A Samaritans Village Story
Samaritan's Village is one of our partnerships as a church. Through March 7th we are collecting items to restock their Safe House. You can bring any of the items needed to our Sunday service to see more women like Tiffany served through this partner in our city.
Find the list of items here: https://www.samaritanvillage.net/donateinkindgoods
Tiffany* experienced chaos and trauma in her life from an early age. Her mother was engaged in illegal activities and in a relationship with a convicted sex offender. At just seven years old, Tiffany was taken from her mother and placed in the foster care system where she bounced from home to home.
When a man entered Tiffany’s life at age 18 and out of foster care, she was desperate to earn and keep his love. However, he already had a plan for her future. It started with dancing for money to “make ends meet.” Then he convinced her to occasionally sell her body. For her, it was about loyalty and keeping his love, but by the time she was 20, it was her daily existence.
“Everything I did, I thought I was doing to better my relationship. I wanted to have that forever. And if [the sex trade] was what was going to get me that [love] forever, I was going to do it.”
Over the next decade, Tiffany found herself at times forced to perform sexual acts on video camera and other times stuck in a hotel room required to have intercourse with various men who paid her trafficker. After years of being exploited Tiffany suffered from feelings of hopelessness and self-doubt that kept her trapped in the cycle of abuse and addiction.
“I simultaneously felt like I could do better and that I was the worst woman on earth,” she explained. “I was beat up several times by different men [sex buyers], and I believed I was better off dead. I felt like my life had little value and that I was defective and dirty.”
With no employable skills, no credit, a criminal record a mile long, and zero self-worth, Tiffany felt desperate and trapped. When she was arrested for drug possession and booked at the Orange County Jail she was both humiliated and relieved to have a break from her trafficker. For the first time in ten years Tiffany could sleep through the night without fear of her trafficker even while she was serving time in jail! When her case worker at the jail suggested she meet with a representative from Samaritan Village, Tiffany wasn’t sure if it would help her future. How could anyone or any program help her after all that had been done to her? How could any program lead her to hope and freedom?
Tiffany agreed to meet with a Samaritan Village representative and learned about the program. When she heard there were other women in the safe house with similar experiences to hers she decided she wanted to move in.
“There were a lot of people (volunteers, mentors, staff) at the safe house that I feel like God worked through them, and gave me strength. I have a lot of difficult memories—but to not be alone in this is what gives you the hope and the strength to keep going.”
Tiffany entered the safe house program and got plugged in to group counseling, individual therapy, educational classes, and vocational training. She completed the program and today is sober and living independently in the community. She has her GED, is employed full time, and working slowly towards reconciliation with her kids. She has decided to give back to Samaritan Village as a volunteer mentor to other survivors who are now in the program as she once was.