05 Jan Tabatha’s Story

Tabatha’s parents battled addiction and got divorced when she was 9, leaving her and her siblings in their father’s care. Despite his struggle with substance abuse, he did everything he could to provide for them. “My dad was a very loving man,” Tabatha recalls.

Over the next few years, she and her father grew very close. But when he remarried, Tabatha’s feelings changed. “I wanted to be number one in his life, so I rebelled,” she explains.

At age 15, following in her parents’ footsteps, she began abusing drugs. Her addiction was at its worst when she became a mother herself. After losing custody of her baby boy, she sought treatment, but her sobriety didn’t last. She was using again when she became pregnant with her second son, who was taken from her too. Then the shelter where she was living asked her to leave.

Trapped in a cycle of despair and heartbreak, she called Hope Ministries. “I was just looking for a place to stay,” she says. We welcomed her with open arms, but she wasn’t ready to embrace our faith-based outreach. God’s love was something she just couldn’t comprehend.

“It didn’t make any sense to me… a father protects and provides,” she says. “The Lord wasn’t going to allow the things that happened to me to happen if He was this Almighty Father.” But the godly compassion she felt from our staff and volunteers convinced her of His grace… so when she returned to Hope Ministries a second time, she decided to stay.

“I needed to break this cycle for my two little boys,” she says. “In order to do that, I had to be right with the Lord. I had to get to know Him.”

Today, in the Christ-centered environment your faithful support provides, she is studying the Bible and learning to be a responsible mother. “I know now that in order to love my children, I have to love myself, and the Lord has led me to do that,” she says. “Why do these people love me? Why are they so eager to see me successful?”

We recently rejoiced with Tabatha when her youngest son was returned to her here at Hope Ministries. She also has a great relationship with her oldest son and hopes to one day have both kids home with her.

Tabatha is grateful for the dedication and discipleship of those in our ministry who have empowered her to change her life. “They are truly servants of the Lord,” she says. And she hopes to one day follow in their footsteps, working at Hope Ministries or as a counselor for children who are victims of domestic violence and addiction. In the meantime, her words of hope serve as a testament to the wonders of God’s love for all those in our care…

“I’m not saying it’s been easy, because it hasn’t. God is healing me in my addictions and other broken areas of my life. If I surrender to Him, it’s going to be okay.”

To read Hope Ministries’ newsletter, click here.