The Power of Gratefulness: Twiggy's Story Part 1

Twiggy has an amazing spirit and exudes the quality of gratefulness.  She has a powerful story of falling on hard times and trusting in the Lord to see her through!

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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 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services

0:31

Including 184.

Phil Shuler 0:33

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 1:11

Hello and welcome to the Safe House Ministries podcast for today. I am so excited to be here with my new friend, Twiggy Lieutenant. I am so excited to hear Twiggy's story. And I know that you will be excited to hear it as well, and it's gonna be a blessing to you. So thanks for being here to listen and Twiggy, this is our first virtual recording, so, uh, we've gone through a few challenges to finally get going and start, but we figured it out. We're, we're connected virtually, which is a first for us. And, um, I'm excited that you're here. Thank you for being here.

Twiggy 1:52

You are welcome. Thank you for having me.

Phil 1:55

So wiggy, let me ask you, let me ask you a question to start. If there was one word that might best describe you, what would that word be?

Twiggy 2:05

Grateful.

Phil 2:06

Ooh. I love that word. That's a such a good word. Especially since we just had Christmas too. Not that long ago, yesterday for us. Yeah. Um, but. What do you mean when you say that? How do you mean? I'm

Twiggy 2:18

just, I'm grateful for everything that God has brought me through from where I started and where I'm at now. Within the last two to three years, I've been through a lot of like trials, tests, and tribulations. I learned a lot. I experienced a lot, and thanks to God's grace, I made it through it all.

Phil 2:37

Praise the Lord. Oh, I, wow. I'll be, I'm excited to hear. What God has done and just, yeah. All that you are grateful for. That's awesome. Twiggy let's start at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what your early childhood and home life was like.

Twiggy 2:55

Well, I grew up in New York. I'm a, I'm from New York. My childhood was, it was great. My grandmother raised me and she had 11 kids, so I had a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins. Wow. I was raised up with a lot of family. Wow. And I was her baby.

Phil 3:11

That is very different from the typical number of kids in today's family.

Twiggy 3:16

Yes. Oh my God. It was beautiful. I mean, I had such a good, you know, I have, thanks be to God. I was brought up and raised in church. So, you know, that's the first thing that I knew was Jesus. Yeah. And my family.

Phil 3:29

That's awesome. So you, your grandmother raised you. Was your, was your mom and or your dad a part of your childhood?

Twiggy 3:36

My dad was, my mom was like in and out. Okay. But my dad, it was my dad's mother that raised me. It was his mom. I was on my dad's side of the family.

Phil 3:45

Wow. Okay, so he was there. He didn't live there, but he was a part of your life just kind of connected?

Twiggy 3:52

Yeah, definitely. Yes, sir.

Phil 3:54

Okay. Well, well, tell me about that then. Growing up, so you grew up in church, he grew up with Yeah. I guess lots of, uh, cousins that were there to grandma house

Twiggy 4:02

maybe? Yeah. Yes. And my grandmother used to have, in her garage, she had a, a, we had a garage, but we had a piano in there and a set of drums. So we had church. Wow. Yeah. And I used to have to go around the neighborhood with my grandmother to get people, you know, my friends and stuff to come to church. So it is, it was powerful. I had a powerful, thanks be to God.

Phil 4:22

Wow. And like

Twiggy 4:23

she used to get all my friends and stuff, and a lot of them now are like ministers and evangelists. They tell me thank you to your grandmothers, the one who show me

Phil 4:31

man. That is Amen. Praise you to God.

Twiggy 4:33

Yeah.

Phil 4:33

Wow. So, so did you trust Jesus as your savior at an early age then? Yes, Lord. I love him with all my heart, mind, body

Twiggy 4:42

and soul.

Phil 4:44

I love that. Wow. I

Twiggy 4:45

came back to him 15 years ago. Yeah.

Phil 4:48

Oh, okay. So you, you started out strong and it sounds like something went the wrong way. Yes. Maybe you took a wrong turn. Sober. I made a wrong

Twiggy 4:58

decision. Well, my grandmother told me like, you know, I knew who my mother was, but I didn't know, like, you know, I never had a relationship with her. Yeah, and my grandmother told me, you know, she, 'cause she was older, she said, if your mother ever tried to come back in your life, let her in. And those words always stuck with me. And I was like going through a little, a little trial and I called my mom and I asked if I could come and stay with her. And she was like, yeah, come on. That's how I made it to Columbus, Georgia. How old were you then? Like, yeah, come on. I'm telling you, after a couple months, because I used to talk to her on the phone. I always talk about Jesus, you know, Jesus. Yeah. I'm gonna come and go to church with you. I'm, I'm gonna go to church with you. But you know how, like, when a lot of people just talk, but they don't really mean what they say.

Phil 5:40

Yes. So she was hearing

Twiggy 5:42

me talking about Jesus, but she doesn't, she didn't know I was really about that life. You know what I mean? So I came to her house.

Phil 5:48

You went, so how old were you around that time? So you're saying this is when you went from New York and came down to Georgia, to Columbus where your mom was?

Twiggy 5:56

Yes.

Phil 5:56

How old were you?

Twiggy 5:58

I was 48 now. I was like 47. Wow. Okay.

Phil 6:02

So

Twiggy 6:02

46. So Mo I mean 56. I'm sorry, 56.

Phil 6:06

So most of your life was up in New York and up until just a few years ago everything was good? Yes. Okay, so you had a, a solid, you were, you do you have a, a fa like an immediate family, kids or any, a significant other? Anything? Yes,

Twiggy 6:21

I have, yeah, I have three children, seven grand babies. Wow.

Phil 6:25

Are they all up in New York?

Twiggy 6:26

Blessed, yeah.

Phil 6:27

They're, everybody's up in New York.

Twiggy 6:29

My son are married and they, you know, they married, my daughter's not married yet, but yeah.

Phil 6:34

Okay. And they, all of them are up in New York.

Twiggy 6:36

No, they in, I got two in Pennsylvania and one in North Carolina. She just moved to North Carolina, my daughter.

Phil 6:44

Okay. So now mm-hmm. Are you married or not married?

Twiggy 6:47

No.

Phil 6:48

Okay. So, so you, you got three kids. You not together with their father anymore? No. All right, so fill in the, the fill in the pieces just a little bit from there in New York. So, you, did you get married or you just got together with someone and y'all had some kids and had a pretty good

Twiggy 7:06

Yeah, but I never got married. No, I never been married.

Phil 7:10

But the ever, all the kids grew up and they're all doing well on their own.

Twiggy 7:14

Yeah. Yeah, thanks be to God. They all got good jobs and they got my grand babies. Everything is good. Thanks be to God. God praise

Phil 7:21

Lord. So then it's just when

Twiggy 7:23

I branched off, I made the mistake. You know what I mean?

Phil 7:26

So, okay. So I'm just trying to, to, understand it in my mind. So your kids were all out of the house now, like they had grown up? Yes. Everything was good. Yes. They got out of the house and now, and now you're living by yourself in New York? Yeah. So you were living by yourself in New nor in New York and,

Twiggy 7:42

well, as soon as my daughter, my daughter was the last one that moved out. Okay. Once she moved out, I cried like a baby, but I had to let her branch off, you know? Well,

Phil 7:49

yeah. So what, what led you from there then to reach back out to your mom and, and make such a big change to leave New York?

Twiggy 7:58

Okay, so once I was in New York, I had a cousin that was really sick and she lived in Columbus, Ohio. So I went and stayed with her to help her out, and while she was in Columbus, she was like, because we gonna move to Macon, Georgia. I was like, okay. So we moved from, um, what, Columbus, Ohio. You and your cousin to Macon, Georgia.

Phil 8:18

Wow. This must've been, you must've been pretty close to your cousin.

Twiggy 8:21

Yes. Yeah. We lived in the same house we was first cousin. She convinced you to move to Macon. All right. Yeah. So what was that like? Yeah, it's, it's good. It's good. And we, well, what it was was she had a pastor that she kept trying to introduce me to. Oh. Twe had come to church and like I said, I was brought up and raised in church. So I was like, because I come to the church sometime, how about I got saved and everything in Columbus, Ohio.

Phil 8:44

Wow. All right. So Georgia together. So how long were you in Macon then?

Twiggy 8:50

I lived in Macon for six years.

Phil 8:52

Now, that was the good time. We came

Twiggy 8:53

to Macon together. And she passed though. She passed the Macon. The Lord let us, she lives three months in Macon, and after that she passed.

Phil 9:02

Okay. So when she passed that, what did that do to you? How did that hit you?

Twiggy 9:07

Oh God. I was distraught. Oh, I was distraught. But she was very sickly though. You know what I mean?

Phil 9:13

Yeah,

Twiggy 9:13

she was very sickly. Yeah. And she was suffering a lot. She was going to dialysis three times a week and nothing. But God, she was going to dialysis three times a week. Wow. And she went to dialysis for 12 years. So that wasn't nothing. But God,

Phil 9:26

12 years. That's a long time. 12 years

Twiggy 9:29

on dialysis. Yeah.

Phil 9:31

Okay so now you're in Macon and you're alone. So you're trying to figure out what am I going, where am I gonna go from here?

Twiggy 9:39

Yeah, well, I was in, I was in the house in Macon, and then they, they was gonna sell the house. So since they was gonna sell the house, I wasn't willing to buy it because it was really messed up.

Phil 9:49

Yeah.

Twiggy 9:49

So I, um, I, and I still wanted to go to my same church, so I called my mom since she's in Columbus and it's not too far from Macon. And then that's when she was like, yeah, come on. And so I came on to Columbus.

Phil 10:01

So, so pick up the story then. So that sounds like that's pretty close to when things started to go south and things started to really get kind of messed up. Yes, definitely. Well, walk us through that. Like what, what happened?

Twiggy 10:14

Yeah. Well, like I was saying, my um, I used to come, me and my mom used to talk on the phone all the time when I was in Macon and she was in Columbus. I used to come and see her. Then I would, you know, still go back home. But then once I got to staying with her, I was just in the Bible a lot. She seen me praying and stuff a lot, and I, I don't know if it just aggravated the spirit. I don't know what it was. It just, all of a sudden she asked me to get out.

Phil 10:37

Whoa. She, wow. So she, she was kind of hostile towards you because you loved the Lord and read the Bible and prayed and, and that's, that's what I

Twiggy 10:48

don't understand. It seemed like. It seemed like it was like, that's 'cause that's all I did. Yeah.

Phil 10:54

Wow. Now, how did you support yourself financially through that time? And

Twiggy 10:58

then, you know what I, um, I feel like it was God that heartened her heart because if it wasn't for her heart and heart, I would've went, you know, back to, Pennsylvania with my children. I would've went anywhere. But the Lord hardened her heart, and I had just got a job here. Then I was like, um, you know what? And I just went on. 'cause I was going back and forth still and I was staying at hotels and stuff because, you know, I was working. Yeah. I worked ever since I, you know, I came here so I was, you know, getting a paycheck and stuff.

Phil 11:28

Yeah. So your mom kicked you out, but you still, you were still working, just living in hotel rooms while you were working after your mom kicked you.

Twiggy 11:35

Yeah.

Phil 11:36

Okay.

Twiggy 11:37

Yeah.

Phil 11:37

Now had you, did you think about going up and staying with any of your kids or,

Twiggy 11:41

yeah, the only thing that really kept me, because I was under a powerful leader and he was a real good teacher. Okay. And once you've been, you know, in a good church and learning a lot and doing really good, I was like, Lord, I still wanted to stay at my same church. Yeah. That, so I went through, I get that, you know, I went through just to be at the same church cause I didn't have to be. It was my decision. Like I told Abraham, you gotta leave your Kindred. Yeah.

Phil 12:07

Wow, okay.

Twiggy 12:09

Out here in Columbus and no man's land for me you know.

Phil 12:12

Yeah. So you're living in hotel rooms, working is, are you sliding behind financially in, during that or what, what began to start happening?

Twiggy 12:22

No, I was, it was this lady at church that, um, told my pastor. About, you know, gave me the phone numbers and stuff to call and I started calling and that's how I got blessed to be able to stay at Safe House.

Phil 12:36

Okay. So, so this was not working for a long-term solution. You couldn't keep staying in the hotels, but you didn't know what to do? Yeah, it was

Twiggy 12:43

cost because I was trying, still trying to pay for my storage. I didn't want, you know, I still had my car in, you know, my car insurance and stuff. I still had, testing and trial.

Phil 12:52

So you were everything afloat. You were homeless essentially, but you had the, had money to kind of be able to stay in hotel rooms for the time being.

Twiggy 13:01

And my church blessed me. Yeah. My church blessed me too to help me, you know, stay weak here. Weak there. Yeah. God. But they were helping you

Phil 13:08

with paying for some of the hotel costs?

Twiggy 13:10

Yes.

Phil 13:11

Oh, okay. But that was not gonna last long. Like you, you had to figure something out. Huh.

Twiggy 13:16

Yeah, because I'm always been an independent person, like, you know what I mean? And then the lady at church told my pastor about, the list and I start calling on the list and stuff and I forget, I never forget. It was one time I was at the hotel and then I got the numbers and they closed on the weekend and that's when I was off on the weekend. It was a test in the trial and I, I stayed there. I slept in my car one night. I really did.

Phil 13:38

Wow. And then, okay, so, what happened next?

Twiggy 13:42

And then I, um, I got the addresses and everything, the safe house. So I went to Safe House and then I, um, I got there and I spoke with, um, like I filled out the application and stuff, and then I was sitting. Now that I know her name is Jamie Lynn, she called me in her office and she asked how could she help? And then I let her know my situation and stuff. And then she said, hold on, like go downstairs. 'cause they had food and stuff that they were serving. Go downstairs and eat you something and come back up. I'm telling you, when I came back up some steps, she said, I got a place for you. Wow. I praise God.

Phil 14:14

That's amazing. So you, after one night in your car, you got connected to Safe House Ministries. Yes. And you went in and talked with Jamie Lee and you shared your story with her. She learned a little bit about your situation. You, she said, go get you some lunch. Come back up. And then when you came back up, she said, I got a place for you to stay. Yes,

Twiggy 14:31

Lord. Yes. Wow. Yes. That's awesome. Yes. I was so blessed and look, and even like, after she helped me out and she told me about the place, 'cause you know, I wasn't really familiar with Columbus. How about the lady that worked with her? Ms. Diane, look, I followed her all the way to Safe House. To Grace House.

Phil 14:49

Wow. She took me

Twiggy 14:50

there. That

Phil 14:51

is so that, so Safe House Mysteries got you into the women's shelter for Safe House. Grace House.

Twiggy 14:58

Yes. That is awesome.

Phil 14:59

And so. Walk us through what that looked like for you. It sounds like you were, you were filled with joy and grateful, as you said, you're grateful.

Twiggy 15:07

So talk to us

Phil 15:08

about that.

Twiggy 15:09

And then like, when I walked in, you know, I met Christie and at another time this was of, it was another one named, I think her name was Nicole. Nicole, she was like my intake person, you know, and they did all of the paperwork and stuff. And then they took me in like through, I think it was called like the day room. I'm telling you, they had big, they had a nice TV in there. They had couches, they had like four refrigerators. And then they took me to like, where I'm gonna be staying at and look, it was a, it's like a little house and it had. Two bed, three bedrooms and everybody, it was like two people per room and we had a bathroom look. It was really nice. We had heat, we had air condition, and we used to get abundance of food and stuff from other organizations and stuff. It was,

Phil 15:53

wow.

Twiggy 15:54

We had washers and dryers. I was telling, I was just so grateful for everything because it took in another way.

Phil 16:00

You know what I mean? It ain't easy living out of a motel room or especially, it's when you in the car

Twiggy 16:06

ain't nothing like home, like, you know?

Phil 16:08

Yeah. So you got to Grace House and there at Grace House, you had everything you needed, everything you provided, taken care of, so you could focus on where you are going next, getting some stability and figuring out your next steps.

Twiggy 16:23

Most definitely. Yes.

Phil 16:24

Awesome. So, so, and I was there for

Twiggy 16:27

eight months.

Phil 16:28

Okay. So, um, during that eight months, you, are you still working and saving up some money?

Twiggy 16:33

Yeah, same job.

Phil 16:33

Fantastic. So you were working, saving up some money.

Twiggy 16:35

Well, after I left Grace House, I, um, I went to another one, open door.

Phil 16:40

Okay.

Twiggy 16:41

Yeah. So I stayed at Open Door, so I was able to save up even more money. So I stayed at Open Door for a year.

Phil 16:48

Why didn't, after

Twiggy 16:49

I left Open Door, I am in my apartment now.

Phil 16:52

Okay. Praise the Lord. Have you stayed connected to some of the folks at Safe House? Were you still connected maybe during your time?

Twiggy 16:59

No. No. It was ha happened to be like last week I happened to, I was off, 'cause I'm off on Fridays and I was riding and the Lord just put in my spirit like to go thank you know. So I went to Open Door and thank them for everything they did. And then I said I was coming to Grace's house and that's when I went and I saw Christie. I was telling them my testimony and she was just so happy for me and I was, you know, I was happy. So we had a good time, you know, a nice time reunion. Yeah. And then one of the young ladies that used to be there with me, she was, she's also in the office with Christie too, so it was really good. And then she wanted me to come and do, like, tell my testimony to the women on Sunday. So I did go Sunday and gave them my testimony, gave them some encouraging words. Yes.

Phil 17:44

That's awesome. That's real. That's so awesome. Through your time at Grace House, you were saving up some money and then you went, what led you to transition from Grace House to open Door?

Twiggy 17:56

Because my car had to go in the shop, so I like, needed a little more money.

Phil 18:00

Yeah.

Twiggy 18:00

So I had to put a big dent from my account that I had saved. I had to put a dent in it to, for my car to be fixed because I gotta have my car to get back and forth to work. Yeah. And so I still, my money got a little short because I had to put my car in the shop and I still needed a little more to save up. So that's when I went to Open Door and got blessed with Open Door. While I was leaving, while I was in, still in Grace House, I went to Open Door and then I, I got approved, and I'm telling you, the minute that I got approved I was able to move from Grace House and go to Open Door.

Phil 18:31

Wow. Now, did you stay in a shelter with Opendoor, or what did that look like?

Twiggy 18:36

The Opendoor is a, um, it's, it's a community. Like they have daycare for the children. It's on Second Street.

Phil 18:43

Yeah. Was it avenue? You had like a little room in that building?

Twiggy 18:47

Yeah, they had just got it. When I first moved in, it was, it was really nice, but they got the bathroom remodeled since I was there. Yeah, we had, they had, I think they got seven bedrooms and there was two people per bedroom, and then we had our own open kitchen, own like the washer and dryer. They had washer and dryer access. It was really nice over there too. That was a blessing.

Phil 19:09

Okay. And so you're still saving up some more money? Yes. And so between your time at Grace House, your time at Opendoor, you had enough saved up that you were able to, to go ahead and apply and get your own. You got an apartment or house? Yes,

Twiggy 19:21

I'm in an apartment. Yeah, my own apartment now. Thanks me to God.

Phil 19:25

Praise the Lord. Be

Twiggy 19:26

a year in March. Yeah. Wow.

Phil 19:29

So you've been in your apartment for a year in March to the beach, coming up in March. Yeah. Wow. Thank God. And how are things going? How are things going now? You still saving up money?

Twiggy 19:38

I feel good. It's such a blessing. I'm being in my own place. And then we had like a rle at my job. And how about I, I got me a, a flat. Well, Jesus did it. I got a flat screen, 50 inch sitting in my living room right now watching it. Wow. What a

Phil 19:54

blessing. That's

Twiggy 19:56

awesome. That is great. He's so phenomen phenomenal. I'm

Phil 19:58

so happy.

Twiggy 19:59

Yeah. Praise Lord. Phenomenal.

Phil 20:02

It sounds like that was a, that was a tough journey, but through the, just the love and support of Safe House and I kept

Twiggy 20:10

the faith in God because I knew. Yep. Yeah,

Phil 20:14

I kept

Twiggy 20:14

the faith. It wasn't what I was going through. It was how my mindset as I was going through it.

Phil 20:19

Yeah.

Twiggy 20:20

I kept

Phil 20:21

through you, you, I, I wish I could just be in your presence, but you, you have such a, I can feel it even through just hearing your voice, that positivity and just good energy and hopefulness, gratefulness, all of those.

Twiggy 20:39

And also Brother Phil. The thing that brought me through too is the word of God. That Bible look, that Bible, the words, that's what gave me more and more faith. Reading the Bible every day, and it just keeps me uplifted and encouraging and letting them know no matter what situation we go through, we coming out, we just gotta keep the faith in him.

Phil 21:01

You are so right.

Twiggy 21:03

All things are possible to them that believe.

Phil 21:06

And

Twiggy 21:06

I'm telling you, brother Phil, I am a true believer of Jesus Christ and his, his miracle signs and wonder. He let me know. He really is. He's real, he is. Amen. And we just put our trust in him. It's gonna get better, but we gotta wait on his time. And it's not about us. It's his timing. And what are you willing to go through? Are you willing to go through the sacrifices? Are you gonna murmur and complain? Are you going to be grateful? Brother Phil. I'm grateful.

21:36

And that is the end of part one of Twiggy's story. Next week she'll be back. She'll really share more in depth some of the things that she learned along the way. She will continue to share a little bit about the reasons for her gratefulness and. It's just amazing. Her life, I think is a, is a great illustration of the power of gratefulness. Uh, she has such a spirit that you can just hear in her voice. I didn't get to sit in front of her like I usually do for the podcasts, but in her voice, I could just hear the joy and the gratefulness. And her story really does show the power of gratefulness, and it's not just the elusive gratefulness. In an ambiguous and vague sense, but it is about gratefulness to God because he is the one in whom all things happen, the one to whom all glory belongs, and the one to whom we can trust to get us through any situation. Thanks for being with us this week. God bless you. Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you again. Next week,

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2 22:45

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 23:22

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.