Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm so glad that you're here on Priscilla, and this
is the chat with Priscilla. We just kind of chat
around here about good stuff. Today is going to be
a great opportunity for you to hear about an organization
that is making incredible changes in the lives of young
people all over the world. Really, Nancy Alcorn is here.
She's the founder of Mercy Multiplied. And when you hear
(00:25):
about how this ministry is multiplying mercy all over the world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You're going to have sold all of that. Please they do.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I am glad that you are here, so glad that
you were here, and so glad that all of you
and the audience today are here. Is I'm going to
be able to introduce you to a woman that when
I first met her about seven or eight years ago,
I was blown away not only by what she's accomplished
in ministry and her organization, but just by her as
a woman. The determination, the diligence, the faithfulness, the vision
(01:18):
that she has had to have to do what she's
done over the past thirty years or so has been
nothing less than remarkable. So just sit tight, because you're
gonna want to hear not only from this particular woman,
but also from the lives of a couple of others
whose stories have been completely changed, the trajectory of their
life has been set on a completely different path because
of her influence. Would you please welcome to the program today,
(01:40):
miss Nancy Alcorn some one. How are you. I'm so
glad that you're here. Have a seat, Get comfortable in
the little you like our little living room.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We got going on.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Love it, man, this is rocking.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So the first time I met you, I was kind
of just taken back because you're just in this little
petite suite, you know, blonde, little package right there, and
then you open up your mouth and it's like fire.
You are passionate about what it is that you do.
So please describe what it is that you're so passionate about.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Well, you know, I spent the first eight years of
my career life in working for the government, so you
see a lot of failure.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I mean, it's just the way it is.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And unfortunately we were working with troubled teenage girls, and.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So I worked as the athletic director at a girl's prison.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
There were three hundred locked up at anyone given time
ages fourteen to eighteen, and they were sent because they
were too young to go to the women's prison, and
so they were labeled.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
They were told all the things that were wrong with them.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
They were told all the reasons why they could never change,
why they would never be anything. So basically it was
like medicaid label put them in the world's trash can
and reject, castaway.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Throwaway, and that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
And during that time, I saw kids go home and
get murdered by pimps, They die from drug over roses,
get killed in street gang fights. Some of them committed
suicide because they believed the lie that they.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Could never change.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And here I am a believer, knowing that the same
Jesus that changed my life could change theirs. And that's
what I'm experiencing. It is just breaking my heart. And
so then I spent three more years investigating child abuse
cases in emergency child protective Services, and I saw all
the things that happened to those teenage girls when they
were little. God said, you just spent five years dealing
(03:37):
with angry teenage girls, and now I'm taking you back
in time and showing you why they're going there, why
the anger was so strong, and how they got where
they got and the why behind the waite I called
it the while behind the white.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know, we're so quick to judge, and yet.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Everybody has a story and everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
And God said, if you had walked in their shoes
and been where they'd been, that would be you, whatever
their you might have been. So after eight years of that,
I realized that God has not equipped the government to
heal broken hearts and set captives free. He's the only
one that can do it, and we have to have
the freedom to share that message. And they had this
real evil thing first a week I worked for the government,
(04:16):
they had this evil thing called new staff orientation. First
thing they said, separation of church and state. You cannot
talk about God here. You can't ever tell you, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm like, so, it's like, you have the remedy, you
have the solution for these girls' lives, you know what
it is. But you're in an environment that is not
releasing you and encouraging you and even allowing you to
share the solution. That's right, and you're probably very frustrated.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Oh, frustrated is beyond words. And yet Forriscilla, here's the truth.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I know now that God.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I was telling God, I want to go to Bible school,
and he said, I got you in Bible school right now.
Grow I'm showing you everything that looks good and sound
good on paper that all the taxpayers are paying for,
and it's not working.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And isn't it interesting that had you gone to Bible school,
which is where a lot of people think that if I
just do white picket fence Christianity, then I'll get what
I need to be successful in ministry. But sometimes in
settings like this, this is what is equipping you to
do exactly what God had purpose for you to do
all all.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It's the truth.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I know now that He totally ordered my steps and
directed my path, but I didn't understand it at the time.
And when I would see little kids, you know, being
molested and abused and beaten and all that, and I'd
have not mayors about it. And we didn't have cell
phones back then, so my beeper go off at three
o'clock in the morning, I'd have to go out and
get dressed, meet the police and go into a home
and see an awful thing like that. And you know,
(05:36):
when you see it on the news, you read it
in the newspaper.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, it's kind of you.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
You can forget it from you, yes, But when I
saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't get away
from it. And to this day, and I'm thankful I
had not marriages back then, but God's taken those away.
But I remember being mad at God, like, God, what
are you doing with me? And he said, I'm preparing
you for the future because I have something that I
want you to do, but it's not time yet, and
I'll let you know when it's time.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And when the time came, what did it look like
that God wanted you to do? And what has happened
over the past twenty thirty years.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Well, it was the fall of nineteen eighty two, and
I felt that the Lord has started to deal with me,
like it's time for you to let go of your
government job and I'm going to have you start a
Christian based organization. And I mean I was up in
the middle of the night and it was written so fast,
because I mean, it was like God was downloading this vision.
(06:28):
But there were three core principles that he showed me.
He said, I want you to take young women in
free of charge who want help because people have to
want help.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You gotta want it. You remember Jesus even asking do
you want to.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Be made whole?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Do you want it?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Okay? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So, even if they don't have the resources for your program,
financial resources for your program, how does that work if
somebody wants it but they don't really have the money
to pay for it.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Well, here's the way program works. We take our These
are the three things God said. You take those young
women in free of charge, every single one of them,
because all of them are going to have trust issues.
Most of them wouldn't have the money, vast majority, and
even the ones that do, they need to know it's
not about their mom or dad's checkbook. It's about them,
and they need to be able to trust you. They
need to be able to look from every angle and
(07:14):
see nothing in it except that you genuinely care.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So you founded mercy multiplied.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Mercy multiplied.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yes, and it's free of charge.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Take the girls in free of charge.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Give your needs will be met through your given. So
give ten percent of everything at least that comes into
your ministry to other ministries. And thirdly, no government funding,
so that you have the full freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
To do to share Christ.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's good news is that, y'all, that's really good. Tell
us the kinds of women that are coming to you
and have been for a long time now.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Right, this is our thirty thirty second year, So you've literally.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Given your whole life to this passion that God placed
in you.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I have, and you know what, I'm more passionate today
than I've ever been because of what.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I've seen happen. We want to hear things that have
been transformed. Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
We deal with girls coming in with addictions, severe sexual abuse,
sex trafficking, unplanned pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We have a licensed adoption agency if girls.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Want to choose that option, if they want to choose
to parent, we help prepare them for that. We have
girls that have self harm issues, girls with severe eating disorders.
We have one girl in fact, who came in with
a severe eating disorder and her parents were from Texas
and they were kind of a well to do family,
so they had paid literally hundreds of thousands of dollars
(08:28):
for her to go to the best treatment programs. And
so the doctor said, well, your daughter will probably end
up dying from this seating disorder, but if she ever
does managed to get over it, she's destroyed. Her body,
she'll never be able to have children. So fast forward.
That was in two thousand and three. Fast forward to today.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
She just escaped. She went home, she.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Got totally held her, she got over the eating disorder.
She went home, got planted in the local church, met
this young man. They did it all the right way, waited,
you know, till they were married. But boy, after they
got married, I mean they figured it out real fast.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Because she just gave birth to baby number seven.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So her body's obviously healed and working.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yes, it's working. To sign it's all working good.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, that's wonderful. And the thing is, you see so
many success stories like that. This is what I love
so much about Mercy Multiplied and why I wanted to
introduce Nancy to all of you is because this is
a program that works. There are so many success stories,
some of which we have right here in this room
with us today. Yes, women that whose lives are completely
(09:30):
revolutionized by what you were doing. So when a woman
enters the program, what does her treatment look like?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, well that the fun thing for me to answer
that question. And I know you'll totally agree with what
I'm about to say. But the programs they've been to.
They really are treatment programs. They treat symptoms, right. But
what God does is he's an inside guy. He comes
on the inside of a heart and he heals the woms,
he heals.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
The broken hearted.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
He breaks off those chains and he brings transformation and
it happens through I mean, you're one of our teachers, Priscilla.
I mean we show your videos in every home we
have in the United States. You're teaching videos and in
the homes we have in other countries. And uh, you're
you're you're a regular part of our faculty. So you're
probably gonna start sending me an invoice, you know, to
put you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
On so out put me on the payworld. You are
on that payroad.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
How many houses do you have around the country in
the world.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
We have forty bed facilities in Nashville, UH, and Sacramento, California,
and then in Saint Louis UH and then were our
first home is a smaller one twenty bed facility in
westman Or, Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Home of Duck Dynasty. Many people now.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Know where that is. They used to go where's that
you know? Now they'll say Duck Dynasty. But uh, and
those those wonderful folks have gotten involved in providing support,
and Miss Kay comes over and hangs out and loves
on the girls and has Bible studies and brings all
her friends that are in her Bible study. So there's
a lot of fun things like that happening. But anyway, uh,
and then we have a home in the United Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We have a home in Vancouver, Canada, in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And you have a home in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yes, oh yeah, I have a big forty bed facility
here in Nashville and a three story office building where
we do all of our the officing, the business side
for the whole international part of it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And once I've found really interesting about you know, the
more I've found out about Mercy Multiplied and have talked
to you about it, I really have found interesting the
detail that you have taken in the kind of food
these women are eating, how they are the arrangement of
where they are sleeping and how they are sleeping, the
job training.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That they're getting.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So just talk a little bit about the kind of
detail to attention you have put into how you're treating
these women once they come to you.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, you know, it's one thing you know, it's one
thing to say to a young girl, you know, you're loved,
you're forgiven, you're valuable, you're treasured, your daughter of the king.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But if that's.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Really true, I'm sending her a double message if I
put her in a bed that somebody threw out their
garage because it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Going to for their kid to sleep on.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So what we tell our supporters is, you know, we
would not want any of our girls to sleep on
a bed that you wouldn't want your daughters sleep on.
Not that we're not grateful for anything that comes our way,
but I told God from the very beginning, if you're
asking me to do this, then I want to be
able to do it with excellence. I want I want
the girls to walk through that door. And we've literally
had girls from the streets walk through that door and
(12:24):
just start sobbing because they can't believe how beautiful everything is.
I mean, it's beautiful furniture, it's beautiful beds, it's trained staff,
it's food that is you know, these girls have depleted
their bodies with drug addictions and eating disorders and all
just the rough lifestyle that they've lived and just not
taking care of themselves and so we are. We have
(12:45):
a nutritionists, we have a nurse. You know, it's about healthy, organic,
good food that and people.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Believe in that.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
And we even had a couple in Nashville recently who
own an organic farm and they just came out and
just said, we're gonna keep doing this. We're gonna keep
sending all this fresh food your way because they realized
that it's helping bring healing to the body. Only God
can heal the heart, but the body needs to be
healed too.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
There's a reason why that girl just had seven kids.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean, she had to get it all right, you know,
and God, I believe supernaturally God touched her and healed
her because he said, by my stripped you are healed.
But also we help a girl learn life skills. We
help her nutritionally. We have a lot of young girls
that if you have that come through the doors, and
unfortunately they've never had a parenting, so they don't even
(13:38):
know how to wash a load of clothes.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We have to teach them how to do that.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So it's it's like the spirit, soul, and body, everything
that a young girl would need to know, and we
want her to fell loved and treasure, and so we
tend to those details. We try to help them get
a vision for their future. We say, look at it.
Your past doesn't have to destroy your future. God has
great things in store for you. You can become anything
you want to be. And there we have. Mercy Multiplied
(14:01):
is girls that have received God's message that are out
there multipliing it in the lives of other people.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And it is so fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Well, you know what, Nancy, if you just had a
little passion, it might be affected to that. It might
be a little bit more effective. When we come back,
we're going to meet a woman whose life has been
affected and changed and impacted by Nancy Alcorn and Mercy Multiplied.
We'll be right back. Hi. I'm Priscilla, and I wanted
(14:33):
to take an opportunity to invite you personally to join
me for a seven session Bible study on the Armor
of God. We'll dive deeply into what it means to
be equipped to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
He is very real, and he.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Has been so strategic.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And targeted with his attacks against us. Why shouldn't we
be equally strategic and targeted in standing firm against him,
and you and I have an opportunity to suit up,
to put on some armor that works, and to go
to battle, and to be victory declared in our lives
and in the lives of those people that we are.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
This Bible study will.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Be one that will change our lives forever and will
help us to walk in victory. So plan to join me,
won't you the armor of God? Hey, welcome back. So
(15:34):
glad you have stayed tuned because you are joining us
to meet up with Nancy Alcorn, who is an incredible
woman who has changed and affected many people's lives, not
the least of which is my own. My life has
been so impacted by her. And she's also written this book,
Ditch the Baggage, Change your Life, Seven Keys to Lasting Freedom,
And who of us does not want lasting freedom? And
(15:55):
so she teaches it, she lives it, she passes it on.
Kay robertson the Coast our Duck Dynasty says this, Nancy
Alcorn gives practical and easy to understand lessons for anyone
seeking lasting freedom. Take a step onto the path towards
peace and hope, and.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Get this book today.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And I say, miss Kay, you are right everybody needs
a copy of this to see what freedom looks like
and to see how they can be ushered into it themselves.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
We have a young woman who is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Joining us today who knows firsthand about how the journey
to freedom looks, and she's gonna share her story with us.
Would you guys please help me to welcome Camilla to
the program today. Hi Camilla, Hi, you look good girl.
Thank you, and you have had quite a little change
in the trajectory of your life as well, right because
(16:41):
of coming in contact with Nancy and Mercy. Absolutely, absolutely, Okay,
we want to hear the story. Just tell us kind
of what your formative years look like and what path
that led you down, and then how you ended up
connected with this ministry.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Sure so, growing up, I grew up in the church.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
My father is actually a pastor, and he was relatively
well known in the community. He had had an opportunity
to be on programs such as Face the Nation, worked
UH with ministries UH Prison, fellowship with Chuck Coulson, and
just very respected in health and high regards. So I
(17:18):
respected him, you know, looked up to him tremendously. But
behind closed doors at home, he there's a lot of
verbal abuse and emotional abuse because he came from an
abusive environment and he never really dealt with that, and
so just growing up I kind of figured out or
learned that, Okay, don't really talk about that outside of
(17:39):
the home, but you know, this is kind of the
way that it is. And so throughout the course of
a few over the course of a few years, he
would make periodic threats of committing suicide, and so I
didn't really understand what that meant. But when I was
about nine years old, my mom decided to leave him
for the final time, and about two weeks later, he
(18:02):
ended up hanging himself. Really, yes, so you lost your
dad to suicide. So I lost my dad to suicide.
And I didn't really know how to conceptualize that because
I was nine. So I just, I mean, okay, you know,
just go on with it. And from that point, you know, on,
(18:24):
things just systematically got worse in regards to just emotionally.
I was really shut down. My mom tried to put
me in different programs as far as counseling and things
like that, but initially I didn't wanna go. And then
as I proceeded through middle school and into high school,
I'd been to numerous counselors. I'd been diagnosed with every
(18:46):
type of you know, label that you can possibly imagine,
and I just took those on as who I was.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And so you're hearing people label you, and you're assuming, Okay,
this is who I am, right, so I just might
as well act in the way that is congruent with
what they're saying.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I am absolutely okay.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
And so at the time, I mean, I was still
going to church and things like that, but when I
would hear about Jesus or God, all I could do
is equate it to what I saw in my home.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And I didn't get that what that meant.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
And I was really angry, and so I took on
what they told me that I was. So by the
time I was in high school, I myself had actually
been institutionalized three times for attempted suicide.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And by the time you were in high school, could
you tell me what you think the top factors were
that led you to that point of desperation, Because you
can feel hopeless and be emotional and be discouraged and
be down and depressed even but it's another level of
desperation that causes you to actually get to the place
where you really just want to end your life, not once,
(19:44):
not twice, but three times. Can you describe what that
feels like to be in that place?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Just darkness.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
I felt like an ache in my soul and i'd
and I saw absolutely no way to escape that. Plus
I have a doctor, someone you know, he's got degrees
on the wall, he's gone to school telling me that
I'm always gonna be this way, and I mean, yeah,
h why, you know, why, why would you wanna live
that way? And so I I just felt hopeless, and
(20:18):
I I figured, you know, what's the point of being here?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So three times you try to take your life, obviously
were weren't successful, and then what happens from there?
Speaker 5 (20:31):
So from there, I graduated high school, I proceeded to
you know, move on in regard, move on to the college,
rome and just partying escalated, got involved and at this
point I'd been involved with numerous relationships, but I began
hanging around a drug dealer and we became involved, and
(20:52):
he was very abusive, physically abusive.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It it got to that.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Point did but primarily it was the like psychological verbal abuse,
emotional abuse, and I ended up getting pregnant by him,
and I ended up having two abortions. And so you'd
take on the pain of your dad and all these
different things that have happened, and you add that It's like,
I mean, if you didn't think that the shame and
(21:19):
the guilt could get any lower than that, it did.
And at that point, you know, I really didn't know
what I was just existing, you know, I had no
value in myself as a person.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
I was about twenty three and you were in college.
I'd actually decided to not pursue school at that time,
and I was just pretty much in the party scene.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
That was That was my life at that point, Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And so then after you reached twenty three years of age,
so you're an adult, you've chosen a lifestyle where now
you were not just dating this drog dealer, but y,
I'm assuming you were taking drugs.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
I was, uh smoking marijuana, Yeah, pretty like that.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That was the daily. And then I was abusing alcohol. Uh.
So that was pretty much my life.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And then one day do you overhear about mercy ministry?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Uh not exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Actually, I was a bartender and I ended up getting
fired one day and the reason why that significant significant
is the very next day, I was sitting and watching TVN,
which was like a miracle in itself.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Because would.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Why in the world is And there's two pastors on
and they were like, you know, if you want to
accept Christ, stay this with us.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And I was just like.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Alright, whatever, And that's pretty much how I decided to
become a Christian. And I joked because my roommate at
the time, like she wasn't a Christian. Then after that,
I was always watching TVN and she like moved out
two weeks later and she's like, I don't know what's
going on. But so at that point I started going
to church and things got a little bit better, but
there was you know, there's a lot of work to
(23:06):
be done. And so I prayed one night, specifically, not
knowing about mercy, there's got to be a place that
I can go free of charge to get help, because
I knew that I needed help, and I wanted help,
and I was hungry for it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And so you knew that if you had a to pay,
if you had to be able to afford expensive help,
then it was gonna shut you out right away.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Right There's no way and So.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
About two weeks later, I got a joy Smier magazine
and Nancy was inside, and so I applied.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I got the application.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
I started the process when I was twenty four, and
then I decided not to go.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I was like, I'll just figure this out.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So can I ask where your mom was during all
this time?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (23:50):
My mom, she's a prayer warrior. I mean she just
you ask her what happened. She's just like God told me,
you know, let her go and I'll deal with it.
And so, you know, my mom was just doing the
best that she could. She's a phenomenal mother. Like how
she was able to deal with me and everything that
was going on and then what happened.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
So she was still there there there, very present, just
in a way that was handing you over to the
Lord to let him do because she'd done everything that
she could at that point.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Right Like she would listen to what was going on,
but sh her, she stopped trying to control everything at
that point.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Mkay, keep going, come on, we'll join.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Let's see.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
So I you know, through about twenty four to twenty eight,
I you know, was working. I was able to function.
I became very good at having that facade, like if
you were to meet me, unless you kind of did
a little bit of digging. For the most part, you
couldn't really at least I don't think people could really
tell what was going on.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So you knew about Nancy at twenty four. MM started
applying at twenty four, right, but then went through four
more years of living the way you were because you
just didn't want to take that step and go pretty
much Okay, yeah, when you look back, why do you
think that was.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Pride? Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So then one happened at twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
When I was twenty eight, I had a just really
bad night. I got in argument with my boyfriend at
the time, and I ended up getting so upset.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I went over to a friend's house.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I hadn't smoked marijuana in years, and I knew that
she had it, and I ended up smoking it and
I coughed so hard I was just like gagging. I
couldn't breathe. I ended up hugging a toilet and I
just had this epiphany of like, I'm twenty eight and
(25:46):
I'm hugging a toilet, like there's something wrong with this picture.
And mercy just dropped into my mind, and I got
up from the bathroom floor and I went into her
office where she had a computer setup, and then I
just went on line.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And so you're currently high.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I am high.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You were high looking up Mercyster. So did you call
Mercy Ministries high?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I might have, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But so after you entered the program, how has your
life changed?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Gosh, I don't really relate to everything that I just
went through, because God's just I feel like I have
the same body, but he took out the person that
was inside and put a new person inside. That's really
the only way that I can really describe it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So you almost feel like, as you're talking about this
to us, you almost fel like you're talking about somebody.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Else, absolutely, like that wasn't even me, right.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So I don't know, I don't know anybody, because I
certainly have a whole season of my life that I
look at look back on, and I'm like, I don't
even know who that crazy person was right there? Do
y'all know what I'm talking about? Where there are decisions
you made, relationships, you allowed, choices that you indulged in,
and you look at it now and you do feel
removed from it because because God gets a hold of you,
(27:07):
revolutionizes your thinking. The word of God transforms our thinking
and causes us to just walk down a completely different
path and make different choices. I'm so grateful for that.
And what have you seen the change in her from
the time that you first met her till now? What
are the words of encouragement you would speak over her
life that are so contrary to what she was labeled
when she was little?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
She is well, for one thing, She's a tremendous, gifted speaker.
She's traveled and spoken with me in conferences, and she
has she's confident, she's bold.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
She is so humble, she said, prideful a while ago,
fill with humility.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
She made a total commitment to God and knew that
she was not going to settle for less than God's best.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And God sent her a wonderful husband. And you've been
married how many years?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Four years?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Four years?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
And he loves her, He supports her, he knows everything
about her past, and he thinks she's the most beautiful,
gorgeous thing he's ever seen. And they had the best relationship.
And they'll come that's what's so cool about these girls
come in in free of charge, and they become they
have their own business, and they become monthly partners with us,
and they're giving back so that other girls like them
(28:20):
can get the help.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well, listen, you are a beautiful picture of what freedom
looks like. Don't y'all think beautiful picture of what freedom
looks like.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
We're so glad that you shared so slow with us.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
And listen. If you need more information about how to
get free and be free and stay free from any
issue that might be just troubling you in your life,
that you might be addicted to, hooked on a habit,
a lifestyle of substance, anything, Listen, you can be free too,
and I know that Nancy Alcorn's book can begin to
help you with that. But also know that Mercy Multiplied
(28:52):
is a ministry that really can change the course of
your entire life. You're going to want to click on
the links that we have given you for Nancy Alcorn
for Mercy Multiplied so that you can learn more about them,
not only if you're a need of help, but if
you just want to support a great ministry, a great
organization that is worth investing in financially and in your
time volunteering in prayer All of that goes into making
(29:14):
this ministry exactly what it is, a ministry that has
changed thousands of lives.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Thank you so much for blenning.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Since nineteen eighty three, Mercy has held thousands and thousands
of young women find freedom from life controlling issues such
as addictions, self harm, sexual abuse, unplanned preg at see,
eating disorders, and even young women who have been sex trafficked.
We take every single girl in free of charge because
(30:10):
of people just like you. We never take government funding
or any other funding that would take away our freedom
to share Christ.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The girls who reach out to Mercy for help come
from all fifty states.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
We have four locations across the country, and then we
also are working on a fifth location in Florida. We
also have three international locations with more expansion underway. For
anyone out there who is hurting, who is desperate, who
is looking for an answer, there is hope.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
There is freedom.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
No matter what you may be going through now, no
matter what you've gone through in.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The past, there is hope. There is an answer.
Hey there, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm so glad that you're here on Priscilla, and this
is the chat with Priscilla. We just kind of chat
around here about good stuff. Today is going to be
a great opportunity for you to hear about an organization
that is making incredible changes in the lives of young
people all over the world. Really, Nancy Alcorn is here.
She's the founder of Mercy Multiplied. And when you hear
(00:25):
about how this ministry is multiplying mercy all over the world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You're going to have sold all of that. Please they do.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I am glad that you are here, so glad that
you were here, and so glad that all of you
and the audience today are here. Is I'm going to
be able to introduce you to a woman that when
I first met her about seven or eight years ago,
I was blown away not only by what she's accomplished
in ministry and her organization, but just by her as
a woman. The determination, the diligence, the faithfulness, the vision
(01:18):
that she has had to have to do what she's
done over the past thirty years or so has been
nothing less than remarkable. So just sit tight, because you're
gonna want to hear not only from this particular woman,
but also from the lives of a couple of others
whose stories have been completely changed, the trajectory of their
life has been set on a completely different path because
of her influence. Would you please welcome to the program today,
(01:40):
miss Nancy Alcorn some one. How are you. I'm so
glad that you're here. Have a seat, Get comfortable in
the little you like our little living room.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
We got going on.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Love it, man, this is rocking.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So the first time I met you, I was kind
of just taken back because you're just in this little
petite suite, you know, blonde, little package right there, and
then you open up your mouth and it's like fire.
You are passionate about what it is that you do.
So please describe what it is that you're so passionate about.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Well, you know, I spent the first eight years of
my career life in working for the government, so you
see a lot of failure.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I mean, it's just the way it is.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And unfortunately we were working with troubled teenage girls, and.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
So I worked as the athletic director at a girl's prison.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
There were three hundred locked up at anyone given time
ages fourteen to eighteen, and they were sent because they
were too young to go to the women's prison, and
so they were labeled.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
They were told all the things that were wrong with them.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
They were told all the reasons why they could never change,
why they would never be anything. So basically it was
like medicaid label put them in the world's trash can
and reject, castaway.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Throwaway, and that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
And during that time, I saw kids go home and
get murdered by pimps, They die from drug over roses,
get killed in street gang fights. Some of them committed
suicide because they believed the lie that they.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Could never change.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And here I am a believer, knowing that the same
Jesus that changed my life could change theirs. And that's
what I'm experiencing. It is just breaking my heart. And
so then I spent three more years investigating child abuse
cases in emergency child protective Services, and I saw all
the things that happened to those teenage girls when they
were little. God said, you just spent five years dealing
(03:37):
with angry teenage girls, and now I'm taking you back
in time and showing you why they're going there, why
the anger was so strong, and how they got where
they got and the why behind the waite I called
it the while behind the white.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know, we're so quick to judge, and yet.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Everybody has a story and everybody.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
And God said, if you had walked in their shoes
and been where they'd been, that would be you, whatever
their you might have been. So after eight years of that,
I realized that God has not equipped the government to
heal broken hearts and set captives free. He's the only
one that can do it, and we have to have
the freedom to share that message. And they had this
real evil thing first a week I worked for the government,
(04:16):
they had this evil thing called new staff orientation. First
thing they said, separation of church and state. You cannot
talk about God here. You can't ever tell you, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm like, so, it's like, you have the remedy, you
have the solution for these girls' lives, you know what
it is. But you're in an environment that is not
releasing you and encouraging you and even allowing you to
share the solution. That's right, and you're probably very frustrated.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Oh, frustrated is beyond words. And yet Forriscilla, here's the truth.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I know now that God.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I was telling God, I want to go to Bible school,
and he said, I got you in Bible school right now.
Grow I'm showing you everything that looks good and sound
good on paper that all the taxpayers are paying for,
and it's not working.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And isn't it interesting that had you gone to Bible school,
which is where a lot of people think that if I
just do white picket fence Christianity, then I'll get what
I need to be successful in ministry. But sometimes in
settings like this, this is what is equipping you to
do exactly what God had purpose for you to do
all all.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It's the truth.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
I know now that He totally ordered my steps and
directed my path, but I didn't understand it at the time.
And when I would see little kids, you know, being
molested and abused and beaten and all that, and I'd
have not mayors about it. And we didn't have cell
phones back then, so my beeper go off at three
o'clock in the morning, I'd have to go out and
get dressed, meet the police and go into a home
and see an awful thing like that. And you know,
(05:36):
when you see it on the news, you read it
in the newspaper.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, it's kind of you.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
You can forget it from you, yes, But when I
saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't get away
from it. And to this day, and I'm thankful I
had not marriages back then, but God's taken those away.
But I remember being mad at God, like, God, what
are you doing with me? And he said, I'm preparing
you for the future because I have something that I
want you to do, but it's not time yet, and
I'll let you know when it's time.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And when the time came, what did it look like
that God wanted you to do? And what has happened
over the past twenty thirty years.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Well, it was the fall of nineteen eighty two, and
I felt that the Lord has started to deal with me,
like it's time for you to let go of your
government job and I'm going to have you start a
Christian based organization. And I mean I was up in
the middle of the night and it was written so fast,
because I mean, it was like God was downloading this vision.
(06:28):
But there were three core principles that he showed me.
He said, I want you to take young women in
free of charge who want help because people have to
want help.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
You gotta want it. You remember Jesus even asking do
you want to.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Be made whole?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Do you want it?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Okay? Exactly?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So, even if they don't have the resources for your program,
financial resources for your program, how does that work if
somebody wants it but they don't really have the money
to pay for it.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Well, here's the way program works. We take our These
are the three things God said. You take those young
women in free of charge, every single one of them,
because all of them are going to have trust issues.
Most of them wouldn't have the money, vast majority, and
even the ones that do, they need to know it's
not about their mom or dad's checkbook. It's about them,
and they need to be able to trust you. They
need to be able to look from every angle and
(07:14):
see nothing in it except that you genuinely care.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So you founded mercy multiplied.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Mercy multiplied.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yes, and it's free of charge.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Take the girls in free of charge.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Give your needs will be met through your given. So
give ten percent of everything at least that comes into
your ministry to other ministries. And thirdly, no government funding,
so that you have the full freedom.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
To do to share Christ.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's good news is that, y'all, that's really good. Tell
us the kinds of women that are coming to you
and have been for a long time now.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Right, this is our thirty thirty second year, So you've literally.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Given your whole life to this passion that God placed
in you.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
I have, and you know what, I'm more passionate today
than I've ever been because of what.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I've seen happen. We want to hear things that have
been transformed. Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
We deal with girls coming in with addictions, severe sexual abuse,
sex trafficking, unplanned pregnancy.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
We have a licensed adoption agency if girls.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Want to choose that option, if they want to choose
to parent, we help prepare them for that. We have
girls that have self harm issues, girls with severe eating disorders.
We have one girl in fact, who came in with
a severe eating disorder and her parents were from Texas
and they were kind of a well to do family,
so they had paid literally hundreds of thousands of dollars
(08:28):
for her to go to the best treatment programs. And
so the doctor said, well, your daughter will probably end
up dying from this seating disorder, but if she ever
does managed to get over it, she's destroyed. Her body,
she'll never be able to have children. So fast forward.
That was in two thousand and three. Fast forward to today.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
She just escaped. She went home, she.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Got totally held her, she got over the eating disorder.
She went home, got planted in the local church, met
this young man. They did it all the right way, waited,
you know, till they were married. But boy, after they
got married, I mean they figured it out real fast.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Because she just gave birth to baby number seven.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So her body's obviously healed and working.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yes, it's working. To sign it's all working good.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, that's wonderful. And the thing is, you see so
many success stories like that. This is what I love
so much about Mercy Multiplied and why I wanted to
introduce Nancy to all of you is because this is
a program that works. There are so many success stories,
some of which we have right here in this room
with us today. Yes, women that whose lives are completely
(09:30):
revolutionized by what you were doing. So when a woman
enters the program, what does her treatment look like?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, well that the fun thing for me to answer
that question. And I know you'll totally agree with what
I'm about to say. But the programs they've been to.
They really are treatment programs. They treat symptoms, right. But
what God does is he's an inside guy. He comes
on the inside of a heart and he heals the woms,
he heals.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
The broken hearted.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
He breaks off those chains and he brings transformation and
it happens through I mean, you're one of our teachers, Priscilla.
I mean we show your videos in every home we
have in the United States. You're teaching videos and in
the homes we have in other countries. And uh, you're
you're you're a regular part of our faculty. So you're
probably gonna start sending me an invoice, you know, to
put you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
On so out put me on the payworld. You are
on that payroad.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
How many houses do you have around the country in
the world.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
We have forty bed facilities in Nashville, UH, and Sacramento, California,
and then in Saint Louis UH and then were our
first home is a smaller one twenty bed facility in
westman Or, Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Home of Duck Dynasty. Many people now.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Know where that is. They used to go where's that
you know? Now they'll say Duck Dynasty. But uh, and
those those wonderful folks have gotten involved in providing support,
and Miss Kay comes over and hangs out and loves
on the girls and has Bible studies and brings all
her friends that are in her Bible study. So there's
a lot of fun things like that happening. But anyway, uh,
and then we have a home in the United Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We have a home in Vancouver, Canada, in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And you have a home in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yes, oh yeah, I have a big forty bed facility
here in Nashville and a three story office building where
we do all of our the officing, the business side
for the whole international part of it.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And once I've found really interesting about you know, the
more I've found out about Mercy Multiplied and have talked
to you about it, I really have found interesting the
detail that you have taken in the kind of food
these women are eating, how they are the arrangement of
where they are sleeping and how they are sleeping, the
job training.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
That they're getting.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So just talk a little bit about the kind of
detail to attention you have put into how you're treating
these women once they come to you.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Well, you know, it's one thing you know, it's one
thing to say to a young girl, you know, you're loved,
you're forgiven, you're valuable, you're treasured, your daughter of the king.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
But if that's.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Really true, I'm sending her a double message if I
put her in a bed that somebody threw out their
garage because it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Going to for their kid to sleep on.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So what we tell our supporters is, you know, we
would not want any of our girls to sleep on
a bed that you wouldn't want your daughters sleep on.
Not that we're not grateful for anything that comes our way,
but I told God from the very beginning, if you're
asking me to do this, then I want to be
able to do it with excellence. I want I want
the girls to walk through that door. And we've literally
had girls from the streets walk through that door and
(12:24):
just start sobbing because they can't believe how beautiful everything is.
I mean, it's beautiful furniture, it's beautiful beds, it's trained staff,
it's food that is you know, these girls have depleted
their bodies with drug addictions and eating disorders and all
just the rough lifestyle that they've lived and just not
taking care of themselves and so we are. We have
(12:45):
a nutritionists, we have a nurse. You know, it's about healthy, organic,
good food that and people.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Believe in that.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
And we even had a couple in Nashville recently who
own an organic farm and they just came out and
just said, we're gonna keep doing this. We're gonna keep
sending all this fresh food your way because they realized
that it's helping bring healing to the body. Only God
can heal the heart, but the body needs to be
healed too.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
There's a reason why that girl just had seven kids.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean, she had to get it all right, you know,
and God, I believe supernaturally God touched her and healed
her because he said, by my stripped you are healed.
But also we help a girl learn life skills. We
help her nutritionally. We have a lot of young girls
that if you have that come through the doors, and
unfortunately they've never had a parenting, so they don't even
(13:38):
know how to wash a load of clothes.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We have to teach them how to do that.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
So it's it's like the spirit, soul, and body, everything
that a young girl would need to know, and we
want her to fell loved and treasure, and so we
tend to those details. We try to help them get
a vision for their future. We say, look at it.
Your past doesn't have to destroy your future. God has
great things in store for you. You can become anything
you want to be. And there we have. Mercy Multiplied
(14:01):
is girls that have received God's message that are out
there multipliing it in the lives of other people.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And it is so fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Well, you know what, Nancy, if you just had a
little passion, it might be affected to that. It might
be a little bit more effective. When we come back,
we're going to meet a woman whose life has been
affected and changed and impacted by Nancy Alcorn and Mercy Multiplied.
We'll be right back. Hi. I'm Priscilla, and I wanted
(14:33):
to take an opportunity to invite you personally to join
me for a seven session Bible study on the Armor
of God. We'll dive deeply into what it means to
be equipped to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
He is very real, and he.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Has been so strategic.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And targeted with his attacks against us. Why shouldn't we
be equally strategic and targeted in standing firm against him,
and you and I have an opportunity to suit up,
to put on some armor that works, and to go
to battle, and to be victory declared in our lives
and in the lives of those people that we are.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
This Bible study will.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Be one that will change our lives forever and will
help us to walk in victory. So plan to join me,
won't you the armor of God? Hey, welcome back. So
(15:34):
glad you have stayed tuned because you are joining us
to meet up with Nancy Alcorn, who is an incredible
woman who has changed and affected many people's lives, not
the least of which is my own. My life has
been so impacted by her. And she's also written this book,
Ditch the Baggage, Change your Life, Seven Keys to Lasting Freedom,
And who of us does not want lasting freedom? And
(15:55):
so she teaches it, she lives it, she passes it on.
Kay robertson the Coast our Duck Dynasty says this, Nancy
Alcorn gives practical and easy to understand lessons for anyone
seeking lasting freedom. Take a step onto the path towards
peace and hope, and.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Get this book today.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And I say, miss Kay, you are right everybody needs
a copy of this to see what freedom looks like
and to see how they can be ushered into it themselves.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
We have a young woman who is.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Joining us today who knows firsthand about how the journey
to freedom looks, and she's gonna share her story with us.
Would you guys please help me to welcome Camilla to
the program today. Hi Camilla, Hi, you look good girl.
Thank you, and you have had quite a little change
in the trajectory of your life as well, right because
(16:41):
of coming in contact with Nancy and Mercy. Absolutely, absolutely, Okay,
we want to hear the story. Just tell us kind
of what your formative years look like and what path
that led you down, and then how you ended up
connected with this ministry.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Sure so, growing up, I grew up in the church.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
My father is actually a pastor, and he was relatively
well known in the community. He had had an opportunity
to be on programs such as Face the Nation, worked
UH with ministries UH Prison, fellowship with Chuck Coulson, and
just very respected in health and high regards. So I
(17:18):
respected him, you know, looked up to him tremendously. But
behind closed doors at home, he there's a lot of
verbal abuse and emotional abuse because he came from an
abusive environment and he never really dealt with that, and
so just growing up I kind of figured out or
learned that, Okay, don't really talk about that outside of
(17:39):
the home, but you know, this is kind of the
way that it is. And so throughout the course of
a few over the course of a few years, he
would make periodic threats of committing suicide, and so I
didn't really understand what that meant. But when I was
about nine years old, my mom decided to leave him
for the final time, and about two weeks later, he
(18:02):
ended up hanging himself. Really, yes, so you lost your
dad to suicide. So I lost my dad to suicide.
And I didn't really know how to conceptualize that because
I was nine. So I just, I mean, okay, you know,
just go on with it. And from that point, you know, on,
(18:24):
things just systematically got worse in regards to just emotionally.
I was really shut down. My mom tried to put
me in different programs as far as counseling and things
like that, but initially I didn't wanna go. And then
as I proceeded through middle school and into high school,
I'd been to numerous counselors. I'd been diagnosed with every
(18:46):
type of you know, label that you can possibly imagine,
and I just took those on as who I was.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
And so you're hearing people label you, and you're assuming, Okay,
this is who I am, right, so I just might
as well act in the way that is congruent with
what they're saying.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I am absolutely okay.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
And so at the time, I mean, I was still
going to church and things like that, but when I
would hear about Jesus or God, all I could do
is equate it to what I saw in my home.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And I didn't get that what that meant.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
And I was really angry, and so I took on
what they told me that I was. So by the
time I was in high school, I myself had actually
been institutionalized three times for attempted suicide.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
And by the time you were in high school, could
you tell me what you think the top factors were
that led you to that point of desperation, Because you
can feel hopeless and be emotional and be discouraged and
be down and depressed even but it's another level of
desperation that causes you to actually get to the place
where you really just want to end your life, not once,
(19:44):
not twice, but three times. Can you describe what that
feels like to be in that place?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Just darkness.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
I felt like an ache in my soul and i'd
and I saw absolutely no way to escape that. Plus
I have a doctor, someone you know, he's got degrees
on the wall, he's gone to school telling me that
I'm always gonna be this way, and I mean, yeah,
h why, you know, why, why would you wanna live
that way? And so I I just felt hopeless, and
(20:18):
I I figured, you know, what's the point of being here?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So three times you try to take your life, obviously
were weren't successful, and then what happens from there?
Speaker 5 (20:31):
So from there, I graduated high school, I proceeded to
you know, move on in regard, move on to the college,
rome and just partying escalated, got involved and at this
point I'd been involved with numerous relationships, but I began
hanging around a drug dealer and we became involved, and
(20:52):
he was very abusive, physically abusive.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It it got to that.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Point did but primarily it was the like psychological verbal abuse,
emotional abuse, and I ended up getting pregnant by him,
and I ended up having two abortions. And so you'd
take on the pain of your dad and all these
different things that have happened, and you add that It's like,
I mean, if you didn't think that the shame and
(21:19):
the guilt could get any lower than that, it did.
And at that point, you know, I really didn't know
what I was just existing, you know, I had no
value in myself as a person.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
I was about twenty three and you were in college.
I'd actually decided to not pursue school at that time,
and I was just pretty much in the party scene.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
That was That was my life at that point, Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
And so then after you reached twenty three years of age,
so you're an adult, you've chosen a lifestyle where now
you were not just dating this drog dealer, but y,
I'm assuming you were taking drugs.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
I was, uh smoking marijuana, Yeah, pretty like that.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
That was the daily. And then I was abusing alcohol. Uh.
So that was pretty much my life.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And then one day do you overhear about mercy ministry?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Uh not exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Actually, I was a bartender and I ended up getting
fired one day and the reason why that significant significant
is the very next day, I was sitting and watching TVN,
which was like a miracle in itself.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Because would.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Why in the world is And there's two pastors on
and they were like, you know, if you want to
accept Christ, stay this with us.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
And I was just like.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Alright, whatever, And that's pretty much how I decided to
become a Christian. And I joked because my roommate at
the time, like she wasn't a Christian. Then after that,
I was always watching TVN and she like moved out
two weeks later and she's like, I don't know what's
going on. But so at that point I started going
to church and things got a little bit better, but
there was you know, there's a lot of work to
(23:06):
be done. And so I prayed one night, specifically, not
knowing about mercy, there's got to be a place that
I can go free of charge to get help, because
I knew that I needed help, and I wanted help,
and I was hungry for it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And so you knew that if you had a to pay,
if you had to be able to afford expensive help,
then it was gonna shut you out right away.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Right There's no way and So.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
About two weeks later, I got a joy Smier magazine
and Nancy was inside, and so I applied.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I got the application.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
I started the process when I was twenty four, and
then I decided not to go.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I was like, I'll just figure this out.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
So can I ask where your mom was during all
this time?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (23:50):
My mom, she's a prayer warrior. I mean she just
you ask her what happened. She's just like God told me,
you know, let her go and I'll deal with it.
And so, you know, my mom was just doing the
best that she could. She's a phenomenal mother. Like how
she was able to deal with me and everything that
was going on and then what happened.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
So she was still there there there, very present, just
in a way that was handing you over to the
Lord to let him do because she'd done everything that
she could at that point.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Right Like she would listen to what was going on,
but sh her, she stopped trying to control everything at
that point.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Mkay, keep going, come on, we'll join.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Let's see.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
So I you know, through about twenty four to twenty eight,
I you know, was working. I was able to function.
I became very good at having that facade, like if
you were to meet me, unless you kind of did
a little bit of digging. For the most part, you
couldn't really at least I don't think people could really
tell what was going on.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
So you knew about Nancy at twenty four. MM started
applying at twenty four, right, but then went through four
more years of living the way you were because you
just didn't want to take that step and go pretty
much Okay, yeah, when you look back, why do you
think that was.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Pride? Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So then one happened at twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
When I was twenty eight, I had a just really
bad night. I got in argument with my boyfriend at
the time, and I ended up getting so upset.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I went over to a friend's house.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
I hadn't smoked marijuana in years, and I knew that
she had it, and I ended up smoking it and
I coughed so hard I was just like gagging. I
couldn't breathe. I ended up hugging a toilet and I
just had this epiphany of like, I'm twenty eight and
(25:46):
I'm hugging a toilet, like there's something wrong with this picture.
And mercy just dropped into my mind, and I got
up from the bathroom floor and I went into her
office where she had a computer setup, and then I
just went on line.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And so you're currently high.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I am high.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
You were high looking up Mercyster. So did you call
Mercy Ministries high?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I might have, I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
But so after you entered the program, how has your
life changed?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Gosh, I don't really relate to everything that I just
went through, because God's just I feel like I have
the same body, but he took out the person that
was inside and put a new person inside. That's really
the only way that I can really describe it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So you almost feel like, as you're talking about this
to us, you almost fel like you're talking about somebody.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Else, absolutely, like that wasn't even me, right.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So I don't know, I don't know anybody, because I
certainly have a whole season of my life that I
look at look back on, and I'm like, I don't
even know who that crazy person was right there? Do
y'all know what I'm talking about? Where there are decisions
you made, relationships, you allowed, choices that you indulged in,
and you look at it now and you do feel
removed from it because because God gets a hold of you,
(27:07):
revolutionizes your thinking. The word of God transforms our thinking
and causes us to just walk down a completely different
path and make different choices. I'm so grateful for that.
And what have you seen the change in her from
the time that you first met her till now? What
are the words of encouragement you would speak over her
life that are so contrary to what she was labeled
when she was little?
Speaker 4 (27:27):
She is well, for one thing, She's a tremendous, gifted speaker.
She's traveled and spoken with me in conferences, and she
has she's confident, she's bold.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
She is so humble, she said, prideful a while ago,
fill with humility.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
She made a total commitment to God and knew that
she was not going to settle for less than God's best.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
And God sent her a wonderful husband. And you've been
married how many years?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Four years?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Four years?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
And he loves her, He supports her, he knows everything
about her past, and he thinks she's the most beautiful,
gorgeous thing he's ever seen. And they had the best relationship.
And they'll come that's what's so cool about these girls
come in in free of charge, and they become they
have their own business, and they become monthly partners with us,
and they're giving back so that other girls like them
(28:20):
can get the help.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well, listen, you are a beautiful picture of what freedom
looks like. Don't y'all think beautiful picture of what freedom
looks like.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
We're so glad that you shared so slow with us.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
And listen. If you need more information about how to
get free and be free and stay free from any
issue that might be just troubling you in your life,
that you might be addicted to, hooked on a habit,
a lifestyle of substance, anything, Listen, you can be free too,
and I know that Nancy Alcorn's book can begin to
help you with that. But also know that Mercy Multiplied
(28:52):
is a ministry that really can change the course of
your entire life. You're going to want to click on
the links that we have given you for Nancy Alcorn
for Mercy Multiplied so that you can learn more about them,
not only if you're a need of help, but if
you just want to support a great ministry, a great
organization that is worth investing in financially and in your
time volunteering in prayer All of that goes into making
(29:14):
this ministry exactly what it is, a ministry that has
changed thousands of lives.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Thank you so much for blenning.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
Since nineteen eighty three, Mercy has held thousands and thousands
of young women find freedom from life controlling issues such
as addictions, self harm, sexual abuse, unplanned preg at see,
eating disorders, and even young women who have been sex trafficked.
We take every single girl in free of charge because
(30:10):
of people just like you. We never take government funding
or any other funding that would take away our freedom
to share Christ.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The girls who reach out to Mercy for help come
from all fifty states.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
We have four locations across the country, and then we
also are working on a fifth location in Florida. We
also have three international locations with more expansion underway. For
anyone out there who is hurting, who is desperate, who
is looking for an answer, there is hope.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
There is freedom.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
No matter what you may be going through now, no
matter what you've gone through in.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
The past, there is hope. There is an answer.
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