When Kristin was 2, her mother sent her to live with her grandparents due to her parents’ divorce. Her grandparents provided well for her, and eventually adopted her. Her grandfather doted on her, but, she says, “I didn’t get … motherly attention from my grandma. I only got attention when I did something bad.”
When the family moved out of state, Kristin had a hard time adjusting and started experimenting with marijuana and drinking for what she saw as social reasons.
After graduating from high school, she joined the Air Force, and served for six years. After getting out, she began to spiral down. She began taking crystal meth mainly to help her maintain her weight. “Weight has always been an issue for me,” she says. “Just always having to be skinny … so I started using crystal meth just to lose a couple pounds, not knowing how addictive the drug was.”
“It had that control over me.”
Once Kristin started using meth, she “couldn’t stop,” she says. “It had that control over me.” She began to commit crimes in order to pay for her drugs. She began a cycle of going to jail, getting out, doing well for a while, then going back to using.
Kristin moved back in with her biological mother, but when she told her of her meth use, her mother insisted she go into treatment. She went to a sober house and started doing well, but eventually fell back into her old habits and this time landed in prison for credit card theft. “That was my rock bottom.”
While incarcerated, Kristin says cops would often ask her what she’s doing there, saying she didn’t belong there. Their words encouraged her. Her mother’s warning that she would be separated from her family also motivated her. She knew she needed to change.
“My life really did change.”
After getting out of prison, Kristin entered a discipleship program at the Dream Center in Los Angeles. “It was really where I met Jesus and where my life really did change.” After being in the program for one year, Kristin knew God wanted her to stay. She eventually joined staff and felt called to ministry. She knew God wanted her to use her story to help other people.
While at the Dream Center, Kristin met her husband and started a family. They decided to leave California because she felt God calling her to work at the Mission.
“I want my kids to always know who God is.”
Kristin joined the Mission and has been on staff for over five years serving in Women’s ministry and most recently as an Operations Coordinator for the Facilities team.
As a mom, Kristin wants to always point her children to God. “I want my kids to always know who God is,” she says, “and I want them to know who I was and that whatever you’re going through doesn’t decide who you are … No matter what, God’s going to win.”
