Pain chased Yvonne from her own twisted childhood. We pick up her story upon her second marriage where mental and physical abuse was commonplace. She and her groom drank heavily before the wedding… and after it. According to Yvonne, “We was already pretty lit, we ended up fighting and I ended up leaving.” As if beatings, booze and bravado weren’t enough, Yvonne got in her car and sped away.
She woke up in jail, using her one phone call to reach out to her new husband, “Do you know what you did?” he asked, “Someone’s grandma is on life support. You hit her and left the scene.”
“I got so drunk that I did a hit-and-run!” Miraculously, Yvonne’s victim recovered, but the event was enough to shock Yvonne toward desperation. Changes were overdue. She had dreams of scooping up broken family members and flying them to Christ. But life went on, as did the pain, and Yvonne had not yet come to terms with her own demons.
Five years passed, when one day, her husband pledged, “I’m gonna change. I want to be a better husband.” He then collapsed on the floor and died of a massive heart attack. Her tone implied denial, “He was an alcoholic an’ I become an alcoholic with him.” Yvonne’s voice cracked and her vocabulary seemed to slip back to her old habits while sharing stories of her darker past. “I drank even more to drown my guilt. Maybe I could have called 911 quicker or done CPR better.”
Four months later, Yvonne met Mike, a man of God who inspired Yvonne to become the first person in her family to graduate from high school and the first person to go to, let alone, finish college. Mike urged her, “Listen to and obey the Holy Spirit.” She did. Yvonne’s many shortcomings seem to have been traded nicely for God’s grace.
Today Yvonne and Mike have their own church – Urgent Care for the Broken Hearted. Yvonne says her vision… “is big and I’m not gonna stop. I don’t care how long it takes me. If it takes 10 years, I’m gonna do it.” While ministering to the broken people at her church, Yvonne’s voice is shameless and her message divine.
