How addiction and despair led Tania to her heavenly Father

Tania grew up without knowing her biological father. At 16, she became pregnant and married the father of her child. Their marriage was one of control, jealousy, and violence.

She spiraled into addiction—first alcohol, then cocaine. She recalls, “Alcohol didn’t do anything to me anymore.”

Hitting rock bottom

Overcome by addiction with her marriage in ruins, Tania hit rock bottom in her mid-20s. Fed up, she accepted her cousin’s invitation to church.

Last spring, Tania arrived at church in her village of San Fransisco Magú, Mexico, hungover. She felt much like the Samaritan woman must have felt: ashamed and guilty. She walked in convinced that even if God was real, He would judge her. Instead, she found the healing power of a heavenly Father who loved her deeply.

Reaching other women

Soon, she joined a Bible League Bible study. As she grew in her understanding of God’s Word, it healed the wounds she’d carried for so long. She says,

“Thanks to the Bible study, I understood who I am in Christ. God transformed me and made me His daughter. It built my faith on solid ground.”

She looked like a little girl on Christmas morning as she received her Bible. Tania recently completed the second part of the Bible study. She sees herself in the woman Jesus forgave and restored.

Now she wants other struggling women like her—women like Jacqueline (read her story in the latest issue of Mission Matters )—to know they can experience God’s healing, too.