Our Story
The Story Behind The Gift
“My beginning was not my ending.”
This is a story of faith, resilience, education, perseverance and the redeeming power of God—a journey that ultimately gave birth to The Gift Ministries.
Chapter One
A Testimony of Grace
My journey is a testimony of God’s faithfulness, grace, and redeeming power.
At the age of twelve, my life changed in a way I could never have imagined. I became pregnant through circumstances that were no fault of my own. I was still a child, and I did not fully understand what was happening to me or how deeply that experience would shape the years ahead.
When it was time to give birth, I was dropped off at the hospital by a family member. I arrived frightened and alone. For twelve hours, I endured labor without the comfort or support that a child in that situation desperately needed.
At one point during labor, frightened and alone, I reached out to a nurse and asked her to hold my hand. She refused. She looked at me and said, “Look at you. You should not be here,” and turned away from my outstretched hand.
I was twelve years old.
That moment stayed with me. I had reached out for comfort during one of the most frightening moments of my life and instead experienced rejection.
But something else happened in my heart that day. I made a decision that rejection would not make me bitter. I would not allow the way I had been treated to determine how I would treat others.
Somewhere in the middle of my pain, I decided that I would choose love.
“I decided that I would choose love.”
Chapter Two
A Small Gift in a Moment of Pain
After giving birth to my beautiful baby girl, I woke the following morning knowing that something inside me had changed forever. I was numb, confused, wounded, and unable to put what I was feeling into words.
During those first days, two family members came to visit and brought me a large bag of oranges.
It may sound like such a small thing, but those oranges became deeply meaningful to me.
After they left, I began eating them one by one. I placed each peel into a bag. I could not explain my hurt. I could not articulate the loneliness or fear I felt. In that moment, eating those oranges became one of the only ways I knew how to process what had happened.
Those oranges represented something more than food.
“They meant that someone had remembered me.”
In a moment when I felt forgotten, rejected, and alone, someone had thought enough of me to bring me something.
That simple act became one of the greatest gifts I had received.
For several days, I remained at the hospital trying to find someone who would come and take me home. As the days passed, I wondered whether I had simply been left there.
I experienced shame.I experienced guilt.I experienced rejection.I experienced loneliness.And I experienced the painful feeling of being unloved.
What I could not understand at the time was that God had not forgotten me.
My daughter was cared for lovingly by family until she eventually returned to me.
Although I was only a child, God was already writing a story that I could not yet see or understand.
Chapter Three
Learning to Keep Going
My educational journey did not follow a traditional path. I attended high school but did not graduate. For many years, the future I had once imagined seemed uncertain.
Life continued.
I married and later became the mother of two more beautiful daughters. Eventually, my marriage ended, and I found myself raising my children as a single mother.
That season of my life demanded resilience, perseverance, courage, sacrifice, and grit.
There were times when my circumstances looked nothing like the future I had hoped for.
There were setbacks.There were disappointments.There were moments when simply getting through the day required strength.
But what looked like setbacks were becoming part of the testimony God was building in me.
At twenty-six years old, I made a decision that would change the direction of my life.
I went back to school.
I knew that if I wanted a different future for myself and my children, I had to be willing to take the first step—even if I could not yet see where that step would lead.
I began my college education determined to keep moving forward.
Through sacrifice, perseverance, determination and the grace of God, I earned my first college degree.
That accomplishment meant far more to me than receiving a diploma.
“It represented possibility. It represented restoration.”
It was proof that the circumstances of my beginning did not have the authority to determine the ending of my story.
Chapter Four
Discovering the Call
During that same season, something else began to happen.
While listening to a message during a church service, I felt something awaken within me. The words spoke deeply to my spirit and helped confirm what God had already begun placing in my heart.
A seed had been planted.
I did not yet know exactly what the future would look like, but I began to understand that the experiences of my life—the pain, the rejection, the perseverance, and even the moments I wished I could erase—could one day be used to help someone else.
God was turning pain into purpose.
My education continued as well.
Years after earning my first degree, I returned again and completed my bachelor’s degree. I continued still further, eventually earning a master’s degree in organizational leadership.
My educational journey is not finished. I still carry the desire to pursue a Ph.D. and continue growing academically and professionally.
At the same time, I am working to responsibly manage the student loan debt accumulated through years of pursuing higher education. Like many adult learners, I understand that educational opportunity can bring both transformation and significant financial responsibility.
That reality has not caused me to abandon the dream. I continue to believe that, in the right season and with wisdom about the financial commitments involved, the next chapter of my education is still possible.
The journey was anything but easy.
I pursued education while carrying the responsibilities of motherhood, financial pressures, work, exhaustion and the demands of everyday life.
There were times when I questioned whether I would ever reach the goals in front of me.
There were moments when I had to move forward while tired.Moments when I had to believe before I could see the outcome.Moments when quitting would have been easier than continuing.
But every obstacle became another opportunity to experience God’s faithfulness.
Today, I have had the privilege of serving as an educator, professor, and academic leader.
When I look back at the twelve-year-old girl who once sat frightened and alone in a hospital room, I know I could never have written this story by myself.
What once appeared impossible became possible because I kept moving forward—and, more importantly, because God never stopped walking with me.
Chapter Five · The Birth of The Gift Ministries
Out of the broken pieces of my past, The Gift Ministries was born.
The ministry began because I understood firsthand what it meant to feel broken, rejected, overwhelmed, forgotten, and uncertain about the future.
I also understood what it meant for one act of kindness to matter.
I remembered the oranges.
I remembered what it felt like for someone to think about me during a moment when I believed I had been forgotten.
And I knew that ministry could not simply be about words.
It had to be about reaching people.Serving people.Standing beside people.
Helping people recognize that their current circumstances do not have to become the final chapter of their story.
The Gift Ministries was established as a church in 2002, and in the years that followed I stepped more fully into the call God had placed on my life to preach the Gospel and serve others.
The ministry grew directly out of my own journey.
Because I know what it means to experience rejection, The Gift must be a place of acceptance.
Because I know what it means to struggle, The Gift must be willing to serve people in practical ways.
Because I know what it means to wonder whether anyone cares, The Gift must remind people that they are seen, valued, and loved.
And because I know what God can do with a life that others may have counted out, The Gift must help people discover and pursue their God-given potential.
That calling is reflected in our commitment to hands-on, restorative outreach—supporting mothers and children, providing nourishment and essential resources, walking alongside families facing difficult circumstances, extending prayer and spiritual support, and creating opportunities that help individuals and families move toward stronger futures.
Chapter Six
Your beginning does not determine your ending.
My life is a testimony that your beginning does not determine your ending.
God can take broken places and create something beautiful.He can take missed opportunities and open new doors.He can take rejection and produce resilience.He can take circumstances that were intended to destroy your hope and use them to develop your purpose.
He can restore dreams.He can heal wounds.He can rebuild what life has broken.
And He can use your story to help someone else believe that transformation is possible.
Today, as the Founder and Pastor of The Gift Ministries, I do not stand because the journey was easy.
I stand because God has been faithful.
I am here because of His grace.I am standing because of His strength.I continue moving forward because of His purpose.
Everything I have become and everything this ministry strives to accomplish is part of that testimony.
Chapter Seven
Closing Testimony
There was a time when I was a twelve-year-old mother who had not completed high school.
Today, I am a college graduate, educator, academic leader, Founder, and Pastor.
That journey taught me something I want every person who encounters The Gift Ministries to know:
Delay is not denial.
Setbacks are not the end.
Rejection does not define you.
Your circumstances do not determine your destiny.
Your past does not have the final word.
God can redeem a life.He can restore what was lost.He can heal what was wounded.He can give beauty for ashes.He can turn pain into purpose.He can turn rejection into resilience.
And He can take the gift He placed inside of you and use it for something greater than you ever imagined.
I survived circumstances I once thought would destroy me.I overcame experiences I once believed would define me.I continued during seasons when I wanted to quit.
And through it all, God was there.
I give Him the glory for every door He opened, every tear He carried me through, every mountain He helped me climb, every lesson I learned, every child He entrusted to me, every educational opportunity I received, every ministry opportunity He provided, and every person He has allowed me to encourage along the way.
I am living proof that God is still transforming lives.
And if He did it for me, I believe He can do it for you.
My beginning was not my ending.
My pain was not my purpose.
My past was not my destiny.
God’s grace was greater than it all.
To God be all the glory, honor, and praise.
Amen.
The Story Continues
Helping others move forward.
The journey that gave birth to The Gift Ministries continues through programs, partnerships and services designed to expand access to education, workforce development, healthcare advancement, leadership, technology, faith and community support.