About Deanna

I am blessed to be a daughter of the Most High King and coheir with Christ. I was born in 1973 to a middle-class, two-parent family. My parents have been married for over 50 years. I have one older brother and one younger brother, and I am now very close to my family. However, growing up, I had a tumultuous relationship with my father that left a lot of emotional and spiritual scars in my life. Though I craved love and affection from my father, I rebelled from it on the limited occasions he attempted to show it. I fell victim to believing a lot of incorrect things about myself. I believed I was unworthy of my father’s time, love, and attention, which translated to how I viewed God and men. Additionally, I believed I was stupid and bound to fail in life.

Growing up, I developed the coping skills of conflict and confrontation avoidance. As I grew in my teenage years, I often sought solace in my friends, drinking, and unhealthy relationships with men. Through alcohol, I became all the things I thought I was not – funny, smart, outgoing, and confident.

My use of alcohol and drugs waxed and wanned through my young adult life, but until I was willing to look at the wounds of my past, I would remain susceptible to a desire for escape through mood and mind-altering substances. I was a high-functioning addict and accomplished a lot of normal things, such as graduating from undergraduate and graduate school; however, I’d often self-sabotage my opportunities for success. The alcohol and drugs were just smoke and mirrors and eventually caught up with me in my mid-thirties

By the grace of God, I hit a bottom when I was 36, fell to my knees, and cried out to the Lord for help. For the first time, I received the courage to tell others the truth about my struggles and seek help. I began a beautiful journey of recovery with other women who had found healing in recovery. I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ and committed to God that I was willing to go deep and uncover the wounds of my past. This has been the best decision of my life, and through it, I’ve learned and am still learning the joy of healing and forgiveness. My father and I have worked very hard to reconcile our relationship, and through that, God has given us a deep mutual love for one another.

I find my strength and identity in Jesus Christ and fight daily to believe who He says I am (Psalm 139:14, Ephesians 2:10) rather than the lies that began in my formative years. I love to walk this journey with others and share the amazing hope we have in Jesus Christ.

About Tom

Hello there –
For a little background, I am a successful director in the private sector with 10 years of human resource management and 20 years of operations management experience. I was born in 1971. My parents have been married for over 50 years, and I have a younger sister. I have four incredible adult children and one precious grandchild.

Before meeting Deanna, I had been on my own journey of healing from brokenness. As with most people, my brokenness began in my childhood. I was born into a loving Christian home, but we still experienced dysfunction. We had certain subjects and feelings that we didn’t talk about due to the woundedness of other family members. I was sexually molested by some neighborhood boys when I was about 10 or so, but I didn’t feel I could talk about it. This severely warped my views on relationships and sex. In my seeking to find something to self-soothe and satisfy, I became addicted to pornography at a young age, and that continued on and off through the next 35-plus years of my adulthood. This resulted in my rebellion against God (how could He let this happen?), broken marriage vows, a shattered marriage, and deep woundedness in my relationships. There were other consequences of my sin and the sin perpetrated against me that I would later have to reconcile with.

When I hit my bottom in 2015, I started attending a Christ-centered men’s 12-step recovery program at a church in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. It was there that I discovered that I was not alone in my addictive behaviors and feelings of guilt and shame that kept me in my addictions. The Enemy, Satan, seeks to isolate us to break our relationship with our Heavenly Father. I believe the voice that tells us that we are alone and no one else could ever accept us or understand is one of his biggest lies. The same voice tells us that we cannot trust God (see Genesis 3). Discovering this truth set me on a recovery journey that would lead me back to God and into improved relationships through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Soon, I found myself digging deeper into my woundedness, exposing it to the Light, and allowing God to do what he does best: redeeming us from our past. I then began leading others through service. I believe that we are all works in progress. When you study Romans chapters 7 & 8, you can clearly see that Paul, a guy who was miraculously saved from being a persecutor and murderer of Christians on the Road to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-31), still struggled some 20-plus years after his conversion. In Romans 7, Paul talks about not being able to understand himself as he does in the flesh what he does not want to do. He wants to do what is right but invariably does what is wrong. He goes on to say what a miserable person he is and wonders who will free him from a life dominated by sin and death…then he thanks God for Jesus, the only one who can free us! Chapter 8 begins with no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus and are freed from the power of sin and death. He continues with the hope of future glory and concludes with the thought that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Nothing! What glorious hope!

As for my relationships, I wish I could say that everything is perfect, but God is continuing to work on them. When I look back, it is amazing to see the progress of what He is doing to restore the brokenness both in me and in those who I have wounded. I am a different man than I was and that is only due to God
and my surrendering to Him. It takes work and courage to face the demons of our past and to expose the darkness to light. I am still a work in process, but God continues to heal my woundedness and to restore the brokenness. He is always trustworthy and faithful. God wants to restore you too. Blessings to you in your healing journey.
Tom

Statement of Faith

Our faith is rooted in the belief that the scriptures (Old and New Testament) are the authoritative word of God. Additionally, we believe in one God existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is known as the Trinity. We believe in Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, was crucified, died, and raised to life on the 3 rd day, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will one day return to earth. We believe in born-again salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the practice of immersion baptism and communion. We participate in tithes and offerings to our church. We believe in the
biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman.