Renee’s Story

Two years ago, Renee and her family’s life was falling apart. Life had never been easy for her, but she did whatever she had to do to survive and keep her family together. Eventually, she couldn’t do it anymore. She needed hope. She needed a brand-new life.

Renee was raised in the church by her grandmother, but at a young age, she met a man who led her in another direction. “I was too young,” she says. “He pushed me into a new world of drugs and the streets, and everything went bad after that. I knew right from wrong. I just got lost.”

By the age of 37, Renee had five kids and a long history of going back and forth to jail. It was a destructive and unstable life, but she was still determined to hold her family together, no matter what.

“Atlanta Mission is all about Jesus, and He gave me the strength I needed to do what I had to do.”

A few years ago, however, the life she knew was unraveled. Her grandmother died. Her oldest son was killed. Another son went to prison. She discovered her 4-year-old son was being abused– then she ended up homeless. “It was all too much,” she says. “I needed help, but I didn’t know what to do. Then I came to Atlanta Mission.

Over the past 12 months, Renee and her son experienced the life-transforming grace and power of Jesus Christ at My Sister’s House.

“I got my son into the daycare here, and that was a big help,” she says. “Then I could work on me. I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish in a year, and I got to work. I got into counseling and learned all kinds of new life skills. I got into a job-skills program, learned how to be a chef, and I found a job– the first real job I ever had.– as a cook at Georgia Tech.”

Renee has come a long way in the past year. She is currently serving at My Sister’s House as an Emergency Workforce Assistant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Someone recently asked her, “How’d you make it?”

“Jesus, honey,” Renee said. “Atlanta Mission is all about Jesus, and He gave me the strength I needed to do what I had to do. Jesus changed my life– Jesus and everyone who supports Atlanta Mission. For the first time, I have hope that we’re going to be OK, and I’ll be able to put my family back together. I have a lot of people looking up to me now, and I have a lot to live for.”

To read more stories of transformation like Renee’s, click here.