Maria's Story, a GED Graduate

I tried to get my GED several years ago at another place.  One of the teachers laughed at me for not knowing something and that changed my life.  It made me mad and I told myself that I would learn and someday I would tell her something.  I did learn.  But I won’t be telling her.

I don’t like to share my problems with other people.  I like to focus on the positive and on living a good life of opportunities.  My dad said that women don’t need college to change diapers.  I knew there is more to life.

I decided to try again to get my GED.  It is very important to me to get it.  Lighthouse Christian Ministries has a GED program and I enrolled in it.  That was why I came to the ministry about 11 years ago. 

I want the right life for me.  I don’t understand how people can have so many opportunities in this country and not use them.  I thought that I might be a physician’s assistant or a teacher.  I thought about being a vet, but now I’m afraid of dogs!  I knew I had to get my GED first for whichever path I chose, so I could go to college.  My son gives me the strength to go on and I must be an example to him.  I can’t expect him to work hard for a better life if he sees his mom not trying and not living.

It is very important to live the type of life you want.  That is why I never gave up taking classes for the GED.  And that is why I am now taking Life 101 at the ministry.  I want opportunities for me and my family.  I really didn’t have any back home.  We have to believe in ourselves.  All of us do.  We can’t care what others say.  Just believe and be unstoppable.  The people at Lighthouse have always believed in me, too, and helped me keep learning.  I enrolled in Life 101to help me find the right way and to help me find the type of job of what I really like to do.

Some people have told me to be an ESL teacher.  I like teaching, and I taught my son before he went into kindergarten.  He was ahead of everyone, and helped teach others in the class.  I guess I am a good teacher, after all.  I like teaching, and learning.

I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take the GED test, but the ministry team said I was.  They were right.  I received it a few weeks ago, and my life looks brighter every day.  I can’t describe the feeling.  I am proud of me.  My son is proud of me.  It feels wonderful.  I will never give up finding the right life for me. 

(Story captured by Dion McInnis)

Aurora's Story

The more I did, the better I got and the better my life became.  The better my life became, the more I did.  It just keeps going.  I love it.  So do my kids.

It was for my kids that I first found and then got involved with Lighthouse Christian Ministries.  I knew what parents do.  I wanted to be better for my kids, so I enrolled in the parenting classes about four years ago.  That opened the door to new information and new friends.  It also changed my life, and my kids’ lives, too.

I’ve always enjoyed learning, and serving others.  Once I began attending LCM, I learned more and more, and had many opportunities to help out.  That is very important. Kidz Dayz is one of my kids’ favorite things, and I love it, too.  I enjoy the people, and I enjoy the faith.  Sometimes I help with a little Spanish translation.  Everything that I learned in one program was able to be used in other programs.  I attended Life 101 and Life 201.  Bible teachings were part of all the classes, and I could understand what my kids were learning in Kidz Dayz because of what I was learning in classes.  It seems that all the lessons fit together, so I grow in all of them.  I grow as a person and in my faith.

I’ve always been interested in improving life, and the lives of others.  I like to do it with the gifts that I have been given and by serving.  LCM helps me grow and helps me to serve.  In fact, I tell everyone I know who needs help of some type to check out the ministry.  I like it when people say, “Aurora knows where to get help.  Ask her.”  And I do!  Being busy is rewarding, and it gets me out of the house!  I like that.

My kids and husband are so important to me.  People tell me that I am wise.  That makes me feel good, and I got a lot of that wisdom and self-confidence here.  I’m happy to say that I have started college now, too, along with what I do at home, at LCM and at my kids’ school.  Even though I graduated from high school in 2003, it is not too late to continue my education.  I think that will be a good example for my kids, too.

My kids are benefiting.  My heart is happy.  My dad is proud.  Life is good, and Lighthouse Christian Ministries helped it all happen.  I am happy and feel good about myself, and I am thankful to use my gifts to help others.  I will keep doing things and life will continue to get better. I know it will.  God wants us to serve, and I enjoy doing it.  

(Story and photo captured by Dion McInnis)

Mandy's Story

I just needed a little breathing room.  That’s all.  And that is how it all started.

My husband had left me.  It was me and my two daughters, our RV and a new beginning.  We had very little, except each other and hope.  Hope won’t pay the bills so I did a search on the internet, looking for some short-term assistance to give us a bit of breathing room as I worked a few jobs.  I’m not afraid of working hard, and I just needed to breathe.  I found Lighthouse Christian Ministries in that search.  It was a “God thing.”

I got help with food and things, but what I really received was sustenance through faith.  The ministry led me to church and showed me how God has plans for me and my daughters.  Everyone at LCM is so gracious and giving.  They listen, and they let you help, too.  Not all groups are like that, but being able to give back with time and work is very important to my daughters and me. 

Not many ministries have things for kids the ages of my daughters.  Lighthouse does.  They love it, and they are genuinely interested in giving back through service.  They don’t feel like the “have to”; they simply are interested in helping.  Lighthouse allows that feeling.

Through the ministry, I gained a new husband:  God.  He watches over and protects us as we grow through our challenges and with our opportunities.  I didn’t always go to church.  I grew up in a family of faith, but I did not have a faith family until LCM.  My daughters were attending the ministry’s programs and I stayed home.  That didn’t seem right, so about 18 months ago I started coming to Lighthouse’s programs.  Since then, God has stepped up because I asked him to.  I believe in the power of prayer.   He told us to ask for what we need.  My daughters and I ask each other for prayers in challenging times.

We faced many challenging times.  And we’re doing well.  After several job changes and improvements, I am now a security supervisor.  How did I land a job like that?  It was another “God thing.”

We were able to move from the RV to a house.  I don’t know what else the future holds, but I trust what is to be.  I know that everything would have been different, and not better, if I had not found Lighthouse Christian Ministries and the chance to catch my breath.

I quote 1 Corinthians 15:10 freely.  It describes my life.  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”   I’m at peace with God’s plans.  I know I am in good hands.

(Story and Picture Captured by: Dion McInnis)