A Life Changing Experience

You’ve heard the saying that sometimes life throws you a curveball. Well, in the case of Angela Williams, life threw her something more like a huge and painful fast ball.

“I had a great childhood, growing up with hard-working parents and going to high school in Blue Springs, Missouri,” said Angela. “Then I spent the next 22 years of married life in suburban Kansas City. Then it happened.”

“It” was the sudden death of Angela’s 17-year-old daughter, Brandy, in a tragic car accident.

“That moment was a very pronounced turning point for about everything in my life and my marriage. I parted ways with my husband and went searching for anything to help get me through the pain,” says Angela.

That search led Angela down a road that she now describes as “a very bad path of self-destruction.” That path included no job, no family, a man who proved to be abusive and dangerous, and a variety of “pain killing” activities.

Even though Angela now readily admits she went way down the wrong road, there was one final turn that changed everything.

“I had begun to pray to Jesus during my abuse, and I know He is the reason I am alive today. When I finally walked away from that situation, I truly found Jesus. He loved me when everyone else had stopped,” Angela said. Now, Angela is bold in her faith, and cherishes her relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Angela says “He is the first person I talk to in the morning and the last person I talk to at night.”

As Angela began to turn things around, she met many people along the way who helped her. Ultimately she was made aware of the ministries at True Light Family Resource Center in Kansas City, MO and introduced to its founder and director Pastor Alice Piggee-Wallack. Angela was accepted into Freedom House, a part of the True Light organization which provides a transition program for homeless, single adult women to prepare them for a life of independence and self-sufficiency. She calls her experience at Freedom House “life changing.”

“I’ve been at Freedom House going on one year, and it has been a true blessing to me all the way around. It has helped give me my life back. There is no way I could repay for this experience, or for the friendship and direction provided by Pastor Alice,” Angela said, adding that “Pastor Alice is everything this world has too little of.”

Today, Angela is working as a server at IHOP in Kansas City and is preparing to move to her own apartment in December. She embodies the very purpose of the Freedom House initiative, and is an example to other adult women that life can get you down but there is a way out, and there are people who care.

If Angela was asked to give advice to other women in need, here’s what she would say:
*If you are in a toxic situation, get out now
*Change your path and seek helpful people
*Find Jesus and practice your faith

*Talk to God all day long

Good advice that can indeed be life-changing.

For more information about True Light Family Resource Center and Freedom House, go to www.truelightfrc.org