Death Does Not Win! How Jesus Turned Tragedy Into Beauty and Created a Life Better Than Ever Between Jasmine and Her Mom (Part 2 of Jasmine Connell's Story)

Jasmine's Mom loved her, but so often was not the mother that Jasmine needed, especially when her brother Duncan died in a car accident.  Jasmine concludes her story by sharing some of the darkest times of her life, but the story does not end there, because God came in and brought light to dispel the darkness.  God turned everything upside down and created a beautifully restored relationship between Jasmine and her mom Christy, who is now also an amazing grandmother to little Hendrix!

(Be sure to listen to part 1 of Jasmine's story before diving into this one, we hope you love the entire 2-part story!)

Transcript

Phil Shuler: 0:00

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.

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When I looked in my grandma's car, saw the seat go to walk back across the storage yard. This was right after BJ made his big commotion. And as I'm walking across, my granddad is trying to come drive across the storage yard because he heard all the commotion and he thought he was in neutral or park whatever, and he was really in drive. So he went from park to drive and he hit me. So I flew on top of the car. Wow. And he landed in a storage unit under a moving truck? Yeah he as in my granddad. Okay. Yeah. Wow. So we both went to the er and this was right in the middle of, me moving to Macon. And BJ was, he was just backing out, creating a drama scene and Yeah, pretty much. Wow. So then it was a battle because it did hurt me. I had a sic nerve, so I couldn't walk for two weeks and my mom had to come to Macon and help me with Hendrix because he was just a baby. So why were you moving to Macon? What made you move? What caused you to move to Macon? Better opportunity work-wise or, yes. Did you have family out there or my aunt lives there and my uncle has a hood cleaning business. Where he goes to restaurants and cleans hoods. Yeah. And BJ was gonna run that for him. Wow. BJ needed a good career path. Yeah. And we were trying to help him with that. And we were trying to just give Hendricks a better future. Yeah. That was the whole point in moving. And there was more job opportunity there for me. So that was what the plan was. But that fell through when he decided that he didn't want to go. So of course I went because I wanted a better opportunity and I wanted to give my child the best life. So you and BJ were pretty much done at that point? For the most part. We stills, we still, we were on the outs, should I say, because at that time I did not know why he made a commotion. Oh, okay. So you didn't know he was, I didn't put all the pieces together. I didn't have time. You just knew he didn't want to go. And really the commotion was just to get himself out of it. And that's fine. Wow. Maybe that was God doing something for me that I wasn't gonna do for myself.'cause I'm not a quitter, like I said, I'm gonna put my all in and in it and fight for it. Yeah. Until there's no fight left. So I moved to Macon. We were there just a couple months and that's when Duncan happened. Okay. Take a pause and tell me about your grandparents and the. The part that they played in your life, were they a big part of your life? Were they, my mom's mom was really a big part of my life. And we always went to my grandparents on holidays and some just Sundays. My mom said that they always went when she was really young. Yeah. And we did that quite often. I had a great relationship with my grandparents the ones that owned the donut shop. Yeah. I believe my mom talked about that. And they were, your grandparents had a really good marriage and just They did. Yeah. Kinda a good example that Yeah. And maybe that's also too why, I guess I wanted that, that lifelong partner and a friendship on fire.'cause that's what real love is, wow. Yeah. And you saw that in your grandparents? Oh, most definitely. Now, as they got older, I think my granddad got on my grandma's nerves and she got on his nerves probably. But that's just'cause they were older and they'd been together so long and hey, you're getting on my nerves right now, but I still love you. That kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. They were definitely a big part of my life. I remember staying the night one night with my grandma Evelyn, and we were making banana pudding and we didn't have the right ingredients. So we went to Walmart at the middle of the night and we, I ran in by myself'cause I was old enough and got what we needed and we went back home and made it. Wow. And I remember leaving a note from my granddad and she called him Tom, we'll be back Tom. We went to Walmart. Love you. Something like that. I had great memories. And my grandma, Wanda, she always picked me up from school when I was in elementary because my mom worked. Yeah. And she always would pull up in her little green neon and she worked at Carter's barbecue and she always brought me a club so I ate a club for snack. Awesome. Wow. I have great memories with my grandparents. Yeah. So they were like a positive stability. Most definitely. Especially when, I guess in the area of relationships with when you, because you saw your mom just have so many failed relationships, but your grandparents were right. I'd never seen my grandma or my granddad with anyone else. Now my mom's mom, that's a little bit different, which my mom talked about that when she did her podcast her segment on the podcast. Yeah. And maybe that's why my mom, she also kinda maybe that's what she saw, growing up. And then her dad wasn't really around, so maybe, she also, a part of her just wanted, to be loved. And then she had two kids and she probably thought like, how I think, but except for I just don't act on it. Yeah. She probably wanted that family for us. Yeah. And I want that too, but I want it for the right reasons. Yeah. I want someone, I want you want to, I want God to send the right person. You don't wanna jump into it. Exactly. You want to make sure it's right. And right from the start, really. Exactly. Yeah. So that's very important to me. So when you went to Macon with Hendricks, did Christie go with you? Or was it just you and Hendricks? No, she stayed there. Okay. So you and Hendricks are living with your aunt. I guess started working with your uncle. I don't know exactly where my mom was staying at that time. I wanna say that maybe her and Joe split up and I think maybe she may have been staying with one of her really old friends. Greg. And then she also may have, I think she stayed with my grandma Wanda, because she was she was sickly. Yeah. So she would go over there and help her. Now, at this point in your life, like you loved your mom, but were you guys, were you you I guess we're a little, I think she was doing her own thing. And she was working at that restaurant and I was a new mom and I was pregnant. And I guess we, we just didn't spend as much time together. Yeah. Okay. And I don't really know why. I can't really, I can't like pinpoint it. Yeah. I know that, I know that we spent time together, but it's all, that's like a blur. Yeah. I don't really know why though. So then then the whole world fell apart. Yeah, it did. My mom got the call about my brother and my grandma. Me and Hendricks's dad were in an altercation. I just hung up the phone with him. It was pretty late in the night. I believe it was a Sunday. Yes. And my grandma Wanda called and she was like, I need to speak to Mimi. I need to speak to Mimi, which is my mom's sister, which is her daughter. And I was like, what's wrong? What's wrong? She wouldn't tell me. And then I gave my phone to my aunt and I never figured out what was wrong. I just knew that I had to go to Lia. And I knew that my, I think I, it's really hard to say, but I wanna say I knew that my brother was in an accident maybe. I don't really know because all that it's like my body went and my body and my mind went through autopilot. Like airplane mode. Yeah. Do not disturb. Everything's a really big blur. But I do know recall, like getting in the car with my aunt and Hendricks and going to Lia. We were going way over the speed limit and I remember getting there and the way that you come into Vidalia, there's two ways you can come in. The road that we always take is by the high school where the railroad tracks are. And all the way there I prayed for my brother to, just keep breathing. So yeah, I guess I could say that I thought that he was, okay. Or he was gonna be okay. And when we come up to that little split, you go straight or you veer off to the right. I saw all these lights at the railroad tracks and I knew then that my brother was not okay. I don't know how I knew that, but I knew that I could feel it in my heart. I could feel it in my stomach. And I remember getting to Tiffany's house and she's not blood family, but she is family today. It's my best friend, Ashley's older sister and Ashley's been my best friend since I was three. So she is my best friend. 30 years. Wow. This is a very long time. Long story short, we get to her house. And I remember opening the door and I remember having a Mountain Dew, I think, in my hand. And after that, I don't remember. Wow. I think maybe Ashley told me that my brother was not okay. Or maybe my mom, I don't really know. I remember falling out in the yard and feeling very not okay after that. I don't know who got Hendricks out the car. I don't know anything. Then I think I remember calling Hendricks's dad and maybe he met me to get Hendricks because I needed him to, I'm not sure. But it all, that's really a blur until Duncan's funeral. And the only thing I remember is that I went to it and that I brought Hendricks with me because I'm not really sure. I just, he, BJ just wasn't really there for me. Yeah. And of course my mom couldn't be, so all that happened. That's hard. So you were really having to deal with that on your own. Yeah, and I guess I really didn't deal with it honestly. That's why I go to therapy today. Because I haven't dealt with a lot of things I didn't deal with not really having my mom, not in that time period, because my mom didn't have herself, God held her up in my opinion. He kept her, here with us. And I guess I just didn't properly grieve my brother. I didn't, because I was a new mom. A week after Duncan passed away, I pretty much became a full blown single mom. That's when everything really was official. That's when I found out everything about Hendricks's dad. And then me and my mom decided that's a lot all at once. Yeah, it is. Then me and my mom decided to move in together. We lived in the same apartment complex that we lived in, that I talked about. Yeah. And we lived right next door to the apartment that me and my mom and my brother lived in. Wow. Yeah. And we lived there and she just drank. She drank every day. It started out, just drinking in the afternoons, which was not completely abnormal to me because she did that. Yeah. Throughout my life when she would come home from work, oh, I'm just gonna drink a glass of wine, or I'll just drink, a six pack of ponies, which is little bitty Bud Light bottles. And I just didn't think anything by it. Then it became earlier and earlier, and then other things happened. She was not aware and that was very concerning. So I didn't grieve because I was dealing with a lot. I was so worried about my mom and I really didn't know how to grieve. And I feel like that my mom, because she was drinking most of the time it was her son. It was her son, and she lost him and it was that was it. But in my mind, I'm like, we're in the same boat. We just got two different pair of shoes on. Yeah. He was my best friend. He was my brother. He was my lifelong best friend but I couldn't compare my pain to her pain is how I looked at it. Yeah.'cause I couldn't, because if I lost Hendricks today, Mr. Fear, I don't know how we would be having a conversation right now, so I didn't judge her. I just was worried about her. So worried about my mom. I was, and I just didn't wanna lose her. And then when things got worse and she was in a relationship, and then I felt like there was some other things that maybe she experimented with, then I really thought, oh my God, I have to protect Hendricks. That can't be here, that can't be around him. Yeah. And I just pushed her away. And I don't know if that was the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, because I was so lost myself. But I didn't turn to anything. But I didn't turn to anything. I didn't even turn to God. My faith today is stronger than it was then. Yeah. And I, I don't, I feel if I did turn to God, would he have helped me, helped my mom sooner or, you know what, I have so many what ifs, but I do know that everything that happened super fast, but it felt like forever and I felt like I was always waiting for that call. That something happened to your mom. To my mom. Because we, I told her that she had to go, I was like, you can't stay here. So many things had happened. She had took my debit card and, then I started having to hide things, like how much money I had. And then it was like, so much was happening. Yeah. And I remember us getting into a disagreement one time and I left and then I came home and there was dishes broke everywhere. And just things like that. And I was like, okay. Yeah. That's when I was like, okay, you definitely you have to go. Wow. That cannot be around Hendricks. Yeah. And how old was Hendricks about at that time? Not even a year. Oh, okay. A little over a year. Yeah, a little over a year. Over a year. But because I wanna say like before I, I get ahead of myself so backtracked before we even moved into the apartment, I would say, because all that takes time. Like we got money from the insurance and everything when everything happened with Duncan. But we were staying with Greg. And I remember like Hendricks's first birthday party, my mom wasn't there. She was up the night before drinking and she was somewhere days before that. And I don't know if she had it experimented with something outside of alcohol, but all I know is that when it was time to go to Hendricks's birthday party, his first birthday party, she was sweeping the kitchen and it was time to go to his first birthday party and she didn't come. And I came back and the party was over with and she was so upset that the bar that the party was over with, she was getting out the shower. And I was like, the party's been over with. It was, I was so frustrated because it was like I couldn't get her to just. It was almost like I wanted just to be like, get a grip. But it's like how can you say that? Yeah. Because there's no way. But it was like, I need you, is what I mean by that. I need you here, even though my brother is gone. I need you, Hendricks need you. He's your only grand baby. Not that I need her to take care of me, but I need her. And you need her as a part of your life. Yeah. That's my mom. Yeah. And just like going back to, childhood she's always been a great mom, so it was completely different for all those things to be taking place. And I just wanted my mom, I just wanted my mom back and I just felt like the alcohol took that away. She was not the same person. Wow. And so you had to just push her out and she went into the darkness and you just tried to move on as best you could, can a, avoid it, pretend like it wasn't there, except for when she would call and she'd be really upset, and then I would get upset and I would say things that I didn't mean because it was like so many people would say things that were taking place and I don't even know if they were true or not. They would tell you things about your mom and about what was going on. Yeah. Like they would call me, I saw your mom here, I saw your mom there. I saw her do this. And maybe some of those things were true.'cause she, we do talk about these things today. Yeah. And she's honest with me. And, but that became like, it was consuming. So I had, I didn't sleep like it was just me and Hendrix, just me and him because we had our own place by this point. I didn't wanna live with my aunt and I just feel like I just went through the motions every day. Yeah. But I, like I said a while back, I have health problems, so I struggle and then I'm mentally struggling.'cause, I'm waiting for that call. And then I'm a single mom and it's just my baby and me. It was me and Hendricks from the age of one until five just me and him. Wow. So that's, how'd you support yourself through that time? I worked at the college there. I worked at middle Co, middle Georgia College. I was a chef there. Oh. And. That was awesome. I loved my job there. I met some really awesome people there. One of my really close best friends today, she was my executive chef. Her name is Lana and we're still friends today. Yeah. And I got, and she was that person that was my outlet. Like I got to go to her about like my mom, like when people would call and say things and, make me worry more about my mom.'cause I didn't talk to her all the time. We didn't talk very often. She would only call me randomly. And usually it was really late. And I don't know if it was when she was upset or if she was intoxicated, because I can't see her in person. Yeah. I can only hear her and she was that person for me. Like I could let it all out. And she was the one that told me that, I need to start doing therapy. So I started doing vul Vulture Virtual Oh yeah. Therapy. Okay. And that helped a little bit, but when my therapist resigned, they didn't put me with another therapist. So I only got to take care of a little bit of, like therapy for grieving and what I was going through. And then I didn't start therapy again until just a couple weeks ago. And that's years later. Wow.'cause I've lived here for almost two years. Yeah. Over two years. The end of last month was two years. Okay. So really I feel like I've just took care of Hendricks Yeah. And focused on him and everything else I just ignored. Wow. I just pretended like it wasn't there. It was there in my head, but on the outside. Yeah. So I just held it all in. So when did when did you start to get to a better place just for yourself and your own life? Was it before your mom got her life together or was it was your mom getting her life together? Something that helped you to I would say when my mom called me and she came to Macon, I remember her, my cousin went and got her, brought her like we met, something like that. She ended up going to Rivers Edge and I think she went to a treatment place that was like a privately place, so it wasn't really the right place for her. And so then she went back to River Edge and that's when she got into House of Time. And that's like running that, just short without putting a bunch of details. And when she got to House of Time, that's when I started focusing a little bit more on myself. Okay. And that's because I knew my So you, you started to worry less about what was gonna happen to her? Yeah. I knew that my mom was okay. You felt like she was. And that's a big part of what I struggled with, is the fact that, of losing my brother and thinking that I would lose my mom. Yeah. And my grandma, she passed away in the, in this timing period. I had a dream that my grandmother would pass away on my brother's birthday and she did. Wow. And I told my aunt that, I don't know if that was some, I don't know the correct way to say that or how I even really feel about it, but I know that I had a dream about it. And I told my aunt that, and she did, she passed away on my brother's birthday. And I guess all these emotions, like when I knew my mom was safe, I knew that it's like I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. You could start to begin to deal with things that were just Yeah. Hidden in your heart and your mind. And I just talked to her, like everything was normal because she was more herself.'cause there was nothing mind altering. She wasn't losing her mind because of, even if she wasn't drinking, being homeless or staying places that are not really safe, that right there will drive you crazy. I was talking to Miss Cynthia on the way here and I was like, there's no way that I could be homeless. Not even any kind of substance that just being homeless alone would drive me in pain. It would drive me like, I don't know how I could survive it. Yeah. Not knowing where you're gonna sleep, what's gonna happen next? Is somebody gonna take the last bit of your food, the last bottle of water, anything. My mom experienced all those things and that, that breaks my heart, that all that time that I didn't have a relationship with her. Those are the types of things that she had to go through, and that does break my heart because it's I, I look back and I'm like, could I have done more? But I didn't even know where to start. It's I just, that's like when I said, like when I just would be like, it's like I just wanted to be like, can it just all go away? Yeah. Not so you're trying to hold your own life together. Yeah. You have no idea how to Yeah. Help your mom. I didn't. I didn't, I just wanted, I wanted my brother to be back and I wanted my mom to be okay. That's how I felt about everything that, all that, all those years of our life. And it's like now, life today is great, except for that my brother lives within us. I know that he is my guardian angel, and I know that he must have whispered something in my brother's, in my son's ear, because my son acts just like him. Hey, give them a hard time down there or something. Because he acts so much like him. He even looks like him. And I just know that I'm thankful for life today, but looking back, that was a long road. Yeah. Wow. I'm thankful to have my mom. It it's sobering to me, just hits me that even though you weren't the one that was in the drinking and the addiction and the drugs and the homelessness it, it just affected you so much. It just hit you so hard with the, it mentally just kinda, it just made me not, it made me shut down. It made me not deal with anything. And that's not healthy. Yeah. It's like you can't pretend things like that don't exist when they Right there. Yeah. But you didn't know what to do and just became very consuming. Yeah. Tell me about your relationship with the Lord and how that. Began and came to flourish. And where you are now with him? I've always had a relationship with God. I've always been a part of church. Even when my mom worked at night I used to be a part of a youth group and I was even part of the drama team. Yeah. We had on a little trip and we competed against all these other churches that wow. Had a drama team. So I've always been a part of church and if my mom couldn't take us, the band, we had a youth van. Our youth pastor would come and get us, like from my house. Some Saturdays he would come and get us and take us to McDonald's for breakfast. I was always in the center of church. Yeah. And that happened from a young age. I used to go with my grandma and my granddad he was my step granddad, but that's what I knew as my granddad. Yeah. That's my mom's stepdad. So that was, that was childhood. I mean up to probably middle school, pretty much, we didn't go to church as often, but when my mom married Chris, we were members at a really big church there and we went every Sunday. It started out as him just being like the patrol person that let everybody in and out in the first service, and then we would go to second service and he would join us. Yeah. So we always, it was always a part of my life. I would say. Maybe college, not so much. Of course I prayed, I say the same prayer I've always said all my life even with my mom. And of course I add, more things to it now that I'm older. But I've always been involved in church but you don't have to go to church, in my opinion, to have relationship with God. But I would feel like I've always had faith and knew there was a God. It definitely fell very far off, away, whatever word to describe it, when everything happened with my brother. Yeah. I did not turn to God. I questioned God. I wanted to know why, and then I wanted to know so many different things. I wanted to know, why did my mom lose her? Only other child, she went through so many hospital stays with me thinking she was gonna lose me, because there was a doctors that would come in and literally all of them would scratch their head and be like, I don't know what else to do. My mom experiencing that with me. And then a couple years later, literally it just happening like that. So I just did not understand and I I didn't pray as often. The only time I really did is to protect Hendricks and to please not take my mom. And then I moved here. And what brought you here to Columbus? My mom. Okay. When she started doing better? Yeah. I always wanted to be close to my mom. She's my best friend. She's always been my best friend. And when I knew that she, my mom was back, my real, like the person that's on the inside was back on the outside. I wanted to be close to her. Yeah. And nothing could come between us. And even more so today, because our relationship is so much stronger, just like my relationship with God is so much stronger because without God, we would not be sitting here right now. Without God, I would not have my mom. And without God, I would not have my son. And I know that. I know that. And even more so without God, I wouldn't be sitting here yeah. Because of people don't make it from listeria. If you ever are interested, look it up, look some things up about it. And then a lot of people that are told that they can't have kids, don't have kids, and a lot of people in any type of addiction don't make it out but my mom did. Yeah. And she's better than I've ever seen. She's one amazing woman. She is, I hope, and I tell her this all the time. She says, you are. You already are. But I hope one day I'm at least half the woman she is today. Wow. Because my mom's relationship with God is inspiring for me. That's awesome. And she, we talked about it. She said, when I got to the house of time, it was like I was a newborn in faith with God again she said, and now I'm like a toddler. And I was like I'm like a newborn all over again. And it made sense. Yeah. Like that logic made sense because sometimes people do fall back in faith when things happen in life. Does it make it right? No. No. That's not what I'm saying. But it happens. Yeah. But what is even better is when he walks with you, even through all that, he holds your hand and then he lets your hand go and just walks behind you. When you get back to that full faith, like I know God has got me every single day and I know that he has my mom every single day. It's so beautiful. It's just, it's amazing. It is very beautiful and I usually am at church every Sunday and if I'm not, because I don't feel that great because mornings are pretty rough for me because of my health. Because I suffer from the digestive issues and then I have severe vitamin deficiencies. So mornings I feel pretty weak. But if I don't make it to church, then I try really hard to watch it on Facebook.'cause I love my church. Yeah. And we got bounded there from one of my mom's friends in AA and he's like family. Wow. And really, honestly, everybody here in Columbus that I have become to know that is a part of my mom's recovery. That's her family. And they're my family too. They are awesome. That's so awesome. What church do you guys go to? We go to cityscape. Great church, A super fast growing church. I love it. Wow. Yeah. I love it. I love everything about it. Pastor Jonathan, he is amazing. I don't know how he preaches the word that the way that he does it is literally like, God just writes it down on a piece of paper for him and he's this is what you give to them today. That's awesome. And the children's ministry there. It's cityscape kids. They're amazing. My kids love my kids. My son loves it and he loves it there with all the kids. They did a Christmas musical. That was the first one he ever did. Yeah. That was beautiful. They were all dressed up like angels. Wow. And it looked so beautiful. Wow. You have a, an amazing story and thank you so much for sharing it for just the hardships and the darkness and the difficulty and the light at the end and the beauty and the transformation that God has done and just he's got great plans for your future and for Hendricks's future. I'm excited to, to see what God's gonna do. I definitely would say so. I, if I could give any advice to anybody that is a child of someone that is inactive addiction. Or recovery? I would say just be patient and keep your faith yeah.'cause there is light at the end of the tunnel. Wow. That's good advice. Not always easy. No, most definitely not. cause it is a struggle. It is. But it can happen. Yeah. And that's because of God. He makes a way. Yeah. Any other last thoughts or words of advice or things that you'd like to share? I don't really I don't think so I don't think so do you have any other questions for me? So now just I would imagine that you have hope whereas maybe before you didn't have that and just the I guess so. I used to watch this, I don't know if this is the right like analogy that I'm looking for. I. I used to watch this movie, hope Floats. It's one of my favorite movies. It's a love story, but at the end of the movie, I remember the mom telling the daughter, beginnings are scary. Endings are some kind, sometimes sad, but it's the middle that counts the most and I feel like I'm in the middle right now. Yeah. And, but it's like I, I already went through the beginning and the end and my middle came now. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like the beginning of everything like that happened was most definitely scary. And then I guess the ending of everything, like with my brother and all that, and now this is my middle because it's like my mom does that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Like my mom today, like it's or maybe it was the, we're going back to the middle, should I say? I don't know how to explain it, but it's today things are just so different, even on a bad day. It's like you found so many things Yeah. In your life to be grateful for. It's I think it's a great analogy because it makes me think of how similar it was. You could think of Jesus Yeah. The rough beginnings that he had. Yeah. And then the middle of his life and the ministry and the end, like he died at the end. Yeah. But that wasn't the end.'cause he rose back to life. And so that's it's like he went back to the middle. And it's, and now it's the best ever. Wow. That's a good, exactly what you said. It made sense in my head and it came out and then it was like, I don't want everybody listening to be like, wait a minute, what? But in my mind I'm just like, the beginning of all that was so scary. The unknown, because I didn't know going to Vidalia about my brother and all that. And then it's like the end of losing, that was the end. Like how you say, Jesus died. And unfortunately my brother, he, I don't like to say that, but he died. And I guess like the middle part is now for me because I had my mom and I really didn't think I, that I would ever have what I have today. That life would be as great as it is today. Yeah. That is what we celebrate. With Easter coming up in what, a week and a half? I know. The new life, the resurrection, the, yeah, the rebirth that comes because Jesus rose some of the dead. I think this is the first Easter that I'm like really excited for. And it's because Easter's always been really hard for me because Easter was the last holidays spent with my brother. And Hendricks was just a baby. And I guess all the other Easters in between, I didn't have my mom and then the first one that we were here, it was a good Easter, but I guess like my relationship with God today wasn't it wasn't like that Yeah. Last Easter. Yeah. So it's I like how you just explained all that. I'm like, wow, that's exactly how I look at all of this. And I'm thankful that God, rose again and that, we have this life today and that this here on earth is just temporary. Yeah. And that we're gonna. We're gonna rise with him. Yeah. If we get to where we're going. Yeah. There is there is a greater eternity than we can even imagine. Yeah. And I like Earth but I can't wait till we get to that day. I agree with you. He'll as long and we're gonna get to know everybody, right? Yeah. From what it says. Yeah. It'll be wonderful. Somehow, some way we're gonna know, like who each person is. If I never see you again, I'll see you then. Yes. Yeah. Because of Jesus. Yeah. And I wanna take a second to say, if there's anybody listening to this podcast episode that has never trusted Jesus as their savior, I wanna encourage you to think about that and to explore what the Bible has to say about how much God loves us and how Jesus gave his life and how he rose again, so that we can be free, we can be free from the bondage of sin and it's such a wonderful thing. It is unexplainable, the relationship with Jesus and the relationship that he offers us to have with the Lord. There's nothing like it. If you're lost, if you're hopeless, if you're struggling and you don't know what to do turn to Jesus. reach out to us here at Safe House. The beautiful. Transformation that Jesus has brought in Christy's life and in Jasmine's life that can be yours if you just accept it in Jesus jasmine, anything else you want to add before I close the center? Word of prayer? No, I just wanna thank you for your time and thank you for everybody out there listening. Awesome. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for Jasmine. Thank you that you love her and that you are there for her. Always thank you for Christy and for what you've done to just give her such a vibrant, wonderful, new life and for how she is such a wonderful part of Jasmine's life again and hendricks's life, Lord. Wow. I think about what you have planned for Hendricks, and I just pray your blessing upon him. I pray your presence in his life. I pray your protection over him and your face to shine upon him. We love you and thank you for your goodness. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Phil Shuler: 39:18

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: 39:57

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.