She married at 17, and over the next several years Briget and her husband moved on from drinking to smoking pot to shooting up heroin, and eventually dealing drugs to support their habit. Briget soon found herself in a vicious cycle of addiction, jail or prison, and repeat. “Each time I was released, I picked right back up where I left off,” said Briget. “My husband had never caught any charges, but the day he did, everything came crashing down.”
Briget was in prison when her husband got arrested. Thankfully, a friend took temporary guardianship of her kids; otherwise, they would have ended up in foster care. Afraid they would lose their kids forever or die on the streets if they didn’t get help, they reached out to the preacher of the church her husband grew up in once they were released. The next thing they knew, they were on a Greyhound bus bound for Nashville where they would both enter recovery programs at Nashville Rescue Mission.
“I am a born-again believer in Jesus. The old things have passed away. I’m not the same woman I was back then. He is making all things new, including me.”
“I started reading the Bible. I learned about who I was in Christ. One day, a teacher drew a picture of the throne with her picture on it. Immediately, I realized I had been putting myself on the throne, and I put myself in those situations of using drugs, selling myself, going to prison.”
It hit Briget like a ton of bricks. She cried out to God confessing her sins. “I felt evil pour out of me, and I could feel Him pouring His spirit in me. He changed me. I’ve not been the same since.”
In the 20 years since completing the Mission’s Life Recovery Program, Briget has dedicated her life to her family and to sharing the message of Jesus Christ to the world. She and her husband recently celebrated 35 years of marriage. She is a mother and a grandmother. She has traveled the world on mission trips to Nicaragua, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. And she is the founder of Refuge of Hope, a shelter for homeless women and children in Indiana.
When asked about who she is today, Briget confidently proclaims, “I am a born-again believer in Jesus. The old things have passed away. I’m not the same woman I was back then. He is making all things new, including me.”
