Stephanie's Testimony

Hello, Forever Family. My name is Stephanie. I'm a grateful believer in Jesus Christ, celebrating recovery over addiction and working on self-control and perfectionism. So happy to be with you guys today. I just wanna share a little bit about my story. Before Jesus and before Celebrate Recovery, my life was complete chaos. I grew up in a world of drugs, violence, fear and dysfunction. My father sold drugs and the people that were supposed to protect me exposed me to danger instead. I witnessed things no child should ever witness. I started using drugs and alcohol at a very young age to escape the pain and confusion of my life. As a teenager, I looked for worth and validation in relationships. I dropped out of school and moved in with a man twice my age when I was 15. And I spent years trapped in unhealthy relationships, addiction and self-destructive chaos. I drank until I blacked out regularly, used drugs daily and lived without purpose or hope. By my early 20s, I had lost everything. I was homeless for a short time and ended up back at my dad's house, headed towards the same future I had watched consume so many people around me,

jail, addiction, death. Someone saw me for more than a homeless drug addict and told me that I was better than the life I was living. This changed everything. They encouraged me to join the military. I was desperate for a different life, so I joined the army. The military gave me discipline and structure, but it could not fix the brokenness inside of me. When I came home from the army, I returned with more issues than when I went in. I returned to the same patterns of drinking, unhealthy relationships and trying to control everything around me. Then one day, after another alcohol-fueled weekend, I reached the end of myself. I hit my knees and I prayed a simple prayer. God, if you're real, save me and change my life. And he did. I found a church with the sign that said, come as you are. And shortly after that, I found Celebrate Recovery. At first, I came because recovery was in the name, but what I discovered was so much more. I discovered Jesus. I discovered people who loved me before I could love myself. And I discovered freedom, real freedom. Celebrate Recovery helped me deal with the hurts, habits and hangups that had shaped my entire life. It taught me how to forgive. It taught me how my addiction, my trauma and my past

was not my identity. Christ was my identity. Working the steps brought freedom from things I had carried for decades. CR became more than a recovery ministry to me. It became discipleship. It showed me how to follow Jesus, how to build healthy relationships and how to live differently. As my recovery grew, so did my desire to help others experience the same freedom that I had found. What I didn't realize was that God wasn't only redeeming my story. He was redeeming my entire family. My mother eventually came to Celebrate Recovery after two years of persistent invites from her daughter. She became a leader. My stepdad followed shortly after. They were both serving in South Crestview Campus. My brother spent years trapped in addiction as well, cycling through incarceration, hospital, hopelessness. But while in jail, God got ahold of his heart. That encounter with Jesus changed everything for him. We helped him get into a recovery program upon release. He graduated, became a leader and today he's serving others. My father's story may be the most incredible of them all. After a life of trafficking, drugs and addiction, he was sentenced to federal prison.

While incarcerated, he did Celebrate Recovery inside materials that I shared with him. There behind prison walls, my father gave his life to Jesus and was baptized in 2020. Think about that for a moment. The same man who introduced me to alcohol at 13 years old found salvation through Jesus in federal prison because of Celebrate Recovery Inside. That is why I'm passionate about this ministry. I've seen firsthand that prison walls do not stop God, jail cells do not stop God, handcuffs do not stop God and a criminal record does not stop God. Several years ago, God placed a burden on my heart for the incarcerated. I spent four years advocating for Celebrate Recovery Inside at Okaloosa County Jail. Four years of conversations, meetings, setbacks and closed doors, but God was faithful. Today, Celebrate Recovery Inside is active there and I have had the privilege of watching men and women encounter Jesus. this in one of the darkest seasons of their lives. What began as a passion for CR Inside eventually led God to call me into full-time ministry and to start a nonprofit. We go into the jails, minister to people. We help people connect hundreds of people from leaving jails and prisons and shelters to treatment programs, recovery communities,

supportive housing, peer support, and employment resources, churches, and celebrate recovery groups. Because we know that recovery doesn't end at release. In many ways, that's where the real work begins. Today, our team brings celebrate recovery inside facilities across the Florida Panhandle. We also provide re-entry resource briefings that help incarcerated men and women create a plan for success upon walking out those doors. We connect them to local recovery programs, recovery communities, supportive housing, and peer services. Through our Freedom Network, we're helping people with lived experience become certified recovery peer specialists so that they can use their stories to help others find hope and healing. The people society often writes off become leaders. They become mentors. They become servants of Christ. They become living proof that Jesus still transforms lives. One of my favorite verses is Genesis 50, 20. It says, what you intended to harm me, God intended for good, for what is being done, the saving of many lives. This verse perfectly describes mine and my brother's story. Everything the enemy meant for destruction, our childhood, addiction, trauma, broken relationships, pain, God has redeemed for his glory. Today, I get to witness life change every week.

And I get to watch my brother lead now as the executive director of the nonprofit I started when I helped him get out of jail and into a program. I get to watch incarcerated men and women discover that they are loved by God. I get to watch families reunited. I get to watch hopeless people find purpose. I get to watch Jesus do what only Jesus can do. Celebrate Recovery changed my life. Celebrate Recovery changed my family. And Celebrate Recovery Inside is changing lives behind bars every single day. To anyone listening who serves in CR Inside, thank you. You may never know, fully know, or understand the impact of your obedience. The person sitting quietly in the back row may become a pastor. The person wearing a jail uniform may be a peer specialist. The person everyone has given up on may be the one God uses to save so many. I know because my family is living proof. Second Corinthians 5, 17 says, therefore, that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old life is gone. All things have become new. That verse is my story. From homeless addict to servant of Christ, from hopeless to redeemed, from inmate family member to Celebrate Recovery Inside state rep,

only God can do that. Thank you for letting me share.