Crystal's Story

Crystal experienced a great deal of abuse as a child. “My stepdad would molest me,” she says. She told people at her school what was happening, and she ended up at her step-grandmother’s house. “They made me lie about the whole thing.”

Crystal gravitated toward others who could relate to her pain. She dropped out of school and began to party. “I got introduced to meth at the age of 13,” she recalls.

Crystal became addicted to meth, leading to a life of homelessness “on and off for 20 years,” she says. “It was a nightmare the whole time … I was just living in this misery … I wanted something else, but I didn’t know how to obtain it.” In addition to being homeless, she gave up custody of her kids, one to adoption and two to her relatives.

One night, the Mission’s Search + Rescue van came to where Crystal was living. “I got to meet the most amazing people in the world because they brought a light to me,” she says.

Crystal appreciates the Mission’s relational approach to people struggling with addiction and homelessness. “They would come out and talk to us and spend time with us … making sure we were okay, and asking us where we were going, what our next steps were, and if they could help us in our next steps ... that really impacted my life.”

“When I was in my misery, I just felt so defeated,” Crystal says. “They (Mission staff) would bring Christ up to me. But as far as accepting Him, because I feel like I wasn’t worthy of His love because of everything that I was doing. It was just hard. But what stayed through it was the … Mission. I had friends there. I had people who cared about me.” Crystal acknowledges that it was through those relationships that she was able to realize how much God loves her.

Crystal eventually landed in jail, and she got clean. She remembers that when her brother died of an overdose, “I didn’t know which way to turn, because everyone thought that I was going to go back to getting high and I didn’t want to do that. But I asked God what He would want me to do. He says, ‘Give back.’”

Now, Crystal works as an Outreach Specialist for the Mission’s Search + Rescue Team, and is able to relate to people personally as so many did for her when she was on the streets. “If you have somebody there that has been seeing where you’re at and where you’re going, it makes it so much easier,” she says.

In addition to Crystal’s work at the Mission, God has brought restoration in her personal life. She has forgiven her stepdad and she now sees her children again. She’s thankful for the new life God has given her and for the role the Mission has played.