 Thank you for joining us today. Why don't you start by telling us your name and where you're from? My name is Yvonne and I currently live here in Tri-Cities, but I'm originally from Moses Lake. I am the oldest of four daughters. I, my parents are Mexican. My parents weren't really ever affectionate. So I feel like that's something that I missed out on a lot growing up. That's definitely something that I needed. I, at 15, or 16, I had my daughter. I was in high school and I had my daughter. And I was in a very abusive relationship with the father of my kids. At 18, I graduated high school, was pregnant with my son, graduated with honors, and the relationship just started getting more and more abusive. I knew that if I didn't leave soon, it was just going to get worse. And I knew that that's not what I wanted for my life and for my kids. I was very fortunate enough to grow up with both my parents. So I feel like I worked really hard to try and mend the relationship because I didn't want my kids to grow up without a dad. I know what it's like to have a dad and he's a great dad, but that's, I just always held on to hope. When my kids were really little, we got in a car accident. The accident was really, really bad. It was a double impact, a truck, T-bone dust, and then we hit a telephone pole. The airbags were defective in the car. By the grace of God, we were all okay. They had us on the top of the car to get us out. We spent our thanksgiving in the hospital. My sister was really, really hurt. She's my twin sister. She's my better half. So in the midst of all of this, did you know the Lord at all? So we grew up Catholic. And if anybody has been Catholic before, I, we never read the Bible. I got baptized like in Mexico. I baptized my kids, but only because I felt like it was out of guilt. My parents would always say, if I didn't, my kids would go to hell, so I was scared. And then we got in that car accident, so I felt like I needed to. So I didn't really know God the way that I do now. So what happened? I guess you're going through all of this, you went through the accident, and then what happened in your life that kind of made you realize that you needed God? So my mom used to say, because these things were happening, that we were cursed, right? So I felt like we were cursed, and I was like always living in fear. Like I said, I was in this abusive relationship, and I needed to get out. So finally I had had enough, and I packed up my kids and I moved. I left everything. I still lived in Moses Lake, but I moved to a whole different place. And my kids' God started manipulating my kids. They were really little, so they would come home and they would say things like, daddy misses you, daddy wants to be with you, daddy says you're the reason why we're not a family. And so slowly all those things started getting to me. Eventually my heart became weak, and so did my soul, and the enemy got a hold of me. My kids' dad used to say that nobody was ever gonna love me, that I was never gonna be good enough for anybody, and I believed it. So one day, from one day to another, I woke up and I'd said that that was the day that I was gonna commit suicide. Took my kids to school. I texted my kids' dad and I said, I need you to pick up the kids. I'm going to the gym when I get off of work. He picked up my kids. I went to work like a normal day. Nobody knew anything. And then went to the gym for like five minutes and I was like, I need to go home, I need to do this. So I went home. I had had a lot of like pain medication, muscle relaxer, sleep from the accident years that I had like not been taking, but I just had had it. So I knew that that's what I was gonna do. That morning we had inventory at work, so we had razors. So I had taken a razor for a month just in case my first plan didn't work. So I went home, filled up my bathtub, and I started playing music on my phone. I sent this huge message to my sister, telling her how much I loved her. Where everything was up for my kids, how I had left everything. Passwords to everything. Telling her that I was sorry that I wasn't good enough. And I put my phone on our plane mode. I started playing Pandora. And if anybody has listened to rap, Russ is who I loved, right? I played, I started playing that radio station. And so this is rap music, okay? I'd never come in contact with any type of Christian music or worship music of any sort. And so this rap music is playing. I take the first, like, a handful of pills, and then I'm just sitting in my bathtub, and it's like not working as fast as I want it to. So I go to grab the razor. And I go to reach for it, and on my phone a song comes up, and it's Ocean's by Hillsong. I'd never heard that song before ever in my life. So the beat was like, or the beginning of the song, I was like, what the heck is that? So I got up to turn off the song or change the song, and I couldn't move. It was like, God, like, say there, you need to listen to this. So then it started like, the song, the words started and I just cried. And so I finally got up and I looked at the song and it just froze and I was looking at my phone and I'm like, why is that song playing? So I opened my phone and it's raw station. Why is the song playing? So that was my first encounter with God. God had saved my life that day. Amen, wow. It's always so encouraging when you see people here, even if they, like, cry or they stop, it's so amazing because someone took the bold step to share what was hidden in their heart before what no one knew about. And they take the step to declare the goodness of God. And so from this moment on, how was it that you've got to the place where you are now? So weirdly enough, the next day I go to work and I worked for Verizon Wireless. So some clients came in and I've never seen them in my life. They just were like very beautiful people and I said to the wife, you're so beautiful, you look like you could be a Disney princess. And she's like, thank you, like all like weird. I'm like, sorry. So I get to know them, they start talking. They had no idea that the day before I was gonna commit suicide, right? So the husband goes, Yvonne, do you go to church? And I said, honestly, I don't. I grew up Catholic, I don't go to church, but I do want to get my kids back into that because God is important. I didn't really know that God had made that first like step to me yesterday, the day before. So then I said, he's like, well, you should come and join our church. Come this Sunday. And I said, okay, I'll think about it. So we ended up moving. Like I said, the relationship even after separating, it was still so toxic. I knew that if I didn't leave and I knew that I wasn't gonna live in Moses like forever, I knew I wanted to move. I didn't want to be stuck. And if you really don't aren't rich in Moses like you're not gonna go anywhere. So you either move out and move away and grow. And I was always scared for change. So this was like something really bold. I came to visit my sister. I applied for an apartment. She said that day, if you don't get this, it's not meant to be. If you get this, that's God. I went home, they called me and they said I was approved. So I packed everything up. I didn't tell my mom. I didn't tell anybody until two days before I moved. And because I didn't want anybody to talk me out of it. So COVID happened and everything got shut down. My kids went to school for four days. It was the worst transition ever. I thought I had made a mistake. For a year, I was working at BMW and Audi. For a year I had been searching for a church. I wasn't sure what church I wanted to go to, but I knew that when I went to the Christian church in Moses like that the couple had invited me to, that was something that I wanted to go back to. I wasn't gonna commute back to Moses like so I needed to find something here. A lot of my clients that I built really good relationships with, I would say so do you go to church? What church do you go to? And some of them would tell me and others were, every single person that I had an encounter with that came to Hungry Jen was always so welcoming and said I go to Hungry Jen, you should join us. I did the first year. I didn't come. So then finally this year I decided like back in December I decided that I needed to get plugged in. I have an 11 year old daughter and an eight year old son who's about to be nine. And my daughter is going through a lot of emotions. She feels a lot of abandonment because her dad stopped showing up for her. And I knew that I needed, I wanted to get closer to God and in order for my kids to do that as well I need to do it. I went to visit my sister. She works at a bank and there's somebody else that attends here that goes there. So they said I walk in and she goes, I was like, what guy? And she's like, no, don't look. I was like, okay. So I'm like trying to look, can't really see. He goes to that church. I'm like, what church? That church that they do like. And I'm like, I'm like, so she goes, I don't know what it's called. I think it's Hungry Jen. And I said, okay, all right. So I was like, actually I've been wanting to go to that church. So many people have told me about it. She's like, no, no you don't. And I said, yes I do. So I went home. I didn't follow the Hungry Jen page, okay. Went home, opened up my Facebook. The first thing that came up was, please join us this Sunday at Hungry Jen. So I come, it ends up being that the guest service that they did in February. So I was like, it's a perfect day. It's meant to be. And I've always known since I was little nothing happens as a coincidence. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. Whether it's a rough patch in your life or whatever you're at your highest, you're exactly where you're supposed to be. So, sorry, I have to finish this. So, okay. So one thing that I did was I got saved. I joined a life group. I got saved in Bethany's group. And ever since then my life has been so much better. My daughter joined a life group. They've helped her a lot. With the feeling of being abandoned and stuff. She actually went to the camp. I'm plugged into a life group. I'm serving. And I removed every toxic relationship and friendship that no longer served me. So. Why don't we give God some praise for this testimony, Ayman? Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.