100% Restored: Offering freedom to youth without hope

When Rosalinda Vint graduated from Biola in 2003, she immediately felt a calling in her life to reach out to others. Rosalinda had a long road of restoration leading up to this divine moment, however.

Rosalinda grew up a "child of the state". She and her five siblings were all separated into the Los Angeles foster care system at a very young age. She endured emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and was on the path to carry out the same cycle her alcoholic mother had lived. Then, in her final move in the foster system, Rosalinda got placed with a Christian family. This family showed her unconditional love and told her about the saving grace of Jesus.

Rosalinda felt the intensity of God's forgiveness in her life, and she was encouraged through her church to participate in a prison ministry. Rosalinda applied what she had learned from her degree at Biola and immediately saw lives being changed by the transformative power of Christ.

Today, Rosalinda runs "Women of Substance, Men of Honor", a ministry that reaches out to incarcerated youth and emancipated foster children. The ministry offers classes and transitional support for pre and post-paroled youth as well as those needing a job or help entering college after leaving the foster system. Out of the 73 children she has helped, only 4 have returned to incarceration.

Rosalinda gives these kids the second chance that her foster family, through the love of Jesus, gave her. She has seen the healing power of Christ in her own life, and is excited to see youth transformed every day so that, someday, they can also have the chance to make a difference in the world.

http://www.biola.edu/100percent/restored

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• Rosalinda Vint
• prison
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