Shanya's Story

Shanya lies sprawled on the floor and unconscious. But at least in the darkness, she can't feel anything. Not her boyfriend's fists bashing her face. Not his kicks battering her body.

Her bruised and broken frame could hardly take any more.

But she wasn't dead... not yet.

A sudden sound of shattering glass roused Shanya from the darkness. She fought through the fuzziness in her head to grasp that she was lying on the floor, pain-wracked every inch of her body, but that was nothing compared to the horror of what she was seeing now...

Her children had been awakened by the commotion. They were hysterical and crying. “Mommy! Somebody help my mom!”

Shanya's eldest son was wielding a shard of broken mirror in his hands, daring the man who had beat his mother to within an inch of her life to make a move. He was just a boy, but he was fierce. He would do anything to protect his mother...

Panic and terror for her son gripped Shanya with paralyzing fear. “NO!” she screamed.

“God help me...I need you.”

Shanya whispered an urgent prayer as she huddled on the bed with her children, not daring to move.

Her boyfriend had just shut the bedroom door, after making Shanya and all of her kids lie still. Shanya didn't know what he was going to do next. But he was capable of anything. That night he had smashed a bottle of booze against her head, knocking her unconscious.

Now, in the darkness of the bedroom, Shanya was still shaking from her nightmarish ordeal. But whatever her boyfriend did to her, the hardest part was not being able to shield her babies. Her oldest daughter had witnessed everything. And now she was having terrifying dreams of her mom getting killed.

It was then that Shanya heard a voice. Get up. Get up. “God?” she thought. Without another moment's delay, Shanya woke her daughter. “We have to leave. It's time. We're leaving.”

Minutes later they were in a cab speeding off into the night. A short time later Shanya and her kids arrived here at the Mission.

“God spared my life and the life of my kids. Hope Place changed my life. It was a blessing. And God helped me to open up to love and to forgive. And today, I’m looking forward to a bright future.”