When I was a young girl my dad left our family, he didn’t say good bye and he didn’t take any of his stuff. He just left and never came back. My dad had a good job and he was the one that financially supported our family. Since he was gone my mother had to get a job and she began to work long hours to support us. I never really saw her, I felt like she had left me too. I felt very lonely, I was an only child and I spent all my time at home alone.
One day earlier this year after school, I met a group of kids who introduced me to heroin. They showed me how to shoot myself up with it. When I felt it, it really felt like it was the one thing I’d been looking for my whole life. It made me feel like all my pain went away. For the next several months, I did anything to get money for drugs. I had to prostitute myself to be able to get heroin. I robbed stores and people, even my mom after she had worked all those long hours. At first I would skip school days here and there but quickly I stopped going all together.
One night some friends and I were getting high when one of my friends, Jose passed out. We didn’t think much of it because that was normal. When I looked over at him I realized he was blue and had white foam all around his mouth and I realized that moment he was dead. I panicked, I felt as if though I immediately sobered up and I ran as fast as I could to my house. When I got home I got in my bed and I just began to cry.
The next morning, I decided I would go to school. I was embarrassed as I had not been in a long time and honestly I didn’t even know if they would let me into class. Thankfully I was allowed into the classroom and it was there that I met my teacher Mrs. Suarez. She was beautiful, there was something about her that made me want to be just like her. She was teaching the Mission Generation textbook to my classmates. Mrs. Suarez said something about how God was our Father and all we had to do was ask him into our life. This really was the one thing I had never tried before I thought. I quietly asked God into my life but I didn’t feel anything. Nothing felt different to me.
Mrs. Suarez asked me to stay after class so we could talk about a plan for making up all my missed homework. She assigned me a few MG lessons a day.
That night I went home and I started going through my book, I felt this fire that exploded in my belly. It started racing through my whole body. I had a life-changing encounter with God. I no longer craved drugs and I haven’t missed any more school days. Since my drug addiction began nothing had ever made me want to stop using them. Nothing ever did that except Jesus. I know from experience how the power of God can change lives. He’s the ultimate makeover King!
Thank you Mission Generation for introducing me to Jesus, the Father I have always wanted.
–Karla Justiniano (age15)
Translated from Spanish.
