Emily, with her nearly 18 month old son, feels like she has a “family” at the Mission.

Emily struggled with depression and self-harm very early in life, even attempting suicide in sixth grade. “It was the bullying at school, the cutting, not getting enough attention at home … I just didn’t want to be there. I was a really sad kid. And I became very rebellious.”

Emily’s father died when she was 3, and when her mother remarried, Emily had trouble accepting the change. “I was never OK with it,” she said. “I felt like her husband was taking her away from me.”

Emily started running away when she was 15. She’d be gone for sometimes months at a time, and then return, only to take off again. “I’d go to my friend’s and she would find me places to stay by texting guys in her phone.”

The trauma did not end there. At 15, Emily ended up living with a 21-year-old in his truck. “I lived with him for months, although it felt like years,” she said. “He would have his way with me on a daily basis.

“I was always crying. I just wanted someone to come find me and take me away from there. But no one cared I was there.”

Emily resented her mom for not helping her. She was crushed when she returned home and all her things had been discarded. “My mom did the best she could,” Emily said. “The more I went through, the more I would act out. My family couldn’t see it. They just saw me as misbehaving and that I was a bad kid. She does love me. She just didn’t know how to help me.”

By 16, Emily said she was “drinking vodka like water to numb the pain.” She ended up being prostituted by a gang. “They didn’t care that I was 16. They don’t care about anything, as long as they get what they want. There are a lot of people like that still out there.”

At 18 and pregnant, Emily summoned all her strength to overcome her circumstances. “It’s not easy, especially when you’re being manipulated,” she said. “It’s a battle I won because I won it on my knees, because I was praying for myself. I had to fight for my own self. I had to believe God was with me.”

She knew she needed to leave where she lived. “When I did that, I gained peace, maturity, and a deeper relationship with God. He had to make me realize I had to change first. God wasn’t going to change my environment unless I changed first. So I did. I obeyed, and I forgave myself.

“I had to give up my old self and become a whole different person, and I loved it, because the person I was, it wasn’t really who I am. It wasn’t who I was supposed to be in Christ. It’s someone I grew into because my heart was so angry.”

Emily got involved with an anti-human trafficking agency. They referred her and her new son to the Mission. “It’s like a family here,” she said. “I get loved; my son gets loved. They all take part in everything and make sure we are good. My son loves the extra love. It’s such a good environment for him. We are not alone here.”

Emily plans to get her GED and a job. “I feel like I have a strong future,” she said. “I gave up my past and I’m proud of myself.

“I have a smile on my face while I tell you these stories because I know how much God has saved me from, how much mercy He had on me, and how much He loves me.”