#33 Triumph Over Silence: Robin Sachara's Journey from Trauma to Redemption

Embark on an intimate odyssey of resilience as Crystal Loyd welcomes the inspiring Robin Sachara, whose personal narrative of overcoming early trauma unveils the raw reality of a silenced child's world. Through our dialogue, Robin reveals her early struggles with abuse and the daunting path to her adolescent marriage, revealing the suffocating pressures from family and religious expectations. Her candid recollections expose a young spirit wrestling with voicelessness yet eventually finding solace in the transformative embrace of faith and self-awareness.

This episode not only recounts the agonizing moments of Robin's life but also celebrates the redemptive journey she undertook, from a harrowing assault at 19 to an unsupported abortion, further testing her self-worth. Robin's unshakeable belief in God emerges as a beacon of hope, guiding her toward a recognition of her intrinsic value and significance in His eyes.

Robin is now helping with the East Tennessee Pregnancy Resource Center https://www.youmakeherbrave.com/? and Deeper Still East Tennessee retreats http://www.deeperstilleasttn.com/? Robin shares her story in hopes to help other women who have been through what she has had to go through in her young childhood, as teenager and as a woman. 

And don't just listen—run on over and join the No More Running email list info@crystalloyd.com and share a five-star podcast review.

Join the newly added No More Running Private Facebook group. 

Would you like to do some one-one Coaching with Crystal, email her at info@crystalloyd.com and connect with her on No More Running Facebook and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/crystalloyd2/#

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/ben-johnson/the-closer-we-feel
License code: 2EGXPULJXTAAUA1A

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Have you ever found yourself running? Running mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially and even running physically from things in this life. This is no More Running, the podcast for women. Hello, I'm your host, crystal Lloyd, and I've been known to run and still find myself running from the things in this life. Running from God, His calling, his purpose for my life. Running from change that's within my control, that needs to be made, or any type of change.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Running from hard or even good or even just simple little things in this life. And God said to me Crystal, if you will stop running and surrender, there are things that we can accomplish together. Maybe you find yourself running as I have. I want you to know that you're not alone. Let's go from running to no more running together. Let's get started with prayer, holy Spirit, we invite you to be a part of the podcast, the lessons, the life coaching and the sharing of our stories. Let it be known today that you are God. God, help us to go from running in this life, from whatever it may be that we're running from, from running to no more running. In Jesus' name. Hello runners, it's Crystal, your host for no More Running podcast, and today we have Robin Sanjara. Did I pronounce that right. You may have to help me.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Sanjara like the desert.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Oh, yay, okay, Robin Sanjara. Did I pronounce that right? You may have to help me, sanjara, like the desert. Oh, yay, okay, robin Sanjara with us. And she is going to share her story with us, her running story, and then not just her running story, because that's important, that we go back for a brief moment, but her story and how Jesus took her from running to no more running. And so, robin, I am, I am going to let you take over and share your story, and I will be here and I will try not to interrupt so much and we're free your story.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Well, thank you for being a guest on no more running and thank you for just the honor of sharing your story and giving you that stage. So, okay, I'll let you take over and start with your wherever you'd like to start. I mean, you could start in the now and then go back, or you could start in your childhood and then go back, or you could start in your childhood and then go forward, or however you want to do it.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Thank you, crystal, for having me. I appreciate sharing my story. This is important to me because I want everyone to know what Jesus can do in your life Amen. It started young. I was three or four years old I want to say three or four and I started being molested by a grandfather and then it turned into molestation by my cousins of the same part of the family and my grandfather started it, but I feel like he brought others of my household in my their household in. So it was a very early age and I was put into a very sexual place that I would have never known.

Speaker 2: 3:45

I was molested by my grandfather and then it started with him and then cousins happened to be around me and they would molest me or touch me or be very inappropriate with me. I don't know what it was. When I was a kid I felt like what is going on? This isn't right. But then it seemed to be a natural thing because all the males around me would feel like they could just touch me and do whatever they wanted with me and it was normal. It became. I mean, one time I had an accident playing out in the yard, six years old, and my male cousin was there and he for some reason he was 15 or 16, felt like he should be the one to help me clean up. And then he touched me.

Speaker 2: 4:24

After all that, and I mean it was just very horrifying and embarrassing to me, but yet I never said anything. I didn't have a voice. I didn't feel like I had a voice, and neighbors would come, touch me. We'd be playing hide and go seek. They would find me and they would want me to touch their parts. They would want to do all these things to me and again it was almost accepted. It was almost like this is the normal, but deep down I knew it wasn't normal, but I didn't know how to do anything or say anything. Again, there was no voice that I knew that I had.

Speaker 2: 5:00

As I got older, older men would come to me and come on to me, and as 12 years old I was six foot tall, so I looked like an older teenager or sometimes even a young adult, and so I had a lot of old men that would touch me or come near me or rub themselves against me. So I'm like what is it with me? Why am I bringing these men? What am I doing? I blamed myself. There's got to be something wrong with me or maybe I'm put on this earth to be used, but I didn't understand why I was always the target. I still, to this day, cannot stand the smell of certain men's cologne Old Spice makes me nauseous, because my grandfather and the older men back then that was the thing was the Old Spice. So even to this day that's a trigger for me.

Speaker 2: 5:52

And I'm skipping over my story because there's a lot in the middle. But at 16, I got pregnant. So I was married. At 16. My parents my dad said we're not raising that kid. So there was no support there and I had no voice. Again, my boyfriend wanted an abortion. I said no, we're not having an abortion, I will raise this child myself. At 16. I had no clue, but I just knew I didn't want to have an abortion. So we got married. My mom made me get married because that's what the church would have me do. So the church made my life decision then because through my mom being afraid of what the church would think, I had to make this decision and I knew I didn't want to marry him. Friends had even called and said please don't do that. But I had no choice. Where am I going to live? What am I going to do? So the church told me that they predict or they wrote my story at that point, let's put it that way. And so I don't know why I'm struggling saying all this today.

Speaker 1: 7:04

That's okay. It's hard to go back and when you tell your story and you share your story, you have to go back there for a moment and it's like it brings it right back up for you and then like you are reliving that trauma over and over and over again. So you share as much as you would like or not like to your story and then if you're like, okay, well, that's all I want to share with that and that's where you go. And then, you know, sometimes people will ask me about my story, because we do both me and you, robin, have the same similar story.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Our abuse started very young in our life and we did not have a voice and it was multiple times and multiple, you know men or even young men that would abuse, and so it's traumatic. It could be very traumatic going back to our stories, but the important part is you go back there, but you don't stay there Absolutely and know that God has brought you from that as well. Yes, and so you share what you like and then you go back. So here in this time in your story, you're okay. So you, you're forced to marry, basically. Then what happens?

Speaker 2: 8:38

You live happily ever after, or oh absolutely not after, or oh, absolutely not we can. We've had a story um married at 16. I had my daughter at 17. Shortly after, maybe within a year, I was pregnant again and my husband, who I stayed with, was very it was a very volatile relationship. Let's put it that way. There was abuse. Was I perfect? No, but there was inexcusable instances in this marriage.

Speaker 2: 9:10

So I was pregnant and he wanted me to have an abortion. This time I felt like I had no voice because he got to the point where I was so controlled already because my mind was so bent on I have no voice. Whatever everyone else says around me is the truth. I have no truth. So he decided he was going to take me to an abortion clinic. I don't know if I made the phone call. I might, I must have. He drove me there and it was very cold. You're in the waiting room and it seemed like a normal thing. I mean, it's kind of like going to get your teeth checked or for a quick checkup with a doctor out in the waiting room. But when you go back, they really didn't talk to me, they didn't say a whole lot and they were very cold and just distant and they put me into a room on a bed, without knowing there were no ultrasounds back then. They didn't do an ultrasound before you had an abortion, which I wish they would have, because I was taught that it's clump of cells. So that's the only reason I agreed to do it and that's a lie. So when I was laying on that bed, on that table, I had hoped that my husband would come back and say no, don't do this. This is our child. I mean, we already have one together. How can you want this? But again, I didn't know what to say or what to do. So the procedure itself I was not prepared for it was horrific and we I got up, there was pain. It was an awful, awful thing. And I walked out of there, of course, in pain and just in total shock and even though I was told it was a clump of cells, I knew better, and after that I definitely knew better. But I did it anyways, based on what everyone else wanted me to do. Well, my husband, we went to lunch after that like it was no, no big deal, and I thought, wow, he just. There's no thought there, there's no feelings, what, what? How can you do that?

Speaker 2: 11:14

Throughout the marriage, I was divorced. Let's just say I was divorced at 19. I had the gumption to be able to leave the marriage, even though I let him tell me what to do, I let him control me, I had no thoughts or voice to myself. I still somehow was able to leave him. And at 19, I was living the best I could with my daughter. I didn't know how to get an apartment, I didn't know how to do any of that. I was living with an aunt and uncle trying to make it, trying to find a place, didn't really have the means, the tools or anybody to teach me anything. I had no life skills, so I was kind of floundering. Well, one night I was raped in a motel After work. I had taken this kid home. I say kid, we were 19. I'd taken this kid home all the time and he was staying in a hotel and I dropped him off and that's where it happened.

Speaker 2: 12:12

And I was also in a relationship. I honestly didn't know who the father was. But my friend who I was in a relationship with took me but didn't want me to go have an abortion. But I did decide to have an abortion. I know I'm back stepping a little bit, that's okay. But he took me but didn't want me to go have an abortion. But I did decide to have an abortion. I know I'm back stepping a little bit, that's okay, but he took me and all I remember is sitting there. He's like you don't have to do this, and he didn't care whose it was or anything like that. But I knew I didn't want to be with him.

Speaker 2: 12:38

I was just a mess. And again, this is how you solve the problem is how you solve the problem. Everybody around me was doing it. So I was already a mess, basically homeless. We had lived in my car for a little while, my daughter and I I'm changing diapers in a two-year-old well, she's one and a half in a parking lot of the A&P, still working, taking showers wherever I could. So I had no thought of having another child, but nobody talked to me. I mean, if I could have had some support or someone tell me it's going to be okay, I would have probably went that route, but I had no route to go to. So I went there to the clinic. I remember sitting there and then I don't remember anything after that. I have no memory. So those things right there. We're talking 19 years old by 19. I was a mess, so by 19,.

Speaker 1: 13:28

you had been married, had a baby, had married um, divorced, uh, had your second abortion and then yeah, yeah. I mean, that's that right. There is just traumatic in itself.

Speaker 2: 13:45

Oh yeah, All of that.

Speaker 1: 13:46

And then not having support, and then, like you said, that's what you did back in those times, that's how you took care of things and that's all you knew. Honestly, it's all you knew to do.

Speaker 2: 14:03

Absolutely. And after that that again it goes back to the church, because I was raised in a church that was very religious and so I always feel like the bad kid, the bad seed. Even as a little kid, even as I was being molested, I felt like a bad kid because that was going on in my life and, like I said, I it was normal in my circle over here with my family, with the family members, but not normal in society. But I was normal in my circle over here with my family, with the family members, but not normal in society. But I was stuck in between, not knowing what to do, how to do it, what, how to get out of it, who to talk to. So my church, like I said, was very religious.

Speaker 2: 14:40

There was a lot of people that had the good family, they looked like, they were all clean and nice and had no past. So you're looking at all these people and you're just sitting there like, well, how do I act? How do I respond to these people? How do I relate to these people? If they knew my secret they would just kick me out, basically. But the thing about it is, in the middle of all this, at 15, my youth pastor who was marrying the pastor's daughter was this great guy Everybody thought was being very inappropriate with me asking me to be his girlfriend in the middle of a church service. Afterwards we're all standing around, how everyone does in church, and asked me, said he wanted to make love to me in front of everybody.

Speaker 2: 15:23

So again I I'm in this church. I'm the bad girl. All these people are coming to me that are really not good people and here I am the target. So there's something wrong with me. So that, just put that on me. So church was hard for me. I got out of church at 15, 16. I finally convinced my mom and told her what was going on and I was able to leave church. I always wanted God, but I didn't think God wanted me. I mean, how could he? And then the way I was going to church, I wasn't loved in the right way by people.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Right, you didn't have the example of Christ's love in your life and even with your family, and and uh, how you were treated and how they responded to, uh, your pregnancy, or you know any of that, so that I mean I understand, you know the church hurt.

Speaker 1: 16:14

That is very difficult and very difficult to overcome as well, not just our past, like you know that we have in common, but also being church hurt, something that we have in common as well. But how do you, how do you get back to God? And you know, because of all of this, and how do you trust him? How do you, you know, surrender and ask him to be your savior, because you are hurt? And I know that you had said, you know, you wondered what is wrong with me. Know that you had said, you know, you wondered what is wrong with me. And there's many times in my childhood and in my life I have said what's so wrong with me? Why me, lord, why have, why has this happened to me? Why not someone else? You know things like that, so you question that and you talk to God and you question God. But then how do you trust God as your savior and you surrender, um, and to give him all that you have been through and trust.

Speaker 2: 17:21

The funny thing is with me. I never struggled with him being the savior, him being who he is. I had to struggle with who I was meaning. I wasn't good enough for him. I knew he was good, but I wasn't a good child of his. As a matter of fact, into my late thirties I would sleep, or go to sleep every night, praying that I would have 10 minutes to get right with God so I could go to heaven, even though I was saved at 12. But all these things happening, and then, of course, I made my choices. I drank, but I'm not good at drinking. I'm not good at doing drugs. I thank God because I would have been an alcoholic or a drug addict, but I'm very chemically sensitive to this day. So that was him protecting me. Then I didn't know it, but because my friends were doing things and they were doing all the things back in the 80s and 90s that were popular. There was crack, there was drinking, there was all kinds of stuff and, thank the Lord, I was not affected by it because I couldn't do it. I tried, got sick but I tried. My thing was smoking cigarettes and eating food. That was all I could do. I smoked like a freight train. My thing was smoking cigarettes and eating food. That was all I could do. I smoked like a freight train.

Speaker 2: 18:31

But throughout this with the church hurt. I always wanted to be in a stable marriage because that's something I did want as a child and I wanted to have children and do the whole thing. You know, go to church, have the white picket fence, all of that. That didn't happen and I felt like being divorced was wrong. I mean, I was going to hell because I was divorced. That was another thing put on me. So I ended up and plus being single and having sex, and that was the thing back in the day Very open, very and very uncomfortable for me. I did not like that. That is not something that I was wanting to be involved in. But you're supposed to, you're supposed to have sex, so I would with people, but then I would end up being married to them because I'm not feeling comfortable having sex outside of marriage. I need to be married, I need to do the right thing, but the men that came into my life were not good for me. So I would get into a marriage trying to do the right thing, and then they were all abusive in one way or another emotional or physical, emotional to me is the worst. So I would get into this because I was and I was a doormat the whole time, but then I would have the.

Speaker 2: 19:43

I believe it's God. He doesn't believe in marriage, but he didn't believe in me getting married to these people. That was not him. He gave me a way out and gave me enough strength to get out each time. I've been married five times, six now with my wonderful husband, but I've been married five times.

Speaker 2: 19:57

That my whole story has been the hardest to talk about, because it wasn't that I was one of these women that just went from man to man to man. It's just. I wanted to be safe in a marriage and my marriage just ended up being the most unsafe thing for me. I finally, in my 40s or late 30s, early 40s, walked out of the courthouse after a divorce and said, wow, I can have a cup of coffee at that table at that restaurant. I've never been able to do that before. I've been controlled my whole life, yeah, but throughout this time God has been there and that's what amazes me and I was thinking about even this morning. I mean the drugs, the alcohol. I couldn't do that Deep down inside, even as a teenager, I knew there was something more. I just didn't know how to get to it. I didn't know God was the one that was putting this in my mind, but there's something more to life than being abused, being sacrificed, basically to men.

Speaker 1: 20:53

I would think, too, that you know, in the relationships that you have had, you were searching. You were searching for something or someone to make you feel that safety and that connection and even maybe a healing as well. And looking back, maybe you know, you thought that, okay, this is the man that will protect me and love me unconditionally, when ultimately, jesus and God is the way to do that. And I mean we do, we go and we search and we search and we search for things that will make us feel safe and secure, and then we look to people to do that at times when, ultimately, god is the one that does that. I mean, and it sounds like that's what you were doing in your running days.

Speaker 1: 21:54

You know I'm running to searching and searching and searching for things, but then it gets to the point where you know this is no more. I mean, this is not working, this is you know. So. So you, here you are, you're, you're divorced for the fifth time and you're sitting, you know, having a cup of coffee, what, what are your thoughts? What is your next move? You know, what do you? Where do you go from there?

Speaker 2: 22:22

Well, you know it's funny the last marriage I was in excuse me, I forget I'm on camera here, that's okay the last marriage I was in, I was sitting at a computer and I was looking up scriptures. I had heard a sermon on restoration and I was looking up scriptures and everything I could find on being restored and in that moment probably like maybe 40, 41, I really took hold to to restoration. He will restore what the locusts have eaten. Beauty for ashes. I mean. Isaiah 61, 1 through 3 is my life's scriptures yeah, tell us what that verse says.

Speaker 1: 23:03

It's isaiah 61, 61, 1 through 3. Tell us, yeah. Tell us what that verse says.

Speaker 2: 23:12

It says, and I have the New King James Version. But the Spirit of the Lord, god is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. That he may be glorified. Now, the beauty for ashes has stuck with me through this whole time. But now and I've always had a heart for, for broken women that's been a passion of mine. Even when I was a total mess, I had a heart for broken women. So when it talks about preach good tidings to the poor, he sent me to heal the broken hearted. That's my mission now. I want them to know what I know, that God loves them so much and they are not their past. So this is really sticking out to me, the section in one and the beauty for ashes is just. It is so true. I mean my husband. I've been married five times before.

Speaker 2: 24:33

I moved to Tennessee eight years ago thinking I was going to get a job. I was recovering from my fifth back surgery, so I was trying to change my career. I didn't know where I was going in life and I had a friend that was down here, a pastor actually, and his wife and they talked me into moving here and I prayed about it for about a month and on my way down here, literally everything came against me. I was crying and I had what you'd call a spirit of suicide for years and years. I never I had tried and I never succeeded, obviously. But on my way down and I thought I was well over that that came on me so strong I had to make phone calls and I just prayed and had worship music going and I said to God you know what we see, what I've done. I've looked for men, for love, but I know you've been there every time for me and you have shown yourself true to me and I'm finally realizing how much you love me. So all I want to do is serve you. I will get this job. I was going to sell cars and make as much money as possible and then travel and tell people about Jesus. And I don't know if you know who Corrie Ten Boom is, but she was a tramp for the Lord. She traveled all over the place and just wherever he called her to go. And that was my plan, great plan.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Two days later I met a man. My pastor friend said could I bring my friend Darren? We were going to the rod run because I love cars. And I thought, okay, we started talking and he sat down and I heard in my heart my spirit he's going to be your husband. I'm like that is not God, that is Satan. Get behind me, satan. After everything I've done and the marriages, there's no way. Well, a year later we married. He has been Jesus in the flesh for me. He is not perfect, but he's perfect for me. And God has restored beauty, given me beauty for ashes in that marriage. We didn't. We don't struggle like a new married couple did in their beginnings. We just kind of melded together Like we've been together for 20 years and I believe that was a gift from God. Yes, yes, so that's just. I mean part of what he's doing in my life and he can do in anybody's life and any relationship should bring you closer to God.

Speaker 1: 26:40

You know when that relationship starts taking you away from the Lord or there's abuse or you know whether it's physical, mental or verbally, that is not of God. And then when he brings a man in your life and he brings you closer to the Lord and he himself has surrendered to the Lord, that of course you know that that is from the Lord. So that's what it sounds like the Lord has brought you a man that can help you grow closer to the Lord.

Speaker 1: 27:14

Yes, but I love that on your way to Tennessee, I love that you're talking to God and I love your surrender. And even talking to God, you've always been there, and I know I have recently told God you see me, you've seen me then, you see me now. I mean, you've always been there. God, it's always been there, god, it's always been you and he has never left left not for a moment. You know, even and I'll tell women, god has loved us in our running days and in our no more running days. The Lord loves us.

Speaker 1: 27:49

And I do want to share a verse with you and with our listeners. God gave me this, and I just think it's so beautiful and I know this for you and your story and other women's story as well. But it's Isaiah as well. It's so good, isaiah is so good. It says remember these things, o Jacob, for you are my servant. O Israel, I have made you. You are my servant. O Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Speaker 1: 28:25

And then I like to read it in the message part too, because it kind of helps you know what, you know what is going on. And it says remember these things, o Jacob, and this is Isaiah 44 and chapter 21 through 22. Remember these days. Remember these days, o Egypt. Take it seriously, israel, that you're my servant. I made you, shaped you. You're my servant, o Israel, I'll never forget you. I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There's nothing left of your sins. Come back to me. Come back to me. I've redeemed you. And I love that, because the Lord's calling us to come back to him in our relationship. And then, even before we come back, he says I've redeemed you.

Speaker 2: 29:14

I've already done it.

Speaker 1: 29:15

You know, come back to me because you are redeemed. And then I love the part where it says I made you, shaped you. You're my servant, o Israel, I'll never forget you. And I mean I know and we know, we both know that God has never forgave us. I mean like forgot us in our running days. And then he says I've wiped the slate of your wrongdoings, there's nothing left of your sins. He remembers it no more. And and then he tells us and calls us back to him and that he's already redeemed us even before we get to him. Yes, so I wanted to share that verse with you and I just thought you know that's, that's our story, right there.

Speaker 1: 30:02

You know both of our stories that God, you know, was calling us back to him and that he's redeemed us even before we. We came back to him, you know, and then also want to share a verse as well, and it's Isaiah. And I know, when we have hard stories and then women have hard stories, we tend to go back there. But then we ponder on it over and over and over and we overthink sometimes. But God's word says forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Go there for a brief moment, but don't get stuck there.

Speaker 2: 30:44

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Don't get stuck in that past, don't get stuck in what you've done before, because God redeems us and he does new things, a brand new thing in our life, absolutely, and I believe that for you and it sounds like the Lord is doing a brand new thing but tell us, you know what are some things that now that you're involved in because of your past, or something that you're so passionate about because of your past, and what has happened to you, or what, even the mistakes that you've made?

Speaker 2: 31:21

well, I will say this one thing first, when you were talking about that and you're talking saying the scriptures, god has given me a vision of, or a picture of, a broken down old shack, when we we see a lot of them, like you know, you go to Caves Cove and you see these older shacks and things like that and I think about okay, when I, if you're staying in that shack, you need shelter. So you're going in there and the roof's leaking, the walls are falling down and all of a sudden, across the road is your dream house, a nice, warm home. And I'm into land, I love flowers, so the landscaping is beautiful and it's just so welcoming. And he says here you go, my daughter, this is for you. But if we keep, a lot of us tend to, like you said, go back in the past. So we end up going back in that shack because we know that shack, when his goodness is right there in front of us.

Speaker 2: 32:09

So my passion is for women who are broken and feel like they cannot move forward or they're not good enough or they never were good enough. Well, guess what? You don't have to be. He did it all. He did it all. He knew what we were going to go through. He knew and he was there and he knew what we would do, because we all made choices out of the things that we went through. We made some dumb choices. I've made plenty. So in all that, I just want someone to see who he is. I mean, if it's one woman, if it's two women, I don't care, but I want to be with. I didn't have, because if I had someone who could just step in and say this is who God is, this is who Jesus is Because I couldn't even look at Jesus as God or my savior because he was a man, I had a hard time getting close to him, that intimate relationship. Now he's taught me how and that was a whole nother story how he taught me that. But now I look at him and I see him as my savior. I love him. He's everything to me. But that was a difficult thing because of my abuse and sexual encounters with men. How do you look at somebody who's a male figure and Jesus as man? He's man and he's God. So that was tough.

Speaker 2: 33:24

So not long ago I was in church and someone came to talk about the Pregnancy Resource Center and the main one's in Merrillville that I'm involved in, but I'm in the one in Sevierville that just opened two years ago. They talked about women coming in who, or girls. I was a 16 year old girl coming into the center and they're in desperate shape. They're in desperate straits. Some of them are abused, some of them don't have parents. Some of them live down the street. Some of them are good girls that just all of a sudden made a mistake. And we're there. They're there to just wrap their arms around them and love on them and walk them through this Because, to be honest, a lot of them choose abortion because they have no choice or they have no one to step next to them.

Speaker 2: 34:11

I think it's. I'll have to just forgive me, these aren't accurate, but 75 to 80% of women that come in that want an abortion end up not because they found out somebody's here loves me, who will walk with me and who will talk to me and just talk me through this and so and it's free they come in for their ultrasound, the pregnancy test is free, and then women will have their babies and they still come in. We have step programs, which is like a mentoring program. They range from 40 year old women to 16 year old women. I mean there's a gamut here and rich and poor. They come in and they just need somebody to love on them, talk to them. They need to decompress. Sometimes they have. They don't even know how to balance a budget.

Speaker 2: 34:55

I know that I've been there so to have these tools and have these women. Just, I mean, I'm telling you they love on these girls, we love on these women. So that is a passion of mine to help these. And we've seen so many success stories. You know they're in church now. They're singing in choirs there. You know they have their home. They were abused. Now they are a stable mom with a child and they're doing their own thing with God and God will send that person someday, but they're doing it because God has opened these places and put it on these women's heart to do this, to start these centers. Um, it's like I said, it's a passion and that led into a ministry.

Speaker 2: 35:37

Because I went in for my intake to see you know if I was a good fit as a volunteer and this lady, angie, said have you had healing for your abortion? I'm like, ah, it's, it's in the past. I, you know, I don't worry about it, I don't think about it. She goes well, we well, we need to do this. So deeper still is a retreat. That is for women who are abortion wounded and it's deeper stillorg. And if you, if they need to, if anybody wants to donate or if they need healing, you can go on there and they have different areas the pregnancy resource center we have one in Maryville, we have one in Sevierville that we're involved in and you can go on Facebook Friends of Pregnancy Resource Center East Tennessee. You'll see what they're all about.

Speaker 2: 36:23

And one more thing I'm involved in. I'm doing this myself. I'm doing beauty bags. A lot of these women don't feel beautiful, so I make them luxury. I get expensive little sample perfumes from Amazon and people donate scents and soft socks and beautiful scarves and I make these women. It's just a little gift to make them feel beautiful. So I do that. That's on my own, just because women sometimes just need that little lip gloss and that somebody cares and feel beautiful. Because they don't, they don't feel beautiful. So that's the main thing. Beauty of God.

Speaker 1: 36:55

Yeah, robin, I am so glad that you came and shared.

Speaker 1: 36:57

You know, I know that we don't we didn't have a lot of time to share, you know, but you you shared a snippet of your story and how the Lord has just brought you from those days, dark days till, to a beautiful times, and that you're helping with the pregnancy center and then the abortion.

Speaker 1: 37:21

You know that you are, you know you're involved in and that you're helping other women with. You know you're taking your past and you're using it and allowing God to use that for his glory and his purpose. And you know, I'm just, I love it when women do that. I love it when we, you know we're like, you know, hey, I didn't have somebody, but I'm going to step in and I'm going to do that somebody for someone else and so that they don't have to be alone and they don't have to be by themselves. And I thank you so much for just sharing your heart and your story and the things that you're involved in on no More Running. And thank you for sharing God's word as well. And you know friends reach out to Robin she's on Facebook and you can also see her involved in the Pregnancy Center of East Tennessee and then tell me about you know. Tell me what the other name is. It's deeper.

Speaker 2: 38:25

Deeperstillorg and we're in the chapter of East.

Speaker 1: 38:28

Tennessee. Okay, deeperstillorg. Okay, correct. Thank you so much. You so much. Hey, don't forget. You can sign up for the no more running email list at info at crystal lloydcom and make sure to like, share and follow. We would love for you to leave a review for the podcast. This helps us reach even more women who might find themselves running as well. Gotta run, thank you.