Hello. My name is Delora.

Revelation 12:11 says I'm an overcomer through the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony.

It's only by God's grace that I'm alive today. At the age of 4, I began being molested by my grandfather. He told me that he loved me and it was our secret, which I found out later that he did the same thing to my mom growing up. It was then that my perception of love was distorted. My dad was barely in my life growing up. His addiction to alcohol was greater than his love for me, which led me to feel inadequate. My mom was in and out of psychiatric hospitals, and had her own battle with addiction, which I didn't realize until I was 13.

I go involved with the youth at Victory Baptist Church in Buena Vista, Virginia as a preteen, but when I was 14, my mom was beaten nearly to death by her boyfriend, and as a result, we moved to Alabama to live with my grandparents. The love and acceptance of my youth pastors was gone.

In 1995 my Granny was diagnosed with terminal brain and lung cancer. She was my guardian angel. She was my rock and my strength, and her illness and death were more than I could handle. She died on my 16th birthday. Her not being there to protect me was like living in hell on earth.

I had begun taking her morphine to deal with all the shame, guilt, pain and regret before she died. That was the beginning of my twenty-year addiction to anything and everything that you can imagine.

Two years later my grandfather took his last breath in front of me and my mother, and the last words he spoke to us were "I'm sorry."

I graduated high school in 1998, just barely, and in 1999 I got pregnant with my daughter. On March 7, 2000 the most beautiful, perfect baby girl was born, but my selfish desires and addictions got in the way of being the mother I should have been. I praise God for giving her a dad that stopped living for himself when she was born and started living for her. I wasn't there for her just like my mother wasn't there for me.

My mother died of a drug overdose in July 2003. My life began to completely spiral out of control. I had one failed relationship and marriage after the other. I traded one addiction for another. All my life I just wanted to be loved and accepted, and I felt like I could get that love and acceptance from men and drugs.

BUT THAT WAS A LIE FROM SATAN!

On February 24, 2014 I asked God to help me stand on the truth. I started the process when I was arrested on February 25th. While in Blount County Jail, a Marshall County inmate was housed with me. She encouraged me every day and told me about Mercy Home. She promised me she and the Director of MHM would be in court for me that following Tuesday. She was released that Friday and I thought I'd never hear from her again. Well that Sunday was visitation, I had been there three months without a visit. At 7 o'clock that night a guard slid an envelope under my door. I opened it and enclosed was application for Mercy Home Ministries. I started screaming and shouting, "Praise God, Praise God! I'm going, I'm going!" Then I looked down and saw the $60 application fee. Immediately I lost all hope. I didn't have the $60. Then, over the loud speaker they called my name. I had a visitor. I ran up the stairs like I was on the Price is Right. I got to the visitation booth and there was the director of Mercy Home Ministries. I picked up my receiver and she picked up hers. By this time I was hysterical. The first thing she said to me was "We love you. We're praying for you. And you're accepted." I hadn't even filled out the application, but I was accepted!!!

Sure enough, that Tuesday morning when I walked into the courtroom handcuffed, shackled and covered in shame, there stood the two people who promised to help me. I could have gone into any 28-day program that day, but after being in jail for over ninety days, I waited 17 more for the Mercy Home to be ready.

I was the first student. I walked into Mercy Home, and the minute I walked in the door, I felt like my heart had found a home! It was then that I stopped the cycle of going around that same mountain over and over again. I didn't just stop going around the mountain. I MOVED THE MOUNTAIN!

Mark 11:23 says "Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, Go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them."

One June 1, 2014 my pastor and spiritual father, Rickey Bell, led me to the Lord and I left my past in the past. I started to study God's Word and pray, and this time when I prayed, I believed. All it takes is the faith of a mustard seed.

On September 20, 2014 my daughter came to see me. I hadn't laid eyes on her in 9 months. I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen her in the last five years. Before she left that day, she told the director that it was the first time she'd seen me not being selfish. God is in the restoration business and he's restored our relationship. On Father's Day this year, she and her dad rededicated their lives to the Lord and she was baptized on July 19th. Mine and my sister's relationship has been restored and every night I send her Bible verses to look up. She tells me that I'm her best friend and I thank her for allowing me the chance to be the sister God called me to be. She's even coming to the women's ministry meetings. Before I got my heart right and came to Mercy Home, she refused to even talk to me. My family has truly seen a change in me that could only have come from God.

When I came to Mercy Home, I couldn't cook, clean, manage time or accept responsibility. I had no self-esteem and I was just about as lost and broken as you can imagine. BUT GOD! I can cook. I can clean. I am excellent at time management. I can accept others just as they are. I have a spirit of excellence in everything I do, but more important than anything, I know who I am in Christ. I am white as snow. I am Spirit-filled. I am Spirit-controlled. I am free. I am forgiven. I am whole. I am alive. I am chosen. I am blameless. I am submissive. I am redeemed. I am hopeful. I am Holy. I am a soldier in the army of God. I am the head and not the tail. I am above and not below. I am an adopted daughter of the Most High King, created in His image and likeness. I am greatly blessed, deeply loved and highly favored. I now know that God's Word is true and it will not come back void.

Isaiah 54:4 says "Do not be afraid, you will not be ashamed, do not fear disgrace, you will not be humiliated, you will forget the same of your youth." And I have.

Psalm 65:8 says he will be a father to the fatherless and that's what he's been for me.

Matthew 6:15 says "But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Heavenly Father will not forgive your sins." I can honestly say I have no unforgiveness in my heart.

This is my fifth program, five being the number for grace. I don't deserve to be here. It's only by God's grace that I am. Being a part of Mercy Home Ministries has been a privilege and an honor. I have the love and acceptance of God and my family. Before I came to Mercy Home I didn't believe God was at work in my life, but I know now without a doubt that He's been carrying me this entire time. God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. I know that I know that I know that I'm called to serve the Lord here at Mercy Home Ministries.

Psalm 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you all the desires of your heart." And my heart's desire is to minister to women that have been addicted, abandoned, abused and broken.

To God be the glory! Today isn't the end for me, it's only just beginning.