It is always my pleasure to introduce you to our graduates. It is a great honor to me, and one that I do not take lightly, to continue to remind our community that homelessness has a face. Real people have experienced real pain and brokenness – and now they are experiencing real redemption.
And that is where the joy comes in. While my heart breaks as I meet people like Gina and hear her story of being pregnant while living in her car, I rejoice all the more as I watch her and her now one-year-old daughter walk across the stage in her graduation gown. To know the pain and darkness of a person’s past makes the transformation and restoration that much more beautiful.
So I invite you into these stories, to share in the victory and celebrate the restoration of families like Sarah and Jimmy who found hope at the Village of Hope right before their daughter Olivia was due to be born, men like Yorel whose heart and life was forever changed at our Double R Ranch program, veterans like Jerlayah who came from a human trafficking situation into our Tustin Veterans Outpost program, and teen girls like Lorena, Skye, and Cristina, who are now hopeful and excited for their future after living at Laurel House.
Please take a look at our Spring Graduation video to hear these stories, and others, for yourself.
Congratulations Heather, Shawn, Branden, Jimmy and Sarah, Michael, Yorel, Julia, Sarah, Gina, Craig, Jerlayah, Lorena, Skye, Cristina, Shauna, and Sharon!
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