Renewal Story: Martha

For Martha, life in California wasn’t all sun and surf. Instead, it was drugs, alcohol, gangs and domestic violence.

“I had been threatened for years, and I was done,” she recalls. “I was not going to raise my kids in that environment.”

After a brief stay in an Arizona homeless shelter, Martha decided to relocate her young family to Fort Worth, where she already had a 19-year-old daughter. However, Martha knew a change of address wasn’t enough to get her life back on track. She also needed a change of heart and direction. UGM-TC gave her both.

“Now I know what God expects of me,” she says. “No matter who you are or what you do, He’s always there. My kids go to chapel and they realize what we have today is because of Him, because of our heavenly Father.”

At the Mission, Martha and her family have received much-needed medical care, including treatment for her daughter’s heart murmur and scoliosis.

“If it wasn’t for UGM-TC, I wouldn’t have been able to find all those resources,” she tells us. “I know now that God brought me to the Mission to learn about Him,” says Martha. “I got baptized in November. Being here has transformed me and my kids completely.”

Sober and finally hopeful, Martha is busy creating a new life for herself and her children in a home of their own.

“I might want to be a social worker,” she says.

Whatever field Martha chooses, she knows what she’s going to do with her free time.

“I’ve made a deal with myself. I will come back to the Mission and help out, whether it’s in the kitchen or with the kids, because you never forget what they did for you, ever!”

Read more stories like Martha’s in our March newsletter.