This is how a 16-year-old-girl we’ll call Hannah felt ... and it was eating her alive.
But by God’s grace, and thanks to you, she found a safe place to talk on TheHopeLine.
She’d been missing school ... failing almost every class ... struggling to concentrate or feel motivated at all with how bad things were at home.
And she kept it all inside.
“My school place will call foster care,” Hannah typed in. “I don’t have a good relationship with anyone in my family, my friends aren’t mature enough to handle it ... and I just don’t know who to tell. I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know what to do.”
She desperately needed someone to talk to. Someone to listen.
And when the Hope Coach asked, “What is going on?” ... it all came rushing out.
Hannah was a child of rape.
Her mom struggled with mental illness — in and out of jail, on and off the streets for most of Hannah’s life.
Though her grandparents had custody, Hannah’s mom periodically lived in the house with them. Abusing drugs ... and Hannah. Her school saw bruises and called foster care.
Now, Hannah is back home and — thankfully — no longer being hurt physically ... but life is extremely dysfunctional as her mom panhandles for drugs, and they struggle to buy food.
“I am safe and not being hurt. It’s just a stressful situation ... mentally I feel so much worse,” Hannah wrote.
That’s when the Hope Coach started sharing about God — a God who listens, a God who is trustworthy, a God who loves.
“I really really needed to hear this,” Hannah typed back. “I want to have that connection with Him, I just don’t even know where to start.”
The Hope Coach explained just how easy it was — a simple prayer to invite Him in.
Hannah prayed the prayer her Hope Coach typed out — every word — and accepted Jesus as her Savior that night!
This is the power of your generosity. Thank you for giving, so Hannah could find the God who listens — and thank you for giving this gift to another young person in crisis today!