Happy Easter from Dream Makers!
Nothing disqualifies you from the love of God.
You may think that you're too broken or that the choices you've made make you unworthy, but Jesus came for everyone, especially the broken and hurting. This is the good news of Easter!
In this newsletter, one of our staff members (a former foster youth) shares about how Jesus met her in her pain and suffering. Read her story below.
Easter Reflections from
a Former Foster Youth
I never expected to live past 16 due to the daily abuse in my home. I felt broken, hopeless, and alone — until I realized I wasn't.
In 7th grade, a friend of mine invited me over to her house with one condition from her mom – we had to go to youth group at her church first. I didn’t believe in God, nor was I open to the idea of Him. I thought that even if He was real, then He must not love me, since I was given a life of horror. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with Him or His people.
I was guarded, but my friend promised we could wait in the church until her mom left, then hang out at McDonald's with some cute guys. I agreed to go.
We entered a large warehouse where a bunch of teenagers were playing video games and skateboarding while a band played music. The environment itself didn’t seem very “church-like” to me – but I still wasn’t interested in staying.
It was in an ordinary moment soon after we walked in that I fell to my knees and started sobbing uncontrollably. As my friend bent down to ask me what was happening, all I could mutter between sobs was, “I feel love. I feel love. I feel like something is hugging me and it feels like love.”
There was nobody physically hugging me. There was nobody who told me how to encounter Jesus. I had no context or explanation for what was happening. He met me in my emptiness and filled me with His love. Love, something I had never felt before, became real to me that day. And I knew I had to stay that night and learn about who He was.
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I was forever changed that day. Coming to know Jesus gave me the faith and hope to carry on, despite the pain I was still living in at home, and led to my eventual escape when I was placed into the foster care system in high school.
Jesus met me in my darkness and surrounded me with a loving community who raised me while I was in foster care, providing people that taught me how to drive, cook, get my license, take me out to eat, show up at my graduations, and so much more. They became the family I aways needed and the love of God through these people He provided truly brought me back to life.
This Easter, my prayer is that all who are searching for hope would come to know the One who IS hope. He is alive, He has defeated the grave, and He has done it all for you and for me. You were created with intention and purpose. Your pain will not be wasted. You are loved with an everlasting love and I pray that today, as you read this, that truth would become a reality to you!
Annika Marek-Barta
Content Director
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