From Under The Bridge To Recovery with Author and Speaker Blossom Rogers

She slept under a bridge, chased a $500-a-day habit, and cycled through jails and rehabs, then built a life that now helps other people get free. We’re joined by Blossom Rogers, a certified peer specialist and recovery support specialist, who shares a raw, faith-filled story of crack cocaine and alcohol addiction, childhood trauma, prison, and the long road to 21 years clean and sober.

We talk about what trauma does to identity, why “filling the void” with relationships never works, and how forgiveness and self-forgiveness can break generational cycles. Blossom walks us through her rock-bottom moment in a crack house, writing a letter to God, checking into a hospital, and taking the step to relocate for treatment. We also get practical about sobriety boundaries, triggers, and why some of us cannot pick up “just one” without sliding back into the old life.

Then we look forward: her books, her documentary and film awards, and the nonprofit dream to build a safe home for women and children coming off the streets. If you’re searching for addiction recovery help, peer support, faith-based healing, or a story that proves relapse doesn’t get the final word, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope, and leave a review with the line that stayed with you.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:28

God bless you and thank you for tuning in to Blossoms at My Life Radio. Thank you so much for faithfully tuning in. Just some amazing guests that we have that share their God story and the different things that they're doing in the kingdom. Today I'm excited to introduce to you Blossom Rogers. You heard that right. Her name is Blossom, and I just love that. I just finished telling her about how that word just means so much to me. She would tell you, it says here, that she's not perfect, but she served a perfect God. She's a recovery support specialist for the Capstone College of Nursing. She's an accomplished certified peer specialist as well as a certified recovery support specialist. She enjoys what she does, being that she is also in recovery and having an addiction to crack cocaine for 19 years. Through many trials and tribulations, she has remained clean and sober for those 19 years, obtaining many accomplishments. She is an author, and it sounds like a three-time because she had a book one and now it's a one and two together. And then that's called From Under the Bridge, which we're going to talk about. And then she also has a book called And They Laughed When They Laughed. She's working on that to be a shelter for women and for their children. And we're going to talk all about that too. And so without any further ado, Blossom, how are you?

SPEAKER_04 2:04

Hey, how are you today? I'm I'm blessed. I am truly, truly blessed.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

I am blessed just to have you here. You know, we think about just coming from a place of recovery, like I shared with you earlier, being a recovering alcoholic addict myself. You know, there's so many of us that have different types of addictions and they go through phases. And, you know, the lie that they tell you, well, you know, marijuana won't lead to anything else. Alcohol won't lead to anything else. But, you know, I beg to differ because it did with me. And so I'm sure your story is probably about the same. But let's go. I I want to talk about your book, but I know your story has a lot to do with your book, also. I would love it if you would just tell us who Blossom Rogers is and how you got to where you're at today.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Okay, well, first of all, I give God all the glory and the honor for waking me up this morning and allowing me to be here on the platform with you.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Amen.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

My name is Blossom Blossom Rogers. I am a grateful recovering addict. I was on crack cocaine and alcohol for 19 years, but God, I got 21 years clean. Wow. So, yeah, that's by the grace of God. So I let people know where God brought me from. I used to live under a bridge

Childhood Trauma And First Drugs

SPEAKER_04 3:23

in the backseat of my car due to my addiction. And when we know better, we should do better. Okay. So, and I want people to know that this is my story. I'm not picking at nobody. I'm talking about where God brought me from. Because, you know, sometimes people are trying to will want to say, well, she's talking about me, or no, I'm talking about where God brought blossom from. Um I'm not perfect, but I serve a perfect God. Like right now, I'm pressing and pushing with everything I got, you know, because we still have life issues. Yes. But long as I don't pick up, all is well. So my name is Blossom. I'm the author of four books from Under Bridge One, from Under Bridge Two, and They Laugh and When They Laugh. We got two kinds of laughter. Are they laughing with you or at you? Um, I've had both of them and still have both of them being done to me. But you know what? We just have to remember, I'm coming to realize when people try to put me down, they really don't like themselves, you know. So they uh they try to find something wrong with me or try to throw my past up. But I let people know if I put my put it on page 43 in my book, I don't care what people say or think about me. As long as I can tell my story and tell my story truly, when I could be true or blossom, I could be true to anybody else. So everything that I'm speaking about did happen. Um, in book one, I talk about what led me to smoking quack cocaine was being molested. You know, in my time, I just turned 60 years young in January. So in my days, we couldn't talk about if things that were going on at home. We couldn't go to the school and say that daddy was doing this or uncle was doing this. We were taught that whatever happens in the house stays in the house. But we have to remember we just as sick as our secrets. So I talk about that in my books. And for anybody that's listening today, I want you to know that it was not your fault because we we had our abusers that tell us that it's our fault, you know. But no, we were children. So I want to put that out there. All right. I talk about how I got pregnant at an early age, thinking that a baby would take me away from everything that I was going through. But I learned that a baby doesn't keep a man. I also talk about how I got married at an early age. My first husband was in the military. So I said, money, travel, I can get away from home. But as we know, at times we can't run with my problems because at times we are the problem. I also talk about how I got involved with a guy who was already smoking crack cocaine, and I thought I can change him. But we have to realize we can't even change ourselves. It's God that does all the changing. So when he started beating me and taking my money, and I was and I was raised and I I saw as a child, if a man didn't beat you, he didn't love you. But I I don't believe that that now. You know, as kids, we're little sponges. We soak up whatever we see or whatever we hear. So when the beating started coming, I said, if I can't beat him, I might as well join him. By me going through the molestation, my childhood being snatched away from me. I didn't know where I belong. I just wanted to fit in somewhere. So I became a people pleaser. So in book two, I talk about how I've been to prison. My prison number is 589931. When I went to prison, I was chopping trees at a forestry camp. I talk about how I was an unfit mother. By the grace of God, my mother and my great-grandmother stepped in and raised my son. I was an unfit mother. And I had to learn how to forgive myself when it came to that. Like when it came to me um forgiving my abuser. Um, and I'm not speaking or taking up for the person, but we have to remember hurt people hurt people. Something has to have happened in order for him to inflict that on me. Just like with me, I didn't sexually or physically abuse my sons, but mentally I put them through abuse because I wasn't there for them. So God is teaching me how to forgive myself when it comes to all that. God has forgiven me, but teaching myself, that's what kept me in my addiction for so long, just blaming myself over and over again. But I thank God that no none of my sons got abused because of my carelessness. God is a keeper. I talk about how while I was in prison, my brother died. I couldn't come home to the funeral. Because I had I used a lot of pressures to continue to keep getting high. A lot of pressures. I talk about my times in and out of the jails, in and out of rehabs. I talk about how God delivered me from a homosexual lifestyle because, like I said, being molested and raped, I thought going with a woman was better for me. But as we know, that's not, that wasn't the lifestyle that God had for me. Not knocking nobody, not picking with nobody or anything or being judgmental. I'm just telling my story. Also speak about how I was involved with the guy who's HIV positive. He never told me. But the but the God that we serve, I'm sitting here today with 21 years clean, don't have HIV and don't have AIDS. Okay. And that's because of God. You know, you I have a lot of people say you try to tell me your immune system was so strong. No, that was the blood of Jesus that's that covered me. It still covered me because I'm not perfect. I talk about my time just back and forth, you know, in and out of jails, in and out of institutions, different institutions. Um, at one time being diagnosed with uh mental illness, you know, I've had my stays in mental homes. Um, and I felt safe when I was in the in the mental facilities because I I couldn't hurt myself. You know, I hadn't got on the drugs so bad. My habit had become $500 or more a day. So I I I did drugs, I didn't play with it. But what led me to it was because of the trauma. It's always an issue to why we drink and why we get high. You you're not born like that, you know what I'm saying? Now you do have generational curses, you know, that are passed down, but like I said, these curses can be broken because we speak about generational curses so much, but there are generational blessings as well. I believe that God has raised me up to break that generational curse when it came to molestations and when it came to alcoholism and a uh drug addiction. Like I said, uh just you know, going back and forth. I didn't know who I was. I was I was whatever a person wanted me to be that day. You know what I'm saying? If you I was I was allowing the men to abuse me, I was allowing the women to abuse me, and most of all, I was abusing myself, you know. I had got down to like 130 something pounds. I I just I was a hot mess, but I didn't know how to stop. Yeah, I was I would go to rehab, do good for so long, and then relapse. And you know, and I know once we go back to something, it's seven times worse. Oh, yes. Yeah, so in order to deal with, if we don't deal with our issues, our issues are continue to keep dealing with us. So for 19 years, I was walking around saying the same thing over and over and over again. I got molested, I got molested, oh woe with me. And I was using it to continue to keep getting high, getting free drugs, getting free alcohol. Anybody that would hear my sob story, you know what I'm saying? I was putting my family members down because they didn't believe me. But you know what? One thing I'm learning, anything that we do for the Lord, it shall last. Um I've always used to try to defend and prove that these things did happen to me. But today I don't have to do that because one thing about it, God He will snatch the covers off. Now, my abuser, I I love my abuser. I I wish him the best. Don't wish him no illness or nothing like that. But if I don't have respect because 80-something years old, and you're still holding on to the same, the same lie. I'm free because I'm able to get on platforms like this to tell my story, to be able to help somebody else. You know, do you understand how many people are holding on to past hurt and they're in the 80s and and and 70s? That's a long time to hold on to a hurt, you know. So, like I say, you know, back and forth to prisons and everything. So one night I was sitting in a crack house in Daytona Beach, Florida, and I had backslid, you know, and uh I was facing nine years, but God bless me, they gave me five serves. So I ended up going to church and I I tasted how good God was, and the Holy Ghost was flowing and everything. And my weakness was me and that backslip of trying to find a relationship, you know.

Rock Bottom In The Crack House

SPEAKER_04 12:40

So it was seven times worse. I was up, I was up for so long this that last time. I remember I was in a dope hole crackhouse in Pine Hill uh Projects in Daytona Beach, Florida. And we all were in one room. And I remember I just got up and I still had the shirt, the shoes, and the purse I had on that night when God called me out that crackhouse. So I let I take them items with me on different programs to let people know if you can't wear my shoes mentally or physically, there's nothing you can tell me. Because you have so many people tell you, I would do this if I was you. I'll do you don't know what you'll do if you was in that uh predicament. You pray to God you would do the right thing. So I remember going to the kitchen and I had a piece of paper and pencil in this purse, and I just started writing God a letter. Now I still smoking, and you know I have people ask me the crazy crazy, you was smoking while you was writing God. Jesus was never lost. I was the one that was lost. But no matter, no matter how far we get, his hand can always reach us. Okay. So I remember the young lady came into the kitchen and she asked me, was I okay? And I told her, I said, next time you see me, I'll be clean and sober. And I just remember just continuing to keep writing her. So I was getting a disability check and I had a check at my mom's house, but I didn't want to go get it because I knew if I went and got that check, it was gonna be another month of getting high. Yeah. And so I ended up putting the taking the last hit, end up putting the paper and pencil in my purse, and I remember getting in the car and checking myself into the hospital.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

And I begged them, I said, please don't let me go into your five-minute place because sometimes we we can damage our own self. And I hadn't got to the point where I was driving a getaway car, and somebody was gonna end up killing me out there, or I was gonna kill them because I was getting careless. All right. So then a young lady when she was doing my assessment, I was telling her everything that was going on, and she said, Blossom, she said, I'll be right back. And she said, Uh, so when she got back, she said, Are you willing to be relocated? I said, Yes, ma'am. Well, God bless her, he sent me to Miami to treat me.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

So three days later, they ended up coming to get me from the hospital. And once I got to Miami, I I that was an eye-waking for me because I said the games that I played in Daytona, they'll kill me down here. So it scared me. It scared me into getting clean and sober. And I thank God for that. And then to this day, I still have that scareness. And I I I I thank God for it because I don't want to ever get so relaxed where I think that I can take a drink and be okay. I I'm a recovering alcoholic.

Hospital Help And Relocation To Miami

SPEAKER_04 15:27

And if I pick up, and I have some friends that can take and drink a glass of wine when they come in from work. I can't do that. You know what I'm saying? Because if I pick up wine, then I'm gonna pick up some Captain Morgan and then I'm gonna smoke some dough. So you have to know what you can and what you can't do. I don't, yeah, I don't, I don't pimp myself at all. I I tell a lot of people I have a go out, but I don't have a come back in. I know I'll die out there. So I don't need to put on no experiment uh lab jacket and go out there and experiment because I know I'll die out there. So I end up doing my in pay, my inpatient down there, and I get my outpatient, and I just stayed. I didn't go back to around other people, places, and things. Because if we want better, we gotta do better. And if you sometimes, you know, you got people that you hang around with that don't want to see you get clean and sober. And I had some people like that. Yeah. So I end up working down there, end up getting a uh divorce from my first husband and married my second husband. So that's how I ended up here in Alabama. Now, even though I'm clean and sober, we still have life issues. Um I um my I'm divorced again due to love, and people say love. I say yes, because he loved talking to other women and he brought another woman in my home. So um I had to I and you know what? I really had to pray and ask God to tell me what to do because I had so many women, older women, telling me to stay with him. But God didn't clean me up for me to continue to keep going through

Staying Sober Through Life Problems

SPEAKER_04 16:58

some type of abuse. That's right. Even though it wasn't physical abuse, it was mental abuse.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

So we ended up getting a divorce, but I didn't go back to getting high. First time trying to buy a home, I lost at the foreclosure, but I didn't go back to getting high. Brand new car was repo, but I didn't go back to getting high. So as long as I don't pick up, I'm doing just fine. We're gonna have life issues, you know. Like he was asking me how I was doing when we first started. I said I'm pressing my way through. Amen. I'm pressing my way through. Is it easy? No, but I just take one step at a time. Just take one step and remember that God is gonna take care of me regardless. I got I gotta remember that. And that's what anybody that's listening to me say, if I'm telling you that I'm 21 years clean and that we got to go through some things, as long as we don't pick up, or long as I don't pick up, I'm doing just fine. So working for the University of Alabama, dealing with um drugs and alcohol, because recovery is my passion. Right. Let me see.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

So let me let me interject lesson for a second, because I want to take you back for a minute. Wow, that's a lot. Like there's just so much, and there's so much that I think I can resonate with, and I'm sure a lot of people that are listening can as well. You know, in regards to us wanting to fill that void, right? And we look for men or

Healing The Void And Breaking Cycles

SPEAKER_01 18:32

men look for women. We we're constantly looking to fill a void that was taken from us as kind of you know the abuse. I I understand the abuse as a young child, and and I didn't understand what was taken from me until I was 50 after running from so many things and trying so many things and thinking that I could fix people and I couldn't because I wasn't fixed myself. So I totally resonate with everything that you're saying because what happens is, and a lot of times this happens when someone just starts to be clean, they start to be clean, and then everything starts to come out in the open. It's almost like okay, the band-aid's off and now the sore has to heal, right? And it takes some time for that healing, it takes some serious work for that healing because you know it's just like with a cut, it takes time for that scar to just kind of be mended. Sometimes the scar is still there, but it's a reminder of what happened and what you've come through, and that's okay too. But you've got to allow the seams of the skin to be re-mended, and and we have to stop looking for ways to fix that. We have to face it head on. And you know, I was in counseling for many years, probably 20 years. I went to counseling because I knew there was something wrong, but I couldn't figure it out. And so I'm like, okay, well, I'll just, you know, and I was one of those functioning ones, right? Right. I I I went to work, I I did what I had to do, I you know, and everything, and then came home and did what I did on the weekends. And so it just it was a constant running after things to fill this gap, you know, and not understanding where it's coming from. So, yes, I totally believe you as far as what that means, and as far as trying to cover up a hurt from something. Now, maybe your hurt wasn't something sexual, maybe your hurt was you were just brought up in a really rough home, which can happen because our parents, not knowing the Lord, are not gonna know how they're supposed to behave either. They have characters that traits that were brought from their family, and so that's the generation thing that Blossom's talking about. And so then, you know, you're like, well, my mom was abusive or my dad was abusive, you don't understand. This is why I'm like this, okay. That to me, now that I know what I know, and you can attest to this, is like, well, okay, well, stop and why don't you just want to stop it? Like, let's break that chain, right? And so when you were to that place, like, do you recall? Because I do recall, do you recall times in those moments of living under the bridge in these crack houses? Do you recall times that now that you look back, that God was trying to grab a hold of you?

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Oh yeah, yeah. Because you know what, I should be dead. You know what I'm saying? I'd have I'd have had alcohol poison, I'd have been in spots where somebody could have killed me, you know, yeah. But I didn't know how to stop, you know what I'm saying? And I had a and I had a lot of people trying to talk to me and tell me to do this, but you know what? Until we get sick and tired of being sick and tired, because I had a lot of people, people that have gone on to be with the Lord to try to help me, and I took advantage of them, you know what I'm saying? So yes, ma'am, but it tell it it had because God He gives us a free will. Yes You know what I'm saying? So I had to get to that point where I wanted to be clean and sober. And that's where I keep my recovery now in my heart, not in my mind, because our mind is a battlefield.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

my heart so i do my recovery today for blossom i would rather for garden call me home before i go back out there because i don't want to ever live like that again not eating sleeping with this person doing this sleeping on the bridge and thank god i had a card you know because some people didn't have cars or don't have cars you know what i'm saying so or doing time again you know i i want i want something out of life before i get caught i want to live before i don't want to die and have never lived if that makes sense no that makes total sense and now you can you know and the thing other thing too is that because you've gone through this your testimony is what helps others you know be set free and you're a a good example of what God does because his word is true on how he restores and in Romans 8 28 like you you quote you know and I tell a lot of people this like there's something good that's gonna happen out of this it doesn't look good right now I'll I'll admit that to people that I talk to it doesn't look good right now but the God that I serve has said that this will look good soon like something good is gonna come out of this and now we see you know with your education and your work and your ability to do these different things that that would you know you would think back 21 years blossom that was probably far fetched from what you could ever imagine would it be with your life today right right right I would have never I I really thought I was gonna die out there with AIDS drugs alcohol I I I thought I was gonna die but God said not so you know you're gonna live I love you so each each time God allows me to share my story I tell somebody what he can do but you gotta want it for yourself. Amen yeah and that's the part is that sometimes people will be like you know I can't do the God thing I'm not ready well you know God's waiting for you and he wants you to come and he wants you to be able to be free you know and and you have to be you you you can't be happy where you're at there's gonna be moments where you're like I just can't do this anymore because I remember those words waking up in the morning thinking what did I do last night not even remembering and realizing oh my God you know what is wrong with me but then yet you know get making it through the week and here comes Friday and here comes the phone calls and here I go again you know and this time it'll be different this time it'll be different because I'm gonna take control of it and I'm gonna know where I'm at and I'm gonna know what I'm doing. And it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

It doesn't happen we never have control when it's getting drunk or getting high.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

We we think we do but we don't we we don't no and I think it's just the devil it's the devil's tool to be able to get us to a place where he can manipulate us and then his little minions like to come in and just play with our heads and you know do things because we're in that vulnerable state which is why you know the word of God says that to to be sober minded. You know and some people will say well that doesn't mean I can't drink well how are you going to be minded in a way where you understand everything that's going around you if you're not sober minded.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Right right that that that's so true. So you know like I said and that's and it's a it's a minute by minute day by day you know saying um like I tell everybody you you got you gotta want it that that's the main thing you got to want it so you know working and and then like I said with the books the traveling and telling my story and then God bless me two two years ago I was on a a podcast and then the lady said Blossom I would love to peach you in my magazine. A week later she said Boston I would love to do your documentary so God bless it uh now my documentary's out two years now we won two film awards oh wow um yeah and so then um in 2014 God blessed me I became a nonprofit organization we allowed me to go before Habitat and I was just telling them my my dreams and what I wanted for the women to help women get off the streets and the I was asking them could could they build me a home for women. Well unfortunately they couldn't do it but God touched their heart and they gave me some land. So I have my I have my land I have my blueprints I got my bill permit I've been approved by God in the city we get to house six women instead of three women so now I'm waiting for God to give me the provision and I have a lot of people that laugh at me because you it hasn't happened yet but you know they laughed at Nora until that first rain drop so it's this is gonna be in God's time and I'm not gonna say I haven't said Lord have you forgot what you told me or did I see it right you know because when this when this home is built won't nobody be able to take the credit for it but God. So that's where I'm at with that and then you know God bless

Books, Documentary, And Shelter Vision

SPEAKER_04 28:35

it now I'm in school going through Southern New Hampshire University where getting my BA bachelor's in human service human resources concentration drug addiction.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

So that's where I'm at right now you know I I just want to give back I just want to give back I love it and I love it because you know like out in the book of Revelation talks about how our testimonies can set someone else free. When you find somebody that feels hopeless and you've been hopeless yourself you're able to truly say I know what you're going through. Let me tell you you know and when you can recite this is my present number 589931 they look at you like what like you know you see a picture of your past and your present they they can't believe it. Like this is what God does you know but that's so important. And there's a lot of people that you know maybe you don't have an addiction to drugs or alcohol but maybe you realize that there's an addiction to something else because addictions can be in anything addictions could be in pornography. They could be you know and one thing always leads to another and maybe you feel like you know I'm struggling I can't stop and so you know Blossom and I are just being voices right now to tell you that there is a way to stop you know you like she said if if you're questioning it if you're saying in your mind I I don't want to do this anymore that's your first sign right there that you really need help. Yes and that's it yeah and it's hard to find someone you can trust to talk to I can attest to that but you know the Lord is willing and and able the Lord is just waiting and and maybe you fell back from the Lord maybe your backslid and I I can attest to what Blossom said it's harder to come back when you fall back. It truly is but but he does allow you to come back I mean you just have to really truly want it like I really truly wanted to come back and I made that you know faith step of saying Lord no more I can't live like this anymore. And so if you really truly wanted like that's all the Lord wants is for you to just come back and say Lord you know I'm sorry and and I want to live right and maybe you don't even know who God is.

How To Know You Need Help

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Maybe you've never even spoken to the Lord and and and maybe you say I don't know how to pray and praying is just talking to our heavenly father who's there. You know maybe you've never picked up a Bible and that's okay. He still is listening because you know the Bible tells me and this is what I always believe he knew my name before the foundations of the earth were formed and so that means he knows your name whoever's listening before the foundations of the earth were formed. And unfortunately we live in a fallen world and bad things happen to us. And it just is something that he's that's why he died and that's why he rose and that's why he's coming back so that he can make all that right. But he came back to give us salvation so that we can live in that promised place for eternity where there won't be any more bad. And he wants us to come to him and and you know today could be that day where you talk to him and you ask him Lord forgive me and Lord I want to live my life right and ask him to be your Lord and Savior and and that's your day of salvation. Today could be that day that you mark on the calendar today's gonna be my day. And then maybe you're gonna take that walk and you're gonna do good for a little bit and something might happen and it just throws you off and that's okay. Dust off your feet get up and do it again.

SPEAKER_04 32:29

Amen amen because that's what we have to keep doing Blossom right that's it that's that's what we have to keep doing no matter what I'll if you got tears in your eyes just just keep on just just I know it sounds easy as being said but I'm telling you it's a it's a a process that we have to do. Like I said right now I'm going through a storm but I got to keep on pressing no matter block my tears wipe my eyes and keep on going and God bless me is taking everything I got but I'm here on this on this platform to let somebody know even in the midst of our storm he is still with us. He's still with us he's giving me the strength to speak on this podcast today and I thank God for that you know saying I didn't go back to getting no drugs or no alcohol I'm on here telling the goodness of the Lord even though I'm going through so like I said don't take us at our word trying for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Amen and he didn't you know I I remember somebody telling me once when I just couldn't get out of the funks right when I was just starting back and I couldn't get out and I'd cry and stay in bed all day and I called a friend that would talk to me talk me through this and and they said to me you know Ramona I want to just say something to you and I just want do you believe that Christ died on the cross for you and I'm like yes I did but I just don't understand why I'm feeling like this and he said why do you keep putting him back on the cross don't you believe if you believe that his blood is enough to wash you clean why do you keep putting him back like it wasn't enough and those words were so profound to me at the time Blossom that I was like every time I had my funky days I kept visually seeing him like okay Lord I'm sorry you got to go back on the cross and do this again. That's not what it's about my Lord He did it once and for all for us to be able to you know have a part of life with him and I I'm just so grateful for every day for my life and and where I'm at today because of his blood that he shed on the cross for my salvation amen amen and I and I literally need to hear that because like I said he's he he's not in the in the in the tomb he's sitting at the right hand of our heavenly father interceding for us you know so when when I'm going through I say Jesus pray for me because at

Grace, Shame, And Forgiving Yourself

SPEAKER_01 35:09

times I don't know what to say so but Jesus pray for me you know so and he knows he he knows what our tomorrow's gonna be like he knows if we're gonna even wake up tomorrow yeah you know and yeah and I always try to think too blossom and you could probably attest to this is that when we go through something yes we're affected but I like to ask him now who else is around that that's gonna benefit from this father because my coming through is going to benefit somebody around somebody because this isn't just about me I'm not the only person in this whole wide world that is hurting right right right so like I said who and why am I going through this it's a lesson it's a lesson for me to learn so why am I going through this you know sad so there's always like I said this this is really helping me I know I'm supposed to be on here telling my story but this is really helping me it's helping me I love when the Lord does that because he always knows why and and yes you know God knows what we are each in need of and yes you know I remember the day that when I finally just said like okay Lord this is enough and uh there was police surrounding the house and I had they had their guns drawn and I had to run out of this house barefooted because I was afraid for my life from somebody that I thought loved me and running out into the street to get in a police card for safety and all the neighbors looking outside and I'm thinking oh my god now they know now they know what I'm living like and and and I was like you know here I am a teacher and I'm doing all you know getting employee of the month and all this stuff and I'm thinking what is going on right what is going on and I was thinking that I was living in this make-believe world that everything was okay and it wasn't you know it wasn't and I just I couldn't get myself to go back and I told the Lord right then and there I said Lord I am going to go to church every single day I'm gonna work on every single thing that's making me feel like this and I'm gonna it's just gonna be me and you I don't need nobody in my life it's gonna be me and you there's gonna be people that are gonna not want to be around me anymore and that's okay it's just gonna be me and you and blossom I went everywhere that had a Bible study or church service every single day of the week until I could feel better.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Amen I just made myself I just surrounded myself in in in people that could speak life into me you know and sometimes I even got hurt by church people right that happens now you're preaching and I thought to myself how do you do that to me you're supposed to be somebody I trust and then I was like Lord I think I can only go to you like even them even their human you know what and and and that that just happened to me but you know we we gotta stop saying that the church hurt me if the people that's in the church.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

That's what I mean you know yes yes and so now I want to be not up under man I want to be up under God.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

You know so that girl you you you stepping on my toes over here yeah I'm telling you that and that's true because they obviously had something going on that that's why they're doing what they're doing that they still need to be delivered upon and and then my hurt and having to bring it forward to people that are above them kind of made it like oh I guess I do have see so you know there's healing all the way around. I had to leave because I needed my healing and my safe place because I'm still I'm still working on me. But they also had everything exposed to where okay maybe they need help too right because otherwise they would have kept on doing to somebody else and and and that hurts and there's probably people out there that have had that where people in the church that we thought we could trust have hurt us.

Church Hurt And Finding Safe Community

SPEAKER_01 39:21

And that doesn't mean you don't preach that's not God. That's just them and they're just humans and they're just vessels and they've got their own hangups and their own hurts and they're just laying them out on us at the moment right it just means that you know the way I looked at it is like okay you must want me to go somewhere else. So then I found another place to go. Where you preach at and that other place where I went was my best place in the world that I was supposed to be because that's a place that I was able to you know get baptized in the Holy Spirit and find out so much more and and you know write my first book and and now you know I I I'm a licensed pastor where I'm at and it's like that no wonder that happened because I would have stayed there comfortable and I I was tired of being comfortable I said Lord there must be something more you have for me and so yeah unfortunately something bad had happened for me to leave because I wouldn't leave I was too comfortable right and so now yeah and so yeah that might be somebody out there that needs to hear that too that doesn't mean God abandons you it just means like Blossom said earlier hurt people hurt people.

SPEAKER_04 40:32

Right and and you know I just had something to happen to me like that at the church and when I told the person I said well I just need to let you know that I felt offended and I had the person to tell me well I'm sorry that it happened to you like that I'm sorry that it happened but if I had to do it all over again I would and I was like I was like okay wait a minute that that that's you know but you know what and I know I can't go back there because we're not God didn't free us for to allow somebody to to to abuse us you know you know because if you if you if somebody said that you offended them even if you don't feel like you did you still apologize you know what I'm saying yeah so but when that person said that to me I'm I'm well with it don't have no ill feelings but I know I'm not supposed to be there. So God bless me I went to another church and I'm going back there tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

You know Amen Yeah so did and that's your place where probably they're gonna see the the the gifts that blossom has and and watch what and watch what the Lord does with that. Amen because it was time like it and you know haven't you ever noticed that with a job too maybe somebody listening what can attest to this like you're at a job and you've been there so long and then all of a sudden something weird starts happening and you kind of like am I supposed to leave this place because I really like this job right but then all of a sudden there's all kinds of mis God is really really I mean really using you today because what I'm going through right now and I'm sharing this so you'll be able to help somebody else I've been on my job for six years and I just found out that August the 31st will be my last day because the grant that I was working up under is ending and and and I'm sad don't get me wrong I'm sad I'm nervous and I'm saying Lord I need you to help me you know saying so and and God is just oh God is just good because everything we're talking about is what I'm going through everything.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

So I give God all the glory and honor.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

I give God all the glory and honor and you know the biggest message that Blossom and I want to share to you those of you that are listening is God is real God is faithful and he loves you so much. He loves you so much even in your messy mess he still loves you right there where you're at and he wants more than anything to just for to reach his hand down and for you to reach up and for him to pull you out of that yucky yucky right he's the potter we're the clay and we just let him mold you into what you're supposed to be because like Psalm 139 talks about how he knew us before we were born and he wove us in our mother's womb. And so that meant all the gifts and talents your name everything you might say your mom and dad named you but no it was God and Holy Spirit not even if they didn't know who Holy Spirit was that name was just that given to you because God already knew what your name was going to be and he wove all these things in you where you might think I can't do nothing right I guarantee you God gave you something to do right and it's about getting to know him getting to know the heavenly father and getting to know like Lord what am I supposed to do because your job when you were

When A Season Ends At Work

SPEAKER_01 44:06

brought into this world is to come into this world to grow up loving him to grow up knowing who he is and to serve him while you're here and so that means doing the works that he gives you to do and to doing him well and to want to right have that godly character at your workplace at you know in your home wherever that may be is just to have that and so that's my message for today wow blossom wow beautiful beautiful testimony of you and and if anybody um how can people get a hold of you blossom well once again thank you for allowing me to come and share and hang out with you on this Saturday they can reach me on Facebook Blossom Rogers Instagram Blossom Rogers TikTok Blossom Rogers my phone number is 3057538164 that's 3057538164 and if God brought me from under a bridge to walk over the bridge to my destiny he could do the same thing for you amen amen amen blossom also and I'll make sure when I post this interview that there'll be links to her a website and her YouTube links that he she's sharing here with me to to make sure that I add and so that'll all be here. Thank you so much everybody for listening today blossom I would love it if you have something last minute to say but then I would love it too is if you would close us out in prayer.

SPEAKER_04 45:42

Amen once I once again like I said God is good Jesus died for us and and don't let nothing or nobody stop you from fulfilling what your destiny is if you don't know what you're supposed to do ask him. Amen he'll tell you but if we all could just close out in prayer dear heavenly father we just want to say thank you for another blessed day. Thank you for being the God that you are true merciful kind loving understanding all knowing wise God. Thank you Jesus in the name of Jesus Father we ask you to forgive us for our sins and unspoken sins. We ask you to bless our families our friends and

How To Reach Blossom And Final Prayer

SPEAKER_04 46:15

our enemies and Lord we just give you all the glory and the honor and we thank you and hallelujah is the highest praises we can give you and we ask all these things in Jesus' name amen.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Amen