I grew up as a small town girl from rural Alabama, protected and sheltered from the dangers of the big city, or so I thought! I was raised by Godly parents who did the best they could, both coming from broken homes and trying to give me a different kind of life than they knew. As trauma has it, the inevitable happened. Away from the city in a backwoods town, I was molested by a cousin at the innocent age of seven, which started a lifetime of bad choices and struggles for me. I would later realize that this behavior stemmed from that very repressed memory from my childhood. Around the age of 14, I was raped by someone I knew and trusted. At the age of 15, my world fell apart after I lost my father by suicide. Mental illness in his family ran deep due to the brokenness that no one ever acknowledged or attempted to heal.

I began receiving attention from men much older than me, and I liked it because it filled the void in my heart after losing my Dad. Later on, I would look back and realize this was just another form of sexual abuse. I attempted to move on and try to live a normal life, but I had to go through two failed marriages and a whirlwind of more abuse, trauma, and brokenness. I truly had no idea how bad the pain was going to get!

At the age of 36, I went to visit family in Mobile, Alabama where I was kidnapped by a guerilla pimp from a hotel curb close to a Greyhound bus station. A woman there overheard my conversations and sold me to a trafficker for drugs, which he would later tell me while putting my head through a wall. I was missing for around eight months. During that time, I was transported and held hostage in box trucks and hotel rooms where I was forced to perform sexual acts for money that I never got to keep. I learned a lot about the streets and the dangers and brokenness there. I learned that hurt people hurt people.

I figured out early on that if he hit me in the face and left marks that I would be unwanted goods by the people who were paying him, so I started using that as a survival technique. I was drugged, tied up, raped, sodomized, beaten, and even shot while trying to escape. Until one day he lost control and beat my face into the dash of a car. Thankfully he thought he had killed me and left me in a ditch for dead. This is where my story turned - an earthly angel found me and dropped me off at an emergency room!

After getting out of captivity, the complex PTSD I suffered from was so horrendous, and I spent three years running from myself until I could run no longer. I trusted no one and felt utterly alone in the world and did not want to continue living. God used the love that I have for my two beautiful children as a lifeboat to keep me holding on until I would anchor myself to HIM.

I got to a point of pure exhaustion from the mental, emotional, and physical abuse that I received from men. I attempted suicide more than once to escape the pain, used drugs to self medicate, was arrested, and almost got kidnapped again. I realized I was going to die if I didn’t get some help, so I surrendered and called The WellHouse. A friend had heard about them at an event several years prior to this happening, so I knew this was a divine appointment from God! Isaiah 43:19-20

Coming to The WellHouse was the best decision I’ve ever made. God has taken my story from gory to glory! The love and care I’ve received from the staff and volunteers here has been monumental in my healing process. After receiving intensive trauma therapy, I started my road to restoration. Addressing my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual brokenness, I’ve begun healing.

I’ve found a deeper relationship with God. He has given me the gift of artistry, an amazing talent to draw and paint which I did not have before. I am able to function in a mostly normal life. Through my time at The WellHouse I have received a brand new smile literally, physically, and through God, soulfully. I am now redeemed, restored, chosen, called according to a purpose, and complete. A God gift this good has to be shared with others! My passion is now outreach, so I strive every day to be a vessel of honor for God to use to help other women find their way out of the darkness. Jeremiah 29:11 & Isaiah 61:1-3

Survivor Story: Sarah