By Nicole Cotter
Emma
Emma stood in the Village South auditorium for the first time six months ago. It was the first church service she had been to since she was a child. She stood, crying as she listened to the songs. When worship ended, Pastor Mark started telling the story of Jesus being tempted on the mountain, something Emma could relate to. As she left that day, Emma looked around and realized she felt comfortable and welcome, things she never thought she would feel at church. “I wanted to keep coming, but I told myself I wasn’t going to give my life to God or anything. That only took three weeks,” she says.
Emma was homeschooled until grade 7. When she started at public school she had a hard time transitioning into a classroom. She was lost. She looked for love anywhere she could find it.
In high school, she got punched and spat on in the hallways, stuffed into garbage cans, and locked in lockers. Emma started partying and hanging out with other people who did too. She was 16.
She was introduced to alcohol and drugs and ended up in an abusive relationship that lasted two years. She was left questioning her own worth and unable to trust other people.
When she was 19, Emma was introduced to painkillers. As soon as she took OxyContin she was addicted. And when the cost of the pills became too much, someone convinced her to use a cheaper drug, heroin.
She was so physically dependent that she would do anything to get money to pay for drugs. She stole from her parents, and she robbed houses with other people. “I was doing all these things that just aren’t like me at all. I was just doing it for my addiction because I would be sick otherwise,” she says. “I was what you’d call a ‘closet junkie’.” She stayed in her room all day, every day, trying to fade away from her life.
In November 2014, Emma was teeter-tottering on the edge of suicide. “I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I was scared to tell my parents about my addiction because I was so deep into it,” she says.
But, this voice just whispered to me, ‘you need to tell your parents, they will stick with you, they will not leave you’.
She had no money and she was sick from withdrawal, so Emma confessed to her mom.
“I was crying and I just said, mom I’m addicted to heroin, and she looked at me in utter shock. She sat me down, started rubbing my back, and told me they would help me through this.”
When she had been clean for two months, her mom came across Village Church on the Internet and asked Emma if she would try it out with her. Initially, Emma was against it. “I was like, no, mom. I really don’t feel like getting into God right now.”
But her mom just said, “Please, just come with me once and I don’t care if you don’t want to go again. Just come with me.”
So Emma said, “Fine.”
Two months later, Emma was one of 47 people baptized at the White Rock pier on June 28, 2015. Emma’s godparents came to watch her get baptized and told her they had been praying for her for the last 23 years.
Emma has been clean for about eight months now.
“Sometimes I still get depressed and lonely, but if I reach out to God again, I remember what my purpose is, and I remember that he loves me unconditionally,” she says.
Emma says she’s also met so many supportive people. “My community group is so good at keeping me accountable. And if I say I’m not coming to group because I’m depressed, they come and grab me because they know that I need them.”
“I used to wake up with one goal: to get drugs. Now I wake up every day with a real purpose and hope,” she says. “I really want to reach out and help other women who have gone through the same stuff as me. I want to help other girls realize their worth.”
She says, “This is just me in the beginning of my journey, but I believe that God has a plan for me–a plan to use my story.”