Kirsten's Story

My life before Mercy Ministries is best described as hopeless.  Always striving for happiness and love, perfection and control, but never being able to attain any of it.  I spent so much of my life trying to fix everything including myself, but the more I tried the more out of control everything got.  Till eventually I gave up trying.  I allowed the depression and addictions that were controlling my life to over take me.  Yet despite it all, there was always something inside me that could not give up. I know now that was God.

Mercy was literally my last hope. I was accepted to the programme before the house was ready for girls and I called the staff up regularly, wanting to know when I could come.  I knew that this had to work.  I was at a point in my life where I had had enough.  I knew that things had to change; that I had to change.  I had tried it every other way, now I had to try it God’s way.  On entering the programme I learnt that with God’s help, I had the power to make choices that would step by step take me out of the darkness that I found myself in.  It was a time when I was able to intensively soak in the truth of God’s word and learn His thoughts towards me. 

Being the first UK Mercy graduate is a privilege.  It still completely overwhelms me how amazing God is, that He has directed the course of my life despite me.  Even when I gave up on myself, He never did.  When I look back I see his fingerprints through out and I realise more and more how much he loves me.  Now I am excited for the future.  God has used Mercy to give me my life back and more. I have learnt that by giving God the control, I no longer need to worry. I used to be petrified of being on my own, but now I know that I never was and never will be.