so I left the program last February and I was like, all right, I'm doing great. I'm on top of the world. I got a job at the. As a pastry chef at the Columbus Country Club and I was working there.
Phil:Were you telling me you were the head pastry chef? Just the
Jackie:pastry chef. Like I was the only pastry chef there. Oh,
Phil:okay. So you were the head pastry chef. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Jackie:I was doing it and I worked with some great people and I was working on top of the world. And I, but the only problem was I was working, I put work ahead of my recovery. I wasn't going to meetings, wasn't contacting my sponsor. And I had, something happen over the summer and I quit taking my mental health medicine. And I just I, one day I was like, I bet I can just drink one. I could, I got this. So I did that and I hid it from everyone. No one knew and I was good the next week. I could bet I could drink another one. And then it just spiraled out of control. And at that time I'd gotten back, my husband and I, we had split up for a year, we started talking and I told him I had relapsed and he had quit drinking for a few months cause he had gotten a brand new job and he was doing amazing. And I spent the summer relapsing and I would go to his house because he's always been that person. Who's not going to judge me. He's not gonna, say, Hey, you don't need to be doing this. It, you're an adult. If you want to be clean, you want to be clean. And then we got COVID over the summer and then one night we were drinking and I was like, I was sitting there praying. I'm like, I can't do this. And I said, Tommy, I need to go to, I need to go detox. I said, I can't do this no more. And he's let's wait till tomorrow. I said, no, cause if I wait till tomorrow, I'm never going to go. Cause I've already reached out to some of the ladies that. The grace house and the safe house to come back to treatment. Once I, when things got bad, you reached
Phil:out to ask to come back again.
Jackie:I did. I reached out, asked to come back again. And I reached out to Christie and she's, and that was a week before. And she's like, all right, just get all your stuff done. And then finally, when I realized I couldn't detox at, So I went back to the Bradley Center for a week and I came back and I'm doing it for me this time. I know, a lot of people are like, but my son or my, no, I can't do it for him because if I do it for him that I'm not doing it for me, I have to do it for me first before, to get myself healthy.
Phil:Yeah. And once he went, cause you'll be a better person then healthy and then you'll be better for him.
Jackie:Better for him. Better for my husband. Better for my family. Yeah.
Phil:Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So during that time, before you started the second time at Tomorrow's Hope and the Safe House You were telling me, I think that you were working just in the kitchen and around alcohol and that was a difficult.
Jackie:It was when I was at the country club, there's alcohol there. People were drinking and it just, it was difficult because at first I was like, I got this, I just ignored it. But when you have to, there's, it's a country club, there's a lot of alcohol and then just to go to get a soda, you have to walk behind the bar, and I was good. I was good. But it was just. It slowly was just eating at me, that, that disease just gets you. It's Hey, you can drink when you get off work, you can go by and get you a beer. You can go get you some of this. And it's, that disease just took over.
Phil:Yeah. And with some of the pastry desserts, did you have to put alcohol in some of those as well?
Jackie:The day I left, they'd asked me to make a cake. There's this one cake had rum in it And I was already had been drinking and so I came to work and I hadn't drank and I was just, it was rough. It was so rough. And I'm like, I don't know how they not know that I'm not going through withdrawals. I'm sweating. I looked a hot mess and I was, it was bad and I was like, I am no good for nobody to be doing this.
Phil:There's, I think there's such a lesson there about cause all of us, we struggle with different things, right? And if we're in a, in an environment where there's. The temptation of the thing that maybe we struggle with, it's probably not the right place for us.
Jackie:It's not, and I had to call them and tell them, listen, I have, I can't work there cause there's just too much alcohol. And it broke my heart cause I finally got the job. I've been working mine forever to get, I was baking. I loved it. I loved going in. I got to make the menu each week, make the desserts for the week, every week. And it was, and I worked with some great guys, all the chefs, they're just amazing people. And the managers, everyone with the country club, just, I'd never, I didn't meet anyone I didn't like, it just, It was a great environment, so healthy, it's just the alcohol wasn't the healthy part, and I had to realize it's, my addiction is my problem, and I have to, they can't save me from, no one can protect me from my, my, my problem. I had to take myself out of the situation.
Phil:Yeah. So you got yourself out of the environment, you got yourself back into tomorrow's hope and move back into the grace house, the women's shelter for safe house. And yeah. Pick up the journey from there.
Jackie:So I've been there. I did. Everything's going great. Like I've read, I got a new sponsor who's an AA sponsor and I work with her and I'm, we're going to different meetings and I've met some, I met some amazing people. I met one girl, when I was at the Bradley Center and she came with me to treatment and now it's just. It's different because I'm doing this for me and my head's there because I've seen now that I'm looking back, I see where I went wrong and what the things I did. But sometimes, they tell you, you may, you have to go back out there to realize to find out you're really ready, and I come back cause I'm ready. I don't want to do, I don't want to be that person anymore, cause I'm not, I'm no good for no one. And so now I'm going to class and I just got a job about a month ago, and we're
Phil:at
Jackie:Aldi.
Phil:Awesome.
Jackie:It's awesome. My manager, his, he's has a background in addiction counseling and so does mom. And so he understands where I'm at and, I have a great friend there that I've known from my past and it's just it's a different environment. It's hard work, but I love it. I need that. So
Phil:that's good. That's really good.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:So you seemed like you did really well in phase one with tomorrow. So I did
Jackie:I really did. I got all my step work done and they even were commenting you're different this time. And I was like, I feel different this time. That's
Phil:awesome. So they could see the difference. Like the first time, maybe you just weren't serious about it and this time they see that in you. That's good. That's really good.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:So you staying in touch with your husband and your son? Yep.
Jackie:I talked to them. Yep. I talked to my son, pretty regularly. My husband, we, he, we go to meet and he meets me now that we're allowed to go to meetings and stuff together. I, he takes me to the meetings on the weekends cause we, I still have to get, I So during the evening classes, I'm in phase two, I go to classes at night and we still have to do five meetings outside of work and everything. So we go to meetings on the weekend and go to, I go to his home group.
Phil:Awesome.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:That's good.
Jackie:It is good. We're getting to know each other on a sober aspect of life because now that we're both clean together, we're not doing it together for each other. We're doing it for ourselves, everything meshes. That's really good.
Phil:Yeah. So you're building a more solid foundation in your marriage, just getting to know each other, being sober, being clean. That's awesome.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:That's really awesome. Working at Aldi, going to meetings doing really well now in phase two. Are you going to church anywhere?
Jackie:I am. We'd go to the fort, but then we've been, we've I'm here talking. We've been going to the Catholic Church every now and then because he's Catholic and I converted to Catholicism years ago. But then just recently one of his co workers goes to this wonderful church out outside, right out in Lido, Lee County, and it's a Baptist Church. We went out there once and I loved it. I felt so welcome. So everywhere I've gone, just everyone You know, just so welcome. You don't feel like an outsider that everyone's coming up. Hey, my name is so and what is your name? It's so glad to have you. That's awesome. So we've tried, we, we definitely put God first and you have to.
Phil:Yeah. Oh yeah, it's, and it's amazing to think back over, over our lives and just how God is there directing us, guiding us, trying to get us back to the place where he wants us to be.
Jackie:Yeah, most definitely. I was mad at God when. My, my best friend passed away, I was mad and I put him in the background. I wasn't, I didn't put him first and then slowly, the coming back to treatment this time and really putting God first and putting, doing my morning, devotion every day and then going to church. It's just the blessings that are coming now. I've outweighed all the bad that I've done and experienced.
Phil:Wow. It sounds like you have really established just a lot of habits. Then a better pattern just every day. That's good. So you're spending time like just reading the Bible, praying and being with the Lord every morning. Yes, sir. That's good. Yeah that's solid. That's, yeah, I love that. Then going to church, different
Jackie:churches.
Phil:Okay.
Jackie:Does this seem, cause you never know, we don't, you don't know which one you want to be a member of until you'll know when you know.
Phil:Yeah. How's Ezra doing like through this time?
Jackie:He's doing good. I talked to him. He knows where I'm at. And he's you're just getting better at explaining that I'm in a program that's going to help me with my, with drinking, so I won't drink no more. He's okay mom. And he supports me. He's you're doing good. I'm so proud of you.
Phil:How old is he now? 10. Okay. That's awesome.
Jackie:Yeah.
Phil:It sounds like he loves you a ton.
Jackie:Yes. I love him so much.
Phil:Yeah. That's good. That's good. So then when you finish. Phase three, you'll get out and I guess you'll go back to the split. Custody and you'll see Ezra a lot more.
Jackie:thAt's my plan. But I can't just, I've talked about this with my husband and my sponsor and stuff. I, yes, I want to be able to get my son, but I also got to think of it on his father's side. We gotta make sure you're not going to relapse, like last time, they got to make sure it's going to be a safe environment. And, it's just, I have to build that trust back to build it back with everybody.
Phil:Yeah. Okay. And I think you were telling me a little bit that you're starting to get back into just doing your own business baking, maybe selling a few cakes or cupcakes or.
Jackie:Yeah, I definitely want to do that because I had a side bakery business before my addiction and I ran into the ground with my addiction. I could, I ruined everything, but now I want to, once I get out of the, out of treatment, I want to be able to start building my, my, my customer base back up and showing everyone, Hey, I am dependable. I can bake your cakes and
Phil:that's
Jackie:where my happiness is. I love being in the kitchen.
Phil:That's awesome. I have a daughter that loves to bake as well. There you go. Not that great for my waistline, I don't think, but yeah, I appreciate it. That's right. I love baked goods more than I should. So Jackie. As you think back about just your story and what's happened, what maybe would be some key lessons that you feel like you've learned along the way that you'd like to share for maybe some others that might be struggling?
Jackie:Key lessons. Not to be afraid to speak up, ask for help. I was so embarrassed and so ashamed that I never asked for help, even when I would detox, I would be like, all right, they're like, you want to go to treatment? No, I'm fine. I got this. I got this, and it's not to be afraid because no one's here to judge you. People are here to help you, especially our community. Our community promotes recovery so much here in the Columbus area. And there's so many different, places that are willing to help, the safe house is an amazing place. We have the safe, the grace house and the freedom house and there's so many different, there's other recovery places here in Columbus and they promote it,
Phil:yeah.
Jackie:Not to be ashamed.
Phil:Yeah. Okay. Good. Is there any question that I haven't asked? Maybe I should have or just any last bit of anything that you want to add?
Jackie:Maybe that I'm appreciative for all my support, like my family, my sister and my mom never gave up on me, as much as I did, and my husband, like they're all, they've always been there, I've done some pretty terrible things, to people and I'm making my amends. Slowly and everyone's coming back around, but my mom and my sister, no matter what kind of trouble I got into, my sister has always been like, no, I'm not gonna let, my sister go down. I'm going to be there for her. They've always been there. Yeah. That's good. My husband, my sister and my mom, my dad's there. He's just not in town. I talked to him constantly. So
Phil:that's awesome. Yeah. Sounds like you have a great family. I
Jackie:have an amazing family.
Phil:I love that. Yeah, that's good. And were you ever in prison at all or jail or anything?
Jackie:I did get two DUIs and I got arrested on the second one and then I got in trouble doing something stupid down in Dawson, Georgia, and I got arrested for having my gun, but I was only in jail for 30 hours. So never spent no major time in jail.
Phil:Okay.
Jackie:I learned from that. I learned big time. My, one of my best friends was killed by a drunk driver right about nine months after my car accident, 20 something years ago. And I didn't even fight the DUIs, everyone's you could get a lawyer and you can get reckless driving. And I'm like, no, I shouldn't have been on that road. I shouldn't have been drinking and driving. Wendy was killed by a drunk driver and here I am. Doing something that I hate the most, so I got to face the music, I did it. So
Phil:yeah, it's amazing to me that you had that awareness, to recognize, even though you were struggling and you knew you're in a bad place and you knew you shouldn't have been in that place, but you had the awareness just to recognize, Hey, I shouldn't have been doing this. This was wrong. I Is that common, do you think, in the circles of people that are struggling with addictions or do you think there's a tendency to blame something else and just,
Jackie:I don't know. I know I've blamed other people for my things too, so I think it can go both ways. Some, I do have awareness for stuff, but then there's some things I've done where, I've been selfish and I've blamed other people or other, things about my situation and it's just, it's like some of the good, some of the things you take awareness of, if you take responsibility, but then there's other things, where you're selfish and you're like, Oh no, that's someone else's fault that I'm putting it off on everyone else. And now that I'm coming out of this addiction and in the recovery, I'm looking back and I'm like, that's where I've done terrible things. Cause that's what working that with the 12 steps and making your amends and. Your resentments. You need that. That's that. Hey, you have to build that foundation.
Phil:Yeah. So that's a fundamental part of the recovery program is taking that personal responsibility and making amends.
Jackie:Yep. That's what I'm about to start working on. I'm about to write my amends list. Awesome.
Phil:Awesome. Awesome. It's really been such a pleasure talking with you. It's been great talking
Jackie:to you.
Phil:Yeah. And I hope I can be counted among your abundance of friends now in the Columbus area. Yeah. And it's, I'm excited for you. I'm glad you're really enjoying Aldi and working there and yeah, a lot of my colleagues they see. Great things in you and they recognize that you are serious and you are dedicated and you're doing well and you're just. You are, like you said, different.
Jackie:I appreciate that.
Phil:Yeah. I'm excited for you and your husband getting to know each other as a, being sober and building, building that a solid marriage and then a place for Ezra. So you can train him up, turn him out in the world and he can make a positive difference.
Jackie:Exactly right.
Phil:He's got a good name for it. Ezra David. Yeah. That's good. I love it. Anything else you want to add before we close?
Jackie:I appreciate it. Thanks for having me here.
Phil:I'm glad to have you. You mind if I close this in a word of prayer?
Jackie:Of course. All right.
Phil:Father, I love you. Thank you for Jackie. Thank you for her, just her kind and joyful spirit. Thank you for her willingness to share her story, her struggles. Thank you for her, acceptance and seriousness about Turning around and just, I think of the word repentance and how it just talks about how you're going down one path and then you completely turn the opposite direction and go an entirely different direction and that's what she's done. That's what she's doing. She was going down a path and she recognized it was the wrong path and she has turned 180 degrees all the way around and she's walking on a good path, clean, going, doing well, Wanting to be a better person for herself and then you can use her to just make such a positive difference in Ezra's life and her husband's life. I pray you bless Jackie. I pray you'd bless her path, bless her greatly, protect her Lord from temptations that may come down the road. Help her to stay out of any places or environments that would, that would be a temptation for her to stumble. Help her to stay strong, help her to just. Look to you to trust in you, to be faithful to you. Thank you for Jesus for the salvation that we have because of him giving his life for us. Thank you for his resurrection that gives us the hope and the power of eternal life. With you one day. I pray that you'd guide Jackie and her husband to the church that you want them to be at and just continue to do great things in her life. And I pray that you'd use her story and her testimony and even this podcast to really make a positive and strong impact in the lives of many others. Pray that you would help us here in Columbus and that you would bring many. Out of addiction and into recovery and use them to spread that victory across Columbus that we can turn the lights up and get farther away from the darkness all across our city. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. 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.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2:Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.