"When you have have hope, you're never really anybody's prisoner." - Tale of Despereaux

She walked in the unfinished room of the church without any expectations at all. She did not anticipate a miracle or even a real friend for that matter. She walked in to pass the time and be with the few girls she still allowed to hold the title of "friends".
It was Mimi who convinced her to walk through the doors and only because Mimi had insisted that they would be able to get away from home for a substantial amount of time without getting into trouble.
So here they were, at some youth group that the very southern, white pastor called with a twang "Chozen." I guess the spelling made it "cool" and the lopsided pool table made it a place to hang out. And thats what they did regularly, Wednesday after Wednesday, they came in with their group of girls, played some pool, ping-pong, listened to the pastor talk about God and walked out the unchanged.
She thought about what the purpose of this place really was, I mean it was in a church for goodness sake. Doesn't that mean its supposed to help you somehow? Or in some mysterious way make your life better? Nonetheless, she knew her life had far exceeded any hope of change, so she settled for this room to serve as a getaway.
It had been a couple months of attending this roughly put together youth group and no one really knew who she was. She was a rape victom, a highschool dropout, a mother of three miscarried babies, a fatherless daughter, a sister to three other hopeless girls and a prisoner to this endless horror story most people referred to as life.
What is it that they devil exists to do? Oh yes, steal - kill - destroy. With her he seemed to have victory; he had stolen her purity, killed her future, destroyed her family, stolen her education, killed her children, stolen her dreams and on and on and on.
She felt like a victom. She had no control of her own life any longer. So, her goal each morning was - survive. That was all. Pass time and survive. That is what this unfinished room of the church had aided her to do for quite some time until one day life changed.
She met this Savior that the Bible-belt talked of so often. She met Him. He really did have a plan outside of this horror story. He desired to restore her and that is what He did.
Over a period of three years, this once forgotten girl became a restored child. She pursued her GED, she moved out on her own, she went to college, she became a leader in this "cool" group called Chozen and instead of watching a horror story unfold, she lived her life on purpose.
What was the switch? What rose up inside of her? What changed?
This prisoner was set free. Why? She acquired hope.