Welcome back, so we are talking with Ashley and talking 00:00:15.32\00:00:18.99 Ashley about the whole journey you've had as far as 00:00:19.03\00:00:23.11 coming to God and I got to be at the part of almost the 00:00:23.14\00:00:27.18 beginning of that. 00:00:27.22\00:00:28.70 You went to the Ty Gibson program with Acts, then God 00:00:28.74\00:00:31.18 started moving you in the direction of recovery. 00:00:31.22\00:00:34.85 You talked about right before the break is that one of the 00:00:34.89\00:00:38.82 bigger things that He asked you to look at was the hockey. 00:00:38.85\00:00:42.18 As you said you lived hockey, you have been playing it all 00:00:42.22\00:00:45.86 your life, you were good at it, and He is I want you to 00:00:45.89\00:00:49.50 walk away from this right now. 00:00:49.53\00:00:51.26 Yeah it was hard and you know when you came though, I had 00:00:51.29\00:00:56.61 already given up the hockey a couple weeks before and I 00:00:56.65\00:01:00.79 knew that was something I needed to do because I had felt 00:01:00.82\00:01:04.48 impressed by God and He had been actually working on it 00:01:04.52\00:01:08.14 with me for about four years. 00:01:08.18\00:01:10.05 Did you know it was because all of your time was here? 00:01:10.09\00:01:13.42 That this was what you used to cover everything? 00:01:13.45\00:01:15.45 I did but I didn't, I guess I did know that I was pretty 00:01:15.49\00:01:19.57 much addicted to it, but at the same time I didn't really 00:01:19.60\00:01:22.79 want to admit it because I loved it so much and actually 00:01:22.83\00:01:25.98 felt like I belonged and felt importance, 00:01:26.01\00:01:28.66 so I didn't want to walk away. 00:01:28.70\00:01:31.00 - so I didn't feel that anywhere else. - no exactly. 00:01:31.03\00:01:33.63 Then it was just a crazy ride after that. 00:01:33.67\00:01:37.07 So it is really interesting in what I saw was the fact 00:01:37.11\00:01:40.56 that I'm looking at you and knowing that right now 00:01:40.60\00:01:44.17 you didn't know who you were, or where you were, 00:01:44.20\00:01:47.70 when you locked down, or the last time you were really 00:01:47.74\00:01:50.87 in touch with yourself so I think I said to you some 00:01:50.91\00:01:54.32 thing like you need to find that little girl where ever 00:01:54.36\00:01:57.73 she shut down. You said I don't even know. 00:01:57.77\00:02:00.88 I had no idea, you know I had been thinking okay maybe 00:02:00.92\00:02:05.76 it was when I was a baby, or maybe it was when I was, 00:02:05.79\00:02:10.60 I had all these different things that 00:02:10.64\00:02:14.71 I thought maybe it was. 00:02:14.75\00:02:16.36 And let me just say for people that probably didn't 00:02:16.39\00:02:19.30 understand what I just said is that when I was little girl 00:02:19.34\00:02:21.31 about three years old, I know that at that moment 00:02:21.35\00:02:25.01 something happened in our household that I completely shut 00:02:25.05\00:02:28.79 off and I don't even remember years after that because I 00:02:28.82\00:02:32.52 just closed off just to survive. 00:02:32.56\00:02:34.94 I think that is what I was responding to, at what age, 00:02:34.98\00:02:38.59 at what time do you remember losing yourself? 00:02:38.62\00:02:42.17 I had no idea, I really didn't and I just kept praying 00:02:42.20\00:02:46.45 about it, I kept God okay where was it? I need to find 00:02:46.48\00:02:50.70 that little girl? And I really tried on my own. 00:02:50.73\00:02:52.81 I tried so hard to try and find her. 00:02:52.84\00:02:55.86 It was just not happening and it wasn't until probably 00:02:55.90\00:03:02.14 six months later, if not more when I was just laying 00:03:02.17\00:03:06.79 there and I could not sleep, just could not sleep. 00:03:06.83\00:03:11.48 I was like what is going on? I have to work tomorrow 00:03:11.51\00:03:15.57 what is going on? It was like two o'clock in the morning 00:03:15.61\00:03:19.98 at this point in time and I was like okay God I can't, 00:03:20.02\00:03:23.79 what's going on? Because I don't know what's going on? 00:03:23.83\00:03:28.04 He took me back to the moment when that little girl was 00:03:28.07\00:03:32.71 lost and I was sexually abused at one point in my life 00:03:32.75\00:03:37.35 and that was the moment He took me to. 00:03:37.39\00:03:39.33 He it was like, are you kidding me? I had completely 00:03:39.36\00:03:42.88 pushed it out of my mind, completely blocked it out. 00:03:42.91\00:03:47.05 The more I have tried to recover from all that and heal 00:03:47.09\00:03:51.19 from that the last year the more real it has been 00:03:51.22\00:03:54.01 to me that yeah that was it. 00:03:54.05\00:03:57.04 That was the moment I stopped caring about myself. 00:03:57.07\00:03:59.93 You started gaining weight? - I started gaining weight. 00:03:59.96\00:04:02.81 I started hiding food, I started to really submerging 00:04:02.85\00:04:05.67 into the hockey because it was like 00:04:05.70\00:04:07.42 I am not going to feel anything. 00:04:07.45\00:04:09.10 Like I'm going to focus my time in all my space in 00:04:09.14\00:04:11.92 something else because I am not going to think about this. 00:04:11.95\00:04:14.38 And you have to think about too is hockey is a very, 00:04:14.42\00:04:17.06 you come close enough, I mean if I can hit you with a stick, 00:04:17.10\00:04:20.93 it's a very like I can be aggressive and I can 00:04:20.97\00:04:24.79 be that and nobody is going to take advantage of me. 00:04:24.82\00:04:28.17 It's like I watched as you started to say this is what 00:04:28.21\00:04:31.35 happened and I watch this kid come up that really is 00:04:31.38\00:04:34.49 going to take care of myself and defend myself. 00:04:34.52\00:04:36.83 It's crazy because as I was laying there I said no I'm 00:04:36.87\00:04:42.50 not going to deal with this, I can't do this. 00:04:42.53\00:04:44.96 - it will kill me. - it's going to be the death of me. 00:04:44.99\00:04:49.10 And it was like God just whispered and part of the reason 00:04:49.13\00:04:52.97 why He showed me that too was because I had spent from the 00:04:53.01\00:04:56.53 time I was in college so much time on the Internet chatting 00:04:56.56\00:04:59.82 with men on different Christian sites and stuff like that. 00:04:59.86\00:05:03.08 It was really inappropriate conversations, but I felt 00:05:03.12\00:05:07.59 special, - I felt I belonged there even if it's just for 00:05:07.62\00:05:11.43 a moment - exactly, even if it is just this one guy that 00:05:11.46\00:05:15.48 says I love you and I'm oh really, yea like yea somebody 00:05:15.51\00:05:19.50 actually loves me, but they didn't. 00:05:19.53\00:05:21.61 It was just like they really didn't. 00:05:21.65\00:05:23.66 When did the cutting come into all this too. 00:05:23.69\00:05:26.37 The cutting actually was more in high school. 00:05:26.41\00:05:29.05 - 14 or 15? Yeah around 15 -16 probably. 00:05:29.09\00:05:34.79 Because I want to know to get a picture of this spin 00:05:34.83\00:05:38.29 that starts happening and that starts literally spinning 00:05:38.32\00:05:42.08 out of control and the more I spin the more I grab hold 00:05:42.11\00:05:45.54 of anything that is going to help me feel like I fit. 00:05:45.57\00:05:49.74 I spent a lot of time drinking as well and that came in 00:05:49.77\00:05:53.92 on a hockey trip and for the first time when I was 16. 00:05:53.95\00:05:57.92 Even though it was a long time before I drank again, 00:05:57.96\00:06:02.94 it slowly started to creep in and even though I wouldn't 00:06:02.97\00:06:07.46 say I was an alcoholic, but it did play in as another 00:06:07.50\00:06:11.62 distraction, as another thing to keep me from dealing 00:06:11.66\00:06:15.75 with what was really going on. 00:06:15.78\00:06:17.54 - Another Band-Aid - another Band-Aid. 00:06:17.57\00:06:19.25 You know and in recover sense, because we are talking 00:06:19.29\00:06:23.48 about recovery issues and recovery sense is that it is 00:06:23.51\00:06:27.77 like I don't want to feel, I don't want to be me, I don't 00:06:27.80\00:06:32.23 want to do any of that stuff so we just grab hold of almost 00:06:32.26\00:06:36.66 automatically grab hold of things. 00:06:36.69\00:06:39.55 That night that God showed me that I had to parent myself 00:06:39.59\00:06:44.00 and I had to say no it's okay it's just you and me and God. 00:06:44.04\00:06:48.42 That's it, there's nobody else here, we can do this. 00:06:48.46\00:06:52.29 I'm not being molested right now, I am safe right now. 00:06:52.32\00:06:55.34 - exactly and you know. - and it's time to look at it 00:06:55.37\00:06:59.02 for sure and it was I cried and I cried and I cried 00:06:59.05\00:07:02.67 which was good because one of the things I remember 00:07:02.71\00:07:05.67 telling you too when you were in McBride was that 00:07:05.70\00:07:08.60 I actually had for the longest time just this hardened 00:07:08.63\00:07:12.82 shell and wall so high that I never cried. 00:07:12.85\00:07:16.57 Even though I wanted to and should have been, there were 00:07:16.60\00:07:19.03 so many times where something sad would happen and 00:07:19.07\00:07:22.47 I felt it inside at a funeral and feeling so sad, 00:07:22.51\00:07:25.87 but not being able to cry, I just couldn't. 00:07:25.91\00:07:27.97 It was like what is wrong with me? 00:07:28.01\00:07:30.23 I am like messed up, something is wrong. 00:07:30.27\00:07:34.29 Even feeling that is like, and I hate the way our 00:07:34.33\00:07:38.72 addictions do us, because even feeling that now I feel 00:07:38.75\00:07:41.60 more abnormal and so something is really wrong with me. 00:07:41.63\00:07:44.77 Maybe I am crazy and I really believe there is a devil 00:07:44.81\00:07:47.60 that sits right on our shoulder and says absolutely. 00:07:47.63\00:07:50.38 Look at you, everybody else is crying, 00:07:50.42\00:07:52.62 what's wrong with you? Or everybody else fits in, 00:07:52.66\00:07:55.21 what's wrong with you? The more we spin the more we feel 00:07:55.25\00:07:59.62 like somehow something is horribly wrong with me and it 00:07:59.65\00:08:04.15 spins me again. - you know one of the biggest things is 00:08:04.18\00:08:09.00 part of the main reason is not just in a distraction from 00:08:09.03\00:08:13.20 that, part of the reason why I was doing the chatting and 00:08:13.24\00:08:17.39 stuff was because I was so lonely, I just felt so alone. 00:08:17.42\00:08:22.63 It was crazy and like I said before I never really felt 00:08:22.67\00:08:27.84 God's presence was really there and feel that year 00:08:27.88\00:08:31.05 you came and I heard Ty Gibson. 00:08:31.08\00:08:33.27 There were so many things coming up that made it, 00:08:33.30\00:08:36.42 so many things happened after you came to make God so real 00:08:36.46\00:08:38.73 to me that I knew that I was going to be okay. 00:08:38.77\00:08:41.23 You open up your life instead - I really started opening 00:08:41.27\00:08:43.84 up in one of the biggest things that was so hard was I had 00:08:43.88\00:08:48.67 to go on, that July, I gone to a friends house and had 00:08:48.70\00:08:53.50 a couple of drinks and came home and my dog was gone. 00:08:53.54\00:08:59.72 She was like my best friend, I felt not as lonely because 00:08:59.75\00:09:05.07 I had my dog. - I was really afraid for you during that 00:09:05.11\00:09:09.74 time period - it was so bad at once she was gone it was 00:09:09.78\00:09:13.60 like what has happened and I spent that whole weekend 00:09:13.64\00:09:17.43 drinking and not feeling anything. 00:09:17.46\00:09:19.97 I just surround myself with alcohol and then ironically 00:09:20.00\00:09:23.98 I had, it sounds hypocritical to me because I've been 00:09:24.01\00:09:27.67 having Bible studies every Sunday starting them and here 00:09:27.70\00:09:30.64 I was going to have a Bible study on Sunday and I just 00:09:30.68\00:09:33.72 spent all Saturday drinking, like what is going on? 00:09:33.76\00:09:37.44 I'm such a hypocrite and then it was so amazing. 00:09:37.47\00:09:40.69 - wait, wait I want to time out on that because 00:09:40.73\00:09:43.87 I love that I really believe that I am such a hypocrite 00:09:43.91\00:09:48.28 is right from the enemy's camp because what God says you 00:09:48.31\00:09:52.12 are so afraid, and you are so hurt, and these are the 00:09:52.15\00:09:55.31 things that always worked for you and you grabbed 00:09:55.35\00:09:58.48 hold of them again. 00:09:58.51\00:09:59.94 But God is yelling out to all of us addicts is it never 00:09:59.97\00:10:02.99 has really worked, it robs you of years and years and 00:10:03.03\00:10:06.02 years but to me when I hear messages now of hypocrite 00:10:06.05\00:10:10.23 and all that kind of stuff, I know exactly 00:10:10.26\00:10:12.07 what camp that's coming from. 00:10:12.10\00:10:13.74 God is so gentle, He's so gentle but that is what your 00:10:13.78\00:10:17.12 feeling is - that is what I was feeling at the moment. 00:10:17.15\00:10:21.15 Then that Sunday I was sitting there preparing for my 00:10:21.18\00:10:24.80 Bible study, about Angels was a topic that night. 00:10:24.83\00:10:28.33 Before anybody was going to come, the funny thing is 00:10:28.36\00:10:31.65 nobody actually ended up showing up that night except 00:10:31.69\00:10:34.94 for me and God and it was like oh okay. 00:10:34.98\00:10:38.80 What is going on? I was sitting there and writing things 00:10:38.84\00:10:43.35 out and all of a sudden it wasn't an audible voice, 00:10:43.39\00:10:47.08 I just heard this, like my dog would meet me at the 00:10:47.12\00:10:50.74 other side of the door, she'd see me pull-up and would run 00:10:50.78\00:10:53.66 inside and I would hear her running down the hall and 00:10:53.69\00:10:55.96 then I would hear her scratching on the door and 00:10:56.00\00:10:57.46 she couldn't wait for me to come home, she was so excited. 00:10:57.50\00:11:00.19 She was snuggle up with me on the couch watching TV or 00:11:00.23\00:11:02.87 whatever, she would follow me around like a little shadow. 00:11:02.90\00:11:06.73 So all of a sudden I'm sitting there I hear this Ashley, 00:11:06.76\00:11:10.23 I want to be the one that meets you on the other side of 00:11:10.26\00:11:13.69 the door when you come home. 00:11:13.73\00:11:15.17 I want to be the one snuggling while you are watching TV. 00:11:15.21\00:11:18.40 I want to be the one that's licking your face, or kissing 00:11:18.44\00:11:22.02 your face when you are having a hard time and holding you, 00:11:22.06\00:11:25.60 and I was just like whoa, where did that come from? 00:11:25.64\00:11:29.61 Like whoa. - the incredible intimacy with God. 00:11:29.65\00:11:33.48 Let it be Me. - I never really felt like God was more 00:11:33.51\00:11:38.46 real than that moment and I knew even though it was hard 00:11:38.49\00:11:43.40 that I was going to be okay. 00:11:43.43\00:11:45.09 In a sense how cool is God? In a sense He is saying 00:11:45.13\00:11:50.33 let Me take everything you have used for a security 00:11:50.36\00:11:54.86 blanket that really hasn't worked, let Me be that and 00:11:54.89\00:11:58.20 I will pour into your life the things that are real. 00:11:58.24\00:12:01.47 It is like, that exchange happens in our recovery and that 00:12:01.51\00:12:06.46 is what is the most incredible thing I think 00:12:06.49\00:12:08.56 about healing in our journey, is that 00:12:08.60\00:12:10.28 He says let that exchange happen. 00:12:10.31\00:12:11.93 You are now in a place where that is starting 00:12:11.96\00:12:14.60 to happen, how did He get you to look at 00:12:14.63\00:12:18.36 the whole molests thing? 00:12:18.39\00:12:21.49 It has been mostly in the last six months I would say 00:12:21.52\00:12:25.62 when it has really started to come up, because again 00:12:25.65\00:12:29.83 I ran from it to try and not have to deal with it. 00:12:29.86\00:12:35.25 You had a couple different incidents of molesting? 00:12:35.28\00:12:41.15 Yeah and it was hard because I've always felt not good 00:12:41.18\00:12:47.11 enough, always felt like ugly or whatever and the thing is 00:12:47.14\00:12:53.03 that is such a lie. - it is a lie. 00:12:53.07\00:12:56.31 I know that now but I was in so much time hiding behind 00:12:56.35\00:13:00.88 my baggy clothes, hoodies and whatever and try and 00:13:00.91\00:13:05.05 lose weight and I couldn't and stuff. 00:13:05.09\00:13:06.81 It wasn't until about six months ago that I realized 00:13:06.84\00:13:11.53 that I had found, really found that little girl and 00:13:11.57\00:13:15.99 I needed to not just recognize she was there but really 00:13:16.02\00:13:20.41 help her to heal, and love her and bring her up to 00:13:20.44\00:13:24.33 where I am now. 00:13:24.36\00:13:25.66 - let her grow up? - yes exactly let her grow up. 00:13:25.70\00:13:28.71 So a lot of my healing has actually happened mostly in 00:13:28.74\00:13:33.18 the last three months but it has just been crazy. 00:13:33.21\00:13:37.50 He has helped me to realize that, that moment it changed 00:13:37.54\00:13:43.59 everything and I started seeing everything differently. 00:13:43.63\00:13:49.94 In a negative way of course, like I always thought the 00:13:49.98\00:13:56.26 worse in stuff and that He's brought me to that. 00:13:56.29\00:14:00.11 - even during that time and for a lot of people don't 00:14:00.14\00:14:03.38 know this about you, at that time you had someone in your 00:14:03.42\00:14:06.35 life that was telling you, you are fat, you are ugly, 00:14:06.38\00:14:09.62 you're stupid, and so you are hearing that message. 00:14:09.66\00:14:12.83 - yeah I was hearing that all growing up in my teen years 00:14:12.87\00:14:16.62 and so that was the hugest part of the healing that took 00:14:16.66\00:14:21.08 place when you came because I had always been stuck in 00:14:21.12\00:14:24.91 this negative rut and could not get out of it no matter 00:14:24.95\00:14:28.47 what I tried. Even though I had the hockey I was still 00:14:28.50\00:14:31.36 hard on myself, because I would be like I could've scored 00:14:31.40\00:14:34.03 six goals in that game and found one thing that was wrong 00:14:34.06\00:14:36.66 I was dwelling on. 00:14:36.69\00:14:38.08 My team was like Ashley's good job and I'm sitting and saying 00:14:38.11\00:14:41.69 what ever did you see what I did? 00:14:41.72\00:14:42.83 Obviously you wasn't watching the same game as me. 00:14:42.86\00:14:45.61 I was so hard on myself. - it was amazing when we first 00:14:45.65\00:14:49.48 met, I could see that you put yourself down more than 00:14:49.51\00:14:53.31 anybody that I had met in a long time. 00:14:53.35\00:14:55.96 It was funny, I mean you were funny but you were slammed 00:14:56.00\00:14:59.95 every time you made a joke. 00:14:59.98\00:15:02.00 Yeah and it is funny because after I went home that night 00:15:02.04\00:15:06.44 from the anointing, He really, well even that night, 00:15:06.48\00:15:11.17 He said no Ashley you're beautiful and you're smart and 00:15:11.20\00:15:16.92 your Mine and I'm just like whoa, okay. It was crazy. 00:15:16.95\00:15:21.24 So now as you're stepping into healing, as you are 00:15:21.27\00:15:24.89 looking at these issues and some of them are really 00:15:24.93\00:15:28.49 difficult, without the things that used to work, not 00:15:28.53\00:15:31.45 saying you have a relapse because I know that you have. 00:15:31.48\00:15:34.63 You stood right back up again which I am so proud of you 00:15:34.67\00:15:37.95 with, but as I get looking at these things through the 00:15:37.99\00:15:41.24 eyes of God what has your journey been like? 00:15:41.27\00:15:44.19 My journey has been incredible, it has been absolutely 00:15:44.23\00:15:49.02 incredible, the last few months my eyes have been opened 00:15:49.05\00:15:53.64 so much to people around me that are going through similar 00:15:53.68\00:15:58.24 things and I never would have seen that before. 00:15:58.27\00:16:01.25 I was so stuck in the negativity that I only saw my stuff. 00:16:01.29\00:16:05.23 I didn't see anybody else, and it wasn't that I didn't 00:16:05.27\00:16:09.18 care, I always cared about people. 00:16:09.21\00:16:11.60 I just wasn't capable of it, I didn't care about myself 00:16:11.63\00:16:15.99 so how could I, you know, I didn't want to face my junk 00:16:16.02\00:16:19.50 so how could I focus and see anybody else's hurting? 00:16:19.54\00:16:22.95 In the last few months it has just been insane I have been 00:16:22.98\00:16:26.71 opening up and people open up to me. 00:16:26.75\00:16:29.37 God has been helping out in the youth room now. - and 00:16:29.40\00:16:32.84 you want to care about their hearts. - exactly. 00:16:32.88\00:16:35.09 And that is what is amazing. - exactly and now I am 00:16:35.13\00:16:37.27 working with these young people that are starting to get 00:16:37.31\00:16:41.01 to those places and feeling those temptations to do 00:16:41.04\00:16:43.66 things that I have done. 00:16:43.70\00:16:45.55 I feel like I need to give back and so now I am working 00:16:45.58\00:16:48.65 in the youth room in helping teach the Sabbath school 00:16:48.69\00:16:51.72 lesson and just be an honest with them and real, 00:16:51.76\00:16:53.84 I mean you have to be and before I wouldn't have been. 00:16:53.87\00:16:56.56 I would have just sat there with my mouth shut and 00:16:56.60\00:17:00.54 I would've said anything, but now our lesson quarterly 00:17:00.57\00:17:03.95 has been amazing too because it has been all about that. 00:17:03.99\00:17:07.34 All about emotions this whole quarter. 00:17:07.37\00:17:10.18 This whole quarter has been incredible so far. 00:17:10.22\00:17:12.67 Things will come up in Sabbath school with the young 00:17:12.70\00:17:15.73 people and they are asking real things about sex and 00:17:15.76\00:17:18.75 drugs like real stuff and I will just tell them 00:17:18.78\00:17:23.35 you don't have to do that you don't have to. 00:17:23.39\00:17:27.89 We live in a society, when you say that you don't have 00:17:27.92\00:17:31.94 to do that, we live in a society where everybody talks 00:17:31.98\00:17:35.96 about everything and have even experimentation 00:17:35.99\00:17:42.04 with sexual stuff, to be on the Internet and go to chat 00:17:42.07\00:17:45.44 rooms and talk about sexual stuff. 00:17:45.48\00:17:47.44 Same-sex kind of stuff is so out there and so okay if 00:17:47.48\00:17:52.67 somebody doesn't have a place to talk about that, that 00:17:52.70\00:17:57.86 is where we get in trouble. - exactly. 00:17:57.90\00:17:59.90 I'm not afraid of the discussion. - exactly and 00:17:59.94\00:18:02.16 I always just wanted people to be real with me growing up 00:18:02.20\00:18:08.45 and I always wanted people just to tell me things. 00:18:08.48\00:18:11.99 People told me things after I was an adult and I 00:18:12.03\00:18:14.74 thought if you would have told me when I was a kid 00:18:14.77\00:18:17.45 I wouldn't have been feeling all of this, 00:18:17.49\00:18:19.25 like are you kidding me? 00:18:19.29\00:18:20.79 Why didn't you tell me this when I was 13 and I would have 00:18:20.83\00:18:23.42 totally thought of it differently and done things 00:18:23.45\00:18:25.99 differently, so now I'm choosing now to let God take me 00:18:26.02\00:18:32.18 through this journey and let Him help me and fix me so 00:18:32.21\00:18:38.34 that I can help other people too. 00:18:38.37\00:18:39.78 I've had people come to me that I never thought even for 00:18:39.82\00:18:43.81 a day were hurting, I'm like they're always have a smile 00:18:43.84\00:18:47.80 their face and everything. And I'm like what? What? 00:18:47.84\00:18:51.40 So all of a sudden you're coming into a relationship 00:18:51.44\00:18:54.93 with God and experiencing the healing and the joy of that 00:18:54.97\00:18:57.80 and then reaching out and offering that to someone else. 00:18:57.83\00:19:00.63 That is the gospel, that is recovery. 00:19:00.67\00:19:02.97 We are going to open it up for questions which I think 00:19:03.00\00:19:05.79 it's going to be fun and so what I would like to do 00:19:05.83\00:19:08.47 because I know a few of you have questions and Pelicia 00:19:08.50\00:19:10.98 I know you wanted to ask her something so I'm going to 00:19:11.02\00:19:13.46 turn it over to you first and go ahead. 00:19:13.50\00:19:18.58 We do know I have been sitting here listening at you and 00:19:18.61\00:19:22.68 you are talking about all the stuff that has gone on in 00:19:22.72\00:19:26.27 your life and I would like to know, I have grandkids 00:19:26.31\00:19:29.56 myself and they are young, how old were you when you 00:19:29.60\00:19:33.20 started hiding and started doing things that you didn't 00:19:33.23\00:19:36.79 want your parents to know while hiding from them? 00:19:36.83\00:19:40.15 I was probably around 13. - 13. - when it started, 00:19:40.19\00:19:43.45 when I started hiding things, I started hiding food and 00:19:43.48\00:19:48.20 wearing baggy clothes and not really caring about how 00:19:48.23\00:19:52.42 I looked or anything really, you around 13 years old. 00:19:52.46\00:19:56.61 Did you ever lose interest in academics? 00:19:56.65\00:19:59.12 I did actually, started to grade 8 and 9 I did really well still, 00:19:59.15\00:20:06.76 but it was probably grade 10 when I would have been 00:20:06.80\00:20:10.87 around 16 when I started to not do so well in math and 00:20:10.90\00:20:14.94 that was always my best subject. 00:20:14.97\00:20:16.74 I was always really good in math. 00:20:16.77\00:20:18.46 I just didn't care anymore, I just didn't study very hard 00:20:18.50\00:20:22.89 in my first year of college I didn't do well either and 00:20:22.93\00:20:26.90 it wasn't until my second year that God had told me that 00:20:26.94\00:20:30.88 summer through a friend that Day Care was the road 00:20:30.92\00:20:35.76 He wanted me to go and that's when I actually started to 00:20:35.80\00:20:38.65 try a little more with the schooling. 00:20:38.69\00:20:41.35 But yeah academics was huge. 00:20:41.38\00:20:42.89 I have a comment for you too, I was just noticing as you 00:20:42.93\00:20:46.79 were talking about when God was talking to you and that 00:20:46.82\00:20:50.03 relationships were so important, your friends, our peers, 00:20:50.06\00:20:52.94 and everything and we are created for relationships but 00:20:52.97\00:20:55.84 the time you say God was speaking to you, He brought 00:20:55.88\00:20:58.99 things to you and He made Himself clearer to you is when 00:20:59.03\00:21:02.11 you were by yourself. 00:21:02.14\00:21:03.32 I think that is so important to know that we need to make 00:21:03.36\00:21:07.44 time to hear God talk to us and not be surrounded always 00:21:07.48\00:21:11.53 with people. - absolutely - I love that. 00:21:11.56\00:21:14.60 Especially when we start out in recovery and there is a 00:21:14.64\00:21:18.93 saying in most recovery program, we talked about all the 00:21:18.97\00:21:23.23 different recovery programs of this series. 00:21:23.26\00:21:25.17 But in most recovery programs there is a saying that the 00:21:25.21\00:21:28.02 best of what you have got you to where you're at. 00:21:28.05\00:21:31.75 It's got to be that we stop and decide to spend time 00:21:31.78\00:21:35.44 with God because God is going to bring us out. 00:21:35.48\00:21:38.11 Don't lean on your own under- standing, don't lean on your 00:21:38.15\00:21:41.30 own thinking, I even sometimes I'll shut my eyes and say 00:21:41.33\00:21:44.45 Jesus is that how you want me to think about this? 00:21:44.48\00:21:47.91 I stopped speaking at that point and I feel like Jesus 00:21:47.94\00:21:51.33 said sometimes absolutely not. 00:21:51.37\00:21:53.47 I love you or like I love to exaggerate, I don't know 00:21:53.50\00:21:57.64 if anybody has noticed that, I'd love stories and I love 00:21:57.67\00:22:01.78 exaggerating I'm sanguine and all that stuff. 00:22:01.81\00:22:04.48 I'll start to say something and I will hear the Holy 00:22:04.51\00:22:07.77 Spirit say don't go there because that's not true. 00:22:07.81\00:22:11.19 And it may be funnier, but it is not true so I think 00:22:11.23\00:22:14.58 that's those times where we actually slowed down and 00:22:14.61\00:22:17.93 are with God that are important. 00:22:17.96\00:22:19.84 Ashley something what police have said to me as far as 00:22:19.87\00:22:24.64 her having grandbabies and they are going into an age 00:22:24.67\00:22:28.31 when you were in all this stuff that started happening, 00:22:28.35\00:22:32.09 can you tell us some more about the things that were 00:22:32.13\00:22:35.17 obvious about you that somebody could have caught? 00:22:35.20\00:22:38.17 I think a lot of it was that I was the very bubbly happy 00:22:38.21\00:22:43.94 person before that, and I just had fun, I just had 00:22:43.98\00:22:51.86 a genuine smile on my face slowly it wasn't very obvious at 00:22:51.89\00:22:56.61 first, but slowly that joy started to leave my life and 00:22:56.64\00:23:00.14 I would stare down at the floor when I would walk, 00:23:00.18\00:23:03.65 or stare down at the sidewalk and not feel like 00:23:03.68\00:23:07.35 I was good enough, or not feel like things like that. 00:23:07.39\00:23:11.16 Other things were more obvious was hiding the food, 00:23:11.19\00:23:16.37 gaining weight, not caring so much about appearance so 00:23:16.41\00:23:22.47 much and I would just get out of bed, have a shower and 00:23:22.50\00:23:28.52 put my hair in a ponytail or just wear it down. 00:23:28.56\00:23:31.98 Like I never really wanted to be really beautiful. 00:23:32.02\00:23:35.38 Have you ever thought about one time this women came up 00:23:35.41\00:23:39.54 for prayer and we were at a woman's retreat and 00:23:39.58\00:23:42.33 she was coming up for prayer for weight. 00:23:42.36\00:23:43.91 As she was walking up I heard the Holy Spirit, not a voice, 00:23:43.95\00:23:47.91 just an impression of the Holy Spirit saying to me this is 00:23:47.95\00:23:51.88 a molested woman and her weight has protected her all 00:23:51.92\00:23:56.16 these years and if you pray for the weight and you don't 00:23:56.19\00:24:00.40 deal with the protection she'll get scared. 00:24:00.43\00:24:02.93 So I said to her can we pray that as you lose weight and 00:24:02.96\00:24:07.12 become more attractive and beautiful that the molestation 00:24:07.16\00:24:11.28 won't come up for you in the same way? 00:24:11.32\00:24:13.53 So the molestation was the issue, like right now you are 00:24:13.56\00:24:17.12 losing weight and figuring out who you are. 00:24:17.15\00:24:18.83 There has to be a little fear of that, if I lose weight 00:24:18.87\00:24:22.33 and am attractive, what if I draw that kind of attention? 00:24:22.37\00:24:25.80 It is not safe. - oh absolutely I did it as a way to 00:24:25.84\00:24:30.52 protect myself, as a way to not be hurt again. 00:24:30.56\00:24:34.04 I had trouble for so many years to lose weight that I 00:24:34.07\00:24:37.94 would always lose maybe 18 pounds and no more than that. 00:24:37.98\00:24:41.96 It was I just I couldn't figure it out and was so frustrated 00:24:42.00\00:24:45.95 with it and was so tired of being the fat friend or the 00:24:45.99\00:24:50.77 one with pretty face or just the one with the beautiful 00:24:50.80\00:24:55.55 voice, or the one that's good at hockey, or the one that's 00:24:55.58\00:24:59.19 whatever it happens to be, like the fun one and stuff. 00:24:59.22\00:25:02.87 I wanted to be beautiful, like really beautiful and it 00:25:02.90\00:25:06.51 wasn't until I started dealing with all of this. 00:25:06.55\00:25:10.17 Doing the dental work and stuff and everything is 00:25:10.20\00:25:13.76 starting, I'm starting to feel in really know deep down 00:25:13.79\00:25:19.61 that I am worth it. 00:25:19.64\00:25:21.45 Again, we didn't talk about the dental work, but even taking 00:25:21.49\00:25:26.11 care of yourself in that way you hadn't take care of 00:25:26.15\00:25:28.13 yourself as far as the dental work or any of that stuff. 00:25:28.17\00:25:30.12 You really did say I'm just going to be this hockey 00:25:30.15\00:25:33.97 player, I'm just going to be this one. 00:25:34.01\00:25:35.73 And if I am unattractive then nobody will hurt me again. 00:25:35.77\00:25:40.14 Even though I craved the male attention and looked for 00:25:40.17\00:25:43.94 that - on line - online and stuff - online so you can 00:25:43.98\00:25:47.32 take it there. - They couldn't see me - they couldn't 00:25:47.36\00:25:50.69 see you and they could hurt you because it was all in our 00:25:50.73\00:25:54.03 heads. - yeah exactly. 00:25:54.06\00:25:55.84 and it's really incredible, I guess the reason I want to stop 00:25:55.88\00:26:00.19 on all those points is it's incredible to watch your 00:26:00.22\00:26:02.78 journey, it's incredible to watch any of our journeys 00:26:02.82\00:26:05.35 where all of a sudden God says we are 00:26:05.38\00:26:07.60 going to strip everything and make it real. 00:26:07.64\00:26:09.87 None of the online relationships were real. 00:26:09.90\00:26:12.06 You had no idea, I had a girlfriend and I really hate to 00:26:12.09\00:26:14.69 say this because I probably might get fired but I had a 00:26:14.72\00:26:17.48 girlfriend that had a sex line that she made her living at. 00:26:17.52\00:26:20.73 She was 300 and something pounds but she could be on the 00:26:20.77\00:26:23.95 line and sound as sexy as ever. 00:26:23.98\00:26:26.78 She really did all that stuff, but she wasn't any of that. 00:26:26.82\00:26:30.57 So God says you know what? We are dying with what we put 00:26:30.61\00:26:34.50 around us as Band-Aids, I actually want to give you life 00:26:34.53\00:26:38.39 and like more abundantly. 00:26:38.42\00:26:40.33 I want your relationships to be real, I want your heart 00:26:40.37\00:26:44.14 to feel it, I want when you laugh to actually be a laugh. 00:26:44.18\00:26:47.91 And you know that is the thing that He has really been 00:26:47.95\00:26:51.18 working on me the last few months that I have been 00:26:51.22\00:26:54.42 doing the dental work. 00:26:54.45\00:26:55.55 It wasn't until November that I started doing it and like 00:26:55.59\00:26:58.89 I told Him I'm going - and I can smile now and smile big 00:26:58.92\00:27:02.16 and not hide my face anymore, and I told you earlier in the 00:27:02.19\00:27:07.22 day that I will walk by the mirror now and smile and say 00:27:07.26\00:27:12.26 man they look good. 00:27:12.29\00:27:13.99 It's crazy because before I just wouldn't, I would 00:27:14.03\00:27:21.98 hide my smile and hide my teeth. 00:27:22.02\00:27:24.14 And God is sitting there and you didn't even know it needed 00:27:24.17\00:27:28.07 to be addressed. - exactly until it was a whole week of pain 00:27:28.10\00:27:31.97 that I finally said it was enough. 00:27:32.00\00:27:34.83 - you have to go in? - yep. 00:27:34.86\00:27:36.24 You know we are really lucky that God just says you know 00:27:36.28\00:27:39.38 what I am taking you in, I'm taking you into recovery. 00:27:39.42\00:27:42.00 We're going to go ahead and take a break and come back 00:27:42.04\00:27:44.15 for the close, can you stay for the close with me? 00:27:44.18\00:27:46.26 - Yeah sure. - Okay good. 00:27:46.30\00:27:47.35 We will be right back and stay with us, I love her and 00:27:47.39\00:27:51.06 I love her recovery story I wanted to say 00:27:51.09\00:27:54.19 a few things about that. 00:27:54.22\00:27:55.95