“Now I’m walking in the light.”
Adopted at a young age, Vera was raised in a family of nine children. She loved school, sang in the church choir and developed her passion for cooking while working her first job at a fast-food restaurant. Though her childhood seemed happy, she carried a quiet sadness. “I didn’t understand why my birth mother gave me up,” she recalls.
“It made me look for love in all the wrong places.”
At age 17, Vera became a mother herself. Unprepared for the sacrifice and responsibility that come with raising a child, she fell victim to negative influences and continued her destructive habits.
“I gave several years of my life over to substance abuse.”
Her behavior ended her marriage. Her mother helped care for her daughter. She experienced a period of homelessness lasting more than two years. Vera held a steady job, but she also turned to sex work to make ends meet. She describes that time as dangerous and heartbreaking. It offered a false sense of the love she’d been seeking, but it left her feeling spiritually empty.
“My self-worth was so low, I didn’t think I could ever have a relationship with God again.”
When her emotions left her feeling out of control and struggling to do her job, she reached a breaking point. It was as if God were saying, “Look how far you have drifted.”
Determined to change before it was too late, she quit her job and began researching treatment facilities. She was accepted by one in South Carolina, but as she prepared to leave, the arrangement fell through. Then she called City Rescue Mission. “And that’s where I ended up,” she says. Like Paul’s story, she knew God had intervened in her plans and guided her to a place of redemption.
“I had a road to Damascus experience.”
In our LifeBuilders Program, Vera found what she’d been missing: unconditional love and a renewed relationship with God. In her first class, she rediscovered that Jesus loved her so much, He died for her. “It hit me in a way that changed everything. From that moment on, my life was never the same.”
Like all in our care, Vera took part in Bible study, life skills training and adult education. Serving on our prayer and hospitality teams encouraged her to grow stronger in faith and confidence. And in our kitchen, her special gift became a ministry of its own.
“Nobody can cook grits like I can – I put a lot of God in my cooking.”
Today, Vera is active in her church and dreams of opening her own catering business, Heavenly Home Cooking, where she can share the love of Christ through warm homecooked meals. Most of all, she wants to share her story of grace and transformation with others who are still struggling.
“I am filled with the Holy Spirit, and I’m walking in the light,” Vera says. “City Rescue Mission gave me back my relationship with God.”