Imagine being lost in a cycle of addiction, crime, and despair, only to find yourself on the streets of Boston, feeling utterly hopeless. Discover how Mary, once an ex-prostitute, ex-drug addict, and ex-alcoholic, transformed her life after an unexpected encounter in jail. Her harrowing yet powerful journey from a traumatic upbringing to surviving violent encounters and ultimately finding redemption will leave you inspired and hopeful. This episode delves into Mary's emotional recount of her darkest moments and how a persistent, praying woman in jail became the catalyst for her remarkable turnaround.
Mary’s transformation doesn’t stop there. Listen as she shares the profound impact of finding hope and salvation through Jesus, bringing light into the darkest corners of her life. This episode emphasizes the importance of faith during the varied seasons of life, reassuring listeners that God’s unwavering support is always present. Through Mary's heartwarming stories of struggle and divine intervention, we explore themes of forgiveness, redemption, and the power of sharing personal stories to inspire others. Join us for a compelling conversation that promises to encourage, uplift, and empower you to face life’s challenges with renewed strength and faith.
If you would like to share your story, click this link: https://thepromoter.org/story/
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
Imagine being lost in a cycle of addiction, crime, and despair, only to find yourself on the streets of Boston, feeling utterly hopeless. Discover how Mary, once an ex-prostitute, ex-drug addict, and ex-alcoholic, transformed her life after an unexpected encounter in jail. Her harrowing yet powerful journey from a traumatic upbringing to surviving violent encounters and ultimately finding redemption will leave you inspired and hopeful. This episode delves into Mary's emotional recount of her darkest moments and how a persistent, praying woman in jail became the catalyst for her remarkable turnaround.
Mary’s transformation doesn’t stop there. Listen as she shares the profound impact of finding hope and salvation through Jesus, bringing light into the darkest corners of her life. This episode emphasizes the importance of faith during the varied seasons of life, reassuring listeners that God’s unwavering support is always present. Through Mary's heartwarming stories of struggle and divine intervention, we explore themes of forgiveness, redemption, and the power of sharing personal stories to inspire others. Join us for a compelling conversation that promises to encourage, uplift, and empower you to face life’s challenges with renewed strength and faith.
If you would like to share your story, click this link: https://thepromoter.org/story/
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
Speaker 1:
It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Myers. The promoter.
Speaker 3:
Hello, my friend, it is so good to be with you today. Today is a great day. To make it a great day. Hi, I'm Ron Myers, I'm your host and today's story well, today's story is a powerful story.
Speaker 3:
It is a story that had me saying you did what, mary? Have you ever forgotten what you have forgotten? Let me explain what I'm trying to say. Have you ever run into someone and you began talking and realized there was a connection between the two of you years ago, but you forgot all about it until you started having the conversation and then all the memories started popping up. That is what happened when I began to talk to my guest today. Mary, we had some connections over the past 20 years that I had totally forgot all about and until today, I never knew her story. Her story wow, I wasn't prepared to hear what I was about to hear. So if you think you're too far gone for God and that he could never use you, no way. Mary is a living testimony that God can take people out of the miry, mucky mud and turn them into a beautiful story that represents forgiveness, redemption and a passion for life. Mary, I am so grateful that you are going to share your story, mary. What's your story?
Speaker 4:
Let's see, I am an ex-prostitute, an ex-drug addict, an ex-alcoholic. I was in jail and a woman used to come. I was arrested for many different things and she came for 18 months and prayed for me. And I was not nice to this woman, not at all nice. I do not even know this woman's name, but she prayed for me on the other side of those bars every single day. I threw things through the bars at her, I threw toilet paper out of my cell block at her. She was, but she was on a mission from God. I understand that now. I did not understand that then?
Speaker 3:
Were you throwing the toilet paper at her or were you throwing it at Jesus? I mean, she represented Jesus and you didn't want to hear any of that.
Speaker 4:
No, I did not want to hear it.
Speaker 3:
No, I did not, you're right. So did you grow up in any kind of a religious atmosphere?
Speaker 4:
Yes, I was made to go to the Catholic church. I lived in a home that the alcoholic mother, alcoholic dad, um dysfunctional to say the very least, to say the very least about this. So when I went there and then when my son was born, I was a single mother. When my son was born, the monsignor of the church that we went to said that I could not they don't call it baptize there, they call it christen there and he said that I couldn't do that because I wasn't married and the priest that was going to do it for me, he had him thrown out of the priesthood.
Speaker 3:
Why did he have him thrown out?
Speaker 4:
Oh, because he was going to. There was like four or five or six of us that he was going to do a communal christening.
Speaker 4:
Wow I don't know how he did it, but he did it. So where did you head to? After that? I went down to Boston, massachusetts, and that's where I started on the streets. Now, when I first went there, I started as a dancer and as a waitress at nighttime and I was trying so very hard just to make a way for myself and for my son very hard, just to make a way for myself and for my son. And then, when I saw that it wasn't going to happen, I asked my oldest sister if she would take my son from me, and she did.
Speaker 3:
Did she live in Boston?
Speaker 4:
No, she lived in 37 miles west of Boston and she had a house in Westford.
Speaker 3:
So you gave her your son to raise, and then you're back out on the streets by yourself.
Speaker 4:
Yes, I was.
Speaker 3:
So, mary, you're on the streets in Boston. Was your life all about you know, sex, drugs and doing what you had to do to make a buck?
Speaker 4:
Yes, but did I have any feelings about it? No, none at all. I turned all this totally off. I didn't cry, I didn't feel, I did nothing, nothing at all.
Speaker 3:
Well, you were just trying to survive weren't you?
Speaker 4:
Yes, I was, yes, I was. So, mary, what took you to jail? There was a man that he said he was engaged to me and was going to have me to marry him. And then he turned around he said will you do me a favor? Would you go to bed with this friend of mine? He's going to give me $500 for you to go to bed with him. I took the ring off my finger and threw it at him. He did the thing. I guess he must have read that, because since then I've read that book, iceberg Slim, and he did that. The whole shebang.
Speaker 3:
What do you mean? What is Iceberg Slim?
Speaker 4:
Oh, this Iceberg Slim was a pimp that wrote a book and he did like. He beat me with coat hangers, put me in a cold tub and threatened that he was going to go upstairs because I had a house, a two-story house. At this time I had my son back with me and he said he was going to go upstairs and he was going to kill my son if I didn't do it. And I said, no, let's just go to bed. So then I went to bed with him and he had this little way and he always slept with his .357 Magnum up under his head, and so when he went to sleep, when he started snoring, I took the gun and that's when I blasted. I said goodbye, you killed him. Yes, I did. I called the police and I told them there was a dead man in the bed and that I had killed him because I knew Sergeant Bill Johnson then. And so Bill Johnson. Then I had to call him back because he did not believe me the first time.
Speaker 3:
And that's what took you to prison.
Speaker 4:
Prison, yes.
Speaker 3:
Well, something must have happened. You killed someone and you went to prison.
Speaker 4:
But now you are, and I've known you here on the streets for years. What happened? And then I was back out. I got out, back out and I was out on the streets again.
Speaker 4:
Why did you get out? The judge at the time my judge this is God, stepping in everywhere around me uh, that that I should have got life plus something but he didn't. I got two and a half years If I went to prison and I didn't cause any trouble. I was in the gate that first time and I got introduced to Mace that first time that I went through the gates because my ex-husband called me and called me all kinds of names at the prison and about that. My sister shouldn't have him, that he should have our son and all this stuff, and I'm like, and then I said something and she just blasted me in the eyes with that stuff.
Speaker 3:
So did the mace make you straighten up and behave for a while you couldn't see, you couldn't do nothing.
Speaker 4:
I was trying to fight, but what was I going to hit? I would have hit myself.
Speaker 3:
So you spent two and a half years there.
Speaker 4:
Yes, I did, yes, I did, yes, I did. When I got out, I went and I just flat timed my time and I just because I didn't want any kind of parole, because I knew I was going to do wrong again. So I got out and I started walking in the streets again because that's all I knew to do and getting the money. And then I had the money and this guy came up, drove up and handed me what they call a package of heroin. There was 25 little packages in there. They were like at that time it was quarter packages. Yeah, there was $25 each and there was 100 in a package. And he handed me that and that's how I started getting hooked on heroin, big time, big time hooked, and I had a $500 a day habit. So it kept me right on the corner, right on the corner.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, you had to do tricks so you could pay for your habit.
Speaker 4:
Yes, I did, yes, I did Just to stay not sick, not to be high.
Speaker 3:
So if I would have came up to you and I said, hey, young lady, jesus doesn't want you to do that, he's got a plan for you, what would you have told me?
Speaker 4:
Oh, there's nothing very that I would ever say over a microphone.
Speaker 3:
So you and I wouldn't be going down to the local coffee shop having a conversation about Jesus. I'd probably be leaving, huh.
Speaker 4:
Yes.
Speaker 3:
And look at her and say I can't believe. You just told me that, did you say that? Did you say that? So the million dollar question what?
Speaker 4:
brought you to Jesus. Okay, now I went and I got arrested several times and then, the last time, bill Johnson came and he had to put me. He put me in the back of the car.
Speaker 3:
That was the policeman right.
Speaker 4:
The policeman, the head detective, and he brought me down to the police station and he said now he said I've talked to everybody here. He said and we've decided that you are not the type that needs to go back to prison. You don't need to go back to prison. What we're going to do is give you a one-way ticket somewhere. And they blindfolded me and they put me in one of them chairs, them office chairs, and they had me to shoot a dart. And the dart landed at Gulfport, Mississippi. You're kidding me? No, I'm not.
Speaker 4:
God was so in charge of everything with me, it wasn't even funny Came to Gulfport and I was here I think five or six years before I ever got saved. And then I was staying outside on 28th Street there was a church called the Family Worship Center and I was amazed by everything flowers, grass, whatever, I was amazed bugs, anything, birds, whatever. I was just amazed by those things. And then I was just looking and I said, well, I'd hear those people inside singing and doing all that stuff. I said, well, maybe I'll go in and just check them out and see what's going on there. And that's exactly how it ever started, with me ever being baptized or anything in a church.
Speaker 3:
Now, what year was that?
Speaker 4:
That was probably about 1994, I think.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, because then I would have. I started the Warehouse Church back in 2001, 2002. So when you came in, how did you ever find about me? How did you find out about that Actually?
Speaker 4:
a man that I was talking to out there on the street, trying to get him to stop drinking. He told me about your church.
Speaker 5:
Really.
Speaker 4:
Yes, he did, Little John Frittle, and I brought him because I had a car then and I brought him there.
Speaker 3:
Wow.
Speaker 4:
He showed me where it was.
Speaker 3:
I was doing that on Tuesday nights, so were you regular.
Speaker 4:
No, now I would go and maybe sometimes every week, sometimes every other week, it just depended.
Speaker 3:
And I bring that up because there's something about when we, those people that rejected Jesus for the longest time, and then you begin a relationship with Jesus and you get exposed to a freedom of Jesus, somebody just telling you about Jesus and what he has for us, our plan, the love, the mercy, the forgiveness. It just draws us into Jesus, doesn't it? Yes, it does.
Speaker 4:
Yes, it does. What was it? It's Numbers 2019. It says God is a man that does not lie. That caught my attention. It really caught my attention, wow. And then I don't remember where I read about unconditional love. But I said, okay, I can do this. If you can love me unconditionally, I can love you unconditionally.
Speaker 3:
This is how awesome God is. Now, I didn't know until I talked to you that you ever went to my warehouse church. I didn't know that, and thank you, and I love to hear stories like that. And then the last few years, you and your partner Connie is that your sister?
Speaker 3:
Just your good friend sister in Christ, but I've bought some meals for you to the offices here on Thursday afternoon you would deliver meals and I've got to know you. Just a sweet person, but you never know. All of us have a past, but the good news is Jesus wants to take our messes and turn them into a message. So right now somebody out there listening might be saying, wow, kind of sounds like my story, but I haven't found Jesus and I don't even really want Jesus. What would you tell that person?
Speaker 4:
I would say, yes, you should want Jesus. You should want Jesus because he does love unconditionally. He really loves unconditionally. You can feel him, you can know him personally, you could talk to him personally and he listens to all your prayers, every prayer that you make. He listens to. Jesus loves you and he loves you unconditionally.
Speaker 3:
Oh amen. So what's life like for Mary now? So what's life like for Mary now?
Speaker 4:
Now it's good, I'm going to a Bible-believing church. An on-fire pastor, he's like, the lead pastor he's like, and all the leaders, every one of them, are on fire for Jesus.
Speaker 3:
So I'm a fireball. I tell people all the time I'm on fire for Jesus. I tell people all the time I'm on fire for Jesus. But we can't talk about Jesus the way we do if we didn't actually feel a transformation, a change in our life, something that cannot even be explained to people because you have to experience it, don't you?
Speaker 4:
Yes, you do. You have to experience for yourself. It's like you know, you know that, you know that you know. It's like it's just that I know. Nobody convinced me of any other thing, because I know this.
Speaker 3:
You know that. You know, mary, you have a microphone. There are people listening that are scared. They're worried, they're thinking about drugs, they're thinking about suicide, they're scared about life. Share some hope with those individuals.
Speaker 4:
Yes, there is hope, there is hope. There's hope in Jesus, there is hope in him. He will help you. When they say about reaching down in the miry clay, that was another thing that I used to say all the time. I thanked him for reaching down in the miry clay because I was surely going under. I was going under fast and I was straight on like a well I hate to say it like on a bullet, straight to hell, but that's where I was going. But now, now I don't feel that. Now I know that I know that I'll be going to heaven and I'll spend eternity with him and I will be happy. The best that I could tell you is to love Jesus and to accept Jesus into your life, because he loves you and he will accept you into his life. Amen, in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 3:
I always like to ask people who is Jesus to you, mary?
Speaker 4:
Jesus is my not only Savior. He's like my personal friend, he's my confidant. He's who I can talk to when I can't talk to nobody else.
Speaker 3:
I can talk to him Before we go. I would love for you to pray for the listeners. Will you do that?
Speaker 4:
Yes, father God, in Jesus name, I am asking, father God, that you reach through these airwaves, father God, to whomever is listening, and let them know that you are an unconditional loving God and that you send your Holy Ghost to them and give them a Holy Ghost hug and let them know, father God, that you care and that you want them so much to be happy, father God, and at peace, because there's true peace with you. Father God, in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 3:
When I return? What season of life are you in?
Speaker 1:
You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host. Ron Myers Real stories, real struggles and real hope. Ron Myers Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
Speaker 2:
Today's refreshing word is from John, chapter 15, verse 7. Jesus said If you abide in me and my words abide, in you.
Speaker 5:
You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. The craft, when it came down from the sky, irradiated an intense heat.
Speaker 4:
UFOs. Obviously, something was out there that night.
Speaker 6:
Life on other planets. Did thousands of Phoenix residents see an extraterrestrial craft? Do you believe?
Speaker 5:
The first reports came from the northwest. The Bible is silent on the subject of extraterrestrial craft. Either they don't exist or God considers them so irrelevant to life on Earth he doesn't bother mentioning them.
Speaker 4:
And it moves slowly, not flew away slowly toward Houston.
Speaker 5:
God is not concerned with your belief in UFOs. He cares if you believe in His Son, jesus the Nazarene. They would fly in formation and they would disappear off of NATO radar In eternity. What you decide about UFOs will be irrelevant. What you decide about Jesus will directly affect your destiny forever.
Speaker 4:
There will always be UFOs as long as there's anything in this universe we don't understand.
Speaker 5:
We want to know the truth he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Do you believe? Welcome back listeners. Get the hell out of your life.
Speaker 1:
Get the hell out of your life.
Speaker 3:
Welcome back listeners. Boy Mary had a story, didn't she? But as I said in the beginning, if you ever think you have done too many bad things to be redeemed by God, well, listen to Mary's story. Over and over, friends, we all get a hundred thousand chances with Jesus. Now, what season of life are you in? I wanted to talk about that for a few minutes because our seasons of life, you know, some days we're in a dry season, then we have a prosperous season, then we have a wandering in the desert season. It's just always is something changing in our life. But we have to be aware that even in the dry seasons, in the confusing seasons, there's things that are happening in connections with people that are being made that will have an effect on our future made that will have an effect on our future. You know, when I look in the rear view mirror of my life, especially after talking with Mary and it took me back to the warehouse church I couldn't recognize the hand of God. Now, for some reason, god had me in connection with Mary 20, some years ago, and even as time went on, mary would come by my office and I would buy lunches to help them raise money. For many years. I never knew her story, but at the right time and the right place it was arranged for us to come together and we shared her story.
Speaker 3:
Friends, a lot of things that happen in your life and my life. We don't really know why they are happening and that's why we have to have faith, we have to have trust, we have to believe that God does have a plan. Jeremiah 29, 11, says For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. So God does have a plan. And in the seasons of life sometimes it's our growing season, but I promise you, when you are in a dry season, that Jesus is walking with you. Yes, he will water you, he will give you the things you need to get through the season, because it's a learning season. It is a season that it is going to help you in life. It is going to be a very powerful time in your life because we have to get through those trials and, as Mary said, that miry, mucky mud, and we get through that through faith and belief that God does have a plan and then we later in life can look in the rear view mirror of our lives and recognize that the hand of God was with us the whole time. And so today, I want you to think about this. God is not finished with you. What's that saying? It's never how you start in life, it's how you finish in life. And I want to finish strong, and I know a lot of you want to finish strong. But how do you finish strong? How do you have that strong season?
Speaker 3:
Take inventory of what you know, what you've learned over the years. Friends, you have more answers than you realize. Don't underestimate yourself. You have the answers. You just forgot. You forgot you had the answers.
Speaker 3:
I told someone the other day you have the answers to the problems in your life. You know the answers. You've been around enough and you've read enough and you've studied enough and you've listened enough. You know the answers. You've been around enough and you've read enough and you've studied enough and you've listened enough. You know the answers.
Speaker 3:
The fact isn't that we don't know the answers, friend. Most of us know every answer. But here is the key Will we have the discipline to do it? Will we have the commitment to pursue the very thing that is, in a way, haunting us because we're trying to get an answer. Well, the answer is there, but are we willing to be committed to the walk to discover why we're here, the walk to discover the peace and the joy that God has for each of us? See this world.
Speaker 3:
I don't know if any of you watched the presidential debate. Well, I'll tell you what I prayed a lot since then that Lord, protect this country, watch this country. I don't know who's running it, friends, it's a little worrying some out there, but when things in life cause us to worry, it should also make us come to our knees or to have our conversations with Jesus. Let me tell you, there are some goofy things going on in this world, but there are some absolute fantastic things going on in the kingdom of God. People are being saved, people are being redeemed, people are walking out of drugs, people are walking out of addiction. They had a bad season, but they are now entering a new season.
Speaker 3:
So I want to encourage you, friends. Your season it's not over till it's over, amen. And I want to pray right now. Lord, we ask you to wake that Holy Spirit up in each of us and shout to us our dreams, our hopes, and ignite the passion to let us look through the spiritual eyes and see what we need to see, and through our spiritual ears and hear what we need to hear. And, lord, help us to discipline ourselves, to spend some quiet time with you more, to invest in ourselves and understand what is it we need to do, to grow in the areas that God is calling us. Lord, and let us never forget that you are for us, you are never against us and when we walk with you, we are totally forgiven. We have peace, we have power and we have passion. So, lord, I ask you to touch every single person listening with your power, with your strength, with your love and your grace.
Speaker 1:
You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
Speaker 2:
We would like to express our gratitude to Coffee News for their support of this program. Are you tired of scrolling through the same old news feeds every morning? Then switch things up with Coffee News. Our publication is filled with interesting stories, brain teasers and uplifting quotes that are sure to brighten your day, and now you can access Coffee News anytime, anywhere, by visiting our website. So, whether you're sipping your morning coffee at your favorite cafe or browsing online from your desk, we've got you covered. Start your day off right with Coffee News at readcoffeenewsonlinecom. What's your story?
Speaker 6:
We're looking for stories of hope and overcoming life's struggles with god's grace. Your story validates god's love, mercy, restoration and forgiveness. We want to help you share your story with the world. Visit our website, the promoterorg, and click on the share your story link and submit your story. Your testimony of God's amazing grace will change a person's destiny for eternity.
Speaker 2:
Ron, we'll be back in a moment to wrap up today's conversation. We want to encourage you today with God's promise to you. It comes from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and the future. That's God's promise to you when you choose to commit your plans and future to him. Now back to Ron.
Speaker 3:
Well, listeners, my time is up and I'm so glad you joined me today. Thank you so much. And Mary's story? Well, share that with someone. And if you ever think that, well, god can never use me, re-listen to Mary's story. In fact, if you have a story that you would like to share, go to my website, thepromoterorg, and you can fill out the share my story link. Also on the website, you can listen to previous episodes of Get the Hell Out of your Life real stories, real struggles and real hope. Well, friends, remember this In any season you are going through, god is for you, god is with you and God is working through you. Trust him and you will have a prosperous walk in life Until next week. This is Ron Myers, reminding you that I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, he will give you the key to life.
Speaker 1:
Get the hell out of your life is underwritten by the Christmas City Gift Show. We invite you to come shop with over 255 vendors from all over the United States from November 8th through the 10th inside the Coast Convention Center located on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi. You can find more information at christmascitygiftshowcom. Thanks for listening, and if you would like to share your story of what God has done in your life or listen to previous episodes, please visit our website, thepromoterorg. Join us next week for another episode of Get the Hell Out of your Life Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
