Most of the people who enter our Mission Academy have a story behind their story. They come to us hoping to break free of homelessness and addiction, but unfortunately there’s often past trauma at the heart of their circumstances that must be resolved to truly be set free. This was true for Tasha’s story.

Tasha arrived at the San Diego Rescue Mission last October broken and angry. She was homeless, separated from her three young children, and desperate for housing and a job. More than anything, she needed someone to really listen. She’d come to the right place.

Once Tasha realized she could trust our caring staff, she revealed her heartbreaking story about how she was subjected to sexual abuse as a young girl, something she’d never told anyone before. And she shared about the extreme physical abuse doled out by those who were supposed to love and protect her.

“I tried to act like everything was okay. But it wasn’t.”

“When I was 5, my auntie put a gun to my temple and threatened to kill me,” Tasha says. “So, me and my sisters got taken away from her and we ended up going to a group home and then foster care.”

Throughout her life, Tasha held all the heaviness of her childhood inside, not knowing how to cope with it. “I just pushed it all the way down,” she says. “I tried to act like everything was okay. But it wasn’t.”

Through our Mission Academy’s trauma-informed care model, Tasha is working through all the hurt. “This is the first time I’ve had someone process this with me,” she says. “And my therapist is giving me tools and skills to cope.”

It’s going to be a Christmas filled with hope for Tasha – and she’s grateful to you for this wonderful gift of a new life. “Thank you for believing in me, for giving me a second chance at life to do things right in the eyes of God.”

To read this issue of Mission in Motion, click to download.