“Cathy Sweat is a gifted and wise counselor with a servant’s heart, and we’ve been blessed to have her minister on a regular basis at Grace Chapel. God has blessed her with amazing insight into the deep emotional and spiritual needs of those who are addicted. The women who come to Bethesda Recovery find more than a structured program they find a home, a family, and the power of God to restore the human heart and spirit.”
Pastor Roger Sumner
Grace Chapel, Waycross, Ga.
Voices of Bethesda
“We are women whose hearts have been broken, who have been imprisoned by darkness, who have failed and struggled so hard to get back up. Why? There was a purpose for each one of us, reasons that God can explain. Our lives were the most horrid and terrified that lives that could ever be lived, but yet we survived. Why? God is the answer. We have been set free from the captive spirits that have haunted our lives, our hearts have been mended and our failures have become successes all because God had a purpose for our lives. He set us free and anointed us to bring good news to the poor, the broken hearted, to release darkness for the prisoners and to set others free from their captivity. We have suffered, but we stand firm on God’s true word. Live for God and there is nothing that can hold you in bondage for you will have everlasting joy and your souls will rejoice in God for He loves you and loves justice, for He has clothed us with garments of salvation.”
Sherry
“I, like many others at Bethesda, lived in a state of chaos and fear. For myself in particular my family went to church because it looked good. The Ten Commandments were something I was taught to memorize along with the books of the Bible in Sunday school. All I remember of time spent in the sanctuary is that I had to sit very still and the words God is Love from the pulpit. I do not remember my parents or grandparents living by the ten commandments. In fact I can remember that at a very early age thinking that they in general did not live by the ten commandments. I had no mentors, no role models, and from what I could see through my child like eyes God was not love. I remember Charles Manson, the threat of nuclear war from Russia, starving children…and then there was my family who really didn’t seem to know how to love.
I came from three generations of alcoholism; physical, emotional and sexual abuse; manic depression and became the very person I loathed the most. The teacher, casual friend and church members I looked like the average person with a good job, a nice house, not rich but not poor and well educated.
I figured out not too long ago that had used drugs and alcohol for 7,300 days of my life. I had forgotten the only thing about God that I had learned as a child, that God is love. I had not forgotten God though. In fact I had tried to bargain and plead with Him for years. I had begged him to just let me die to end the torture that I was going through that was the result of twenty years of drug and alcohol abuse.
I longed as I always had for the misery and the torture to end, to find a way of escape. I thought that peace would come only through death and I cried out to God to let me die. I thank God today and every day that I wake up by His grace that He did not let me die in my sin.
One day when I had thrown away and walked out on everything I had, my family, my daughter, home job and friends; as I cried out one more time to be delivered from this hell on earth, He did that very thing. One chance phone call, five days and four hundred miles later He delivered me to Bethesda House of Mercy. Bethesda is a place where lost souls are given an opportunity to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have seen grace and mercy, forgiveness and love, I have received these into my heart through the blood of Jesus Christ. I have learned that there is peace in the midst of the storm and most of all that the love of God constrains me. Now I can be a role model to my daughter, a daughter to my mother and father, and a friend. I am becoming and I have joy to share with others. Thank you God for loving me-”
Michelle
“Remember that saying “I am in search of myself, have you seen me anywhere?” Years ago, I am now 42, I used to joke and say that a lot but it really wasn’t very funny and I would often wonder what it really meant. Ever since before first grade until now I have moved an average of at least two times a year, sometimes more. My entire life was one bad scene after another. Constant confusion, never being a part of anything or anybody and never knowing what was going to happen next was everyday life. I can honestly say now that the best part of my life was when I was put in a Christian Children’s home in south Carolina at fourteen. The plan was to tuck us, my two brothers, little sister and myself, away for a few months till my mother could get rid of him-my very abusive, physically and sexually, alcoholic in and out of prison step father and then reunite us. My siblings went home after a couple of months but I stayed four years. Finally I was a person, not the maid or a punching bag. I had clothes to wear, my teeth were fixed, I went to church regularly and I got baptized. That was the seed planted.
In my adult life I have made a lot of bad choices but because God started His plan for me long ago and because He had always been there loving me I made, with His help, the best choice ever-to go to Bethesda House of Mercy.
God’s grace and mercy have saved me in many ways. I now see a peaceful, happy and bright future where there used to be only despair and alcohol. Here at Bethesda House I am learning God’s truths and I am no longer in search of myself-I have found me in my Father’s loving arms. I am so thankful for this precious place and a new beginning.”
Claudia
“For a long time I had feared making the changes in my life that in my heart I knew had to happen. That fear of change caused me to turn away from the Lord. One day, not long after arriving at Bethesda, I read Hebrews 13:5, “So fear not! When you belong to the Lord you have His promise, and I will never leave you or forsake you.” Along with the guidance I receive at Bethesda and from the Bible I no longer have these fears. Thank you Bethesda, thank you Jesus!”
Judy
“Before I came to Bethesda I was on every drug there was, especially heroin and narcotics. My life was going nowhere and I did not have a hope or a future. I was raised in a good Christian environment and I always knew there was more to life, I just made the wrong choices until I came to Bethesda. I know now what I have been looking for the last twenty five years. I have learned since being at Bethesda to hide the word of God in my heart and that God is the only way to have a happy and good life. Thank you God, my parents and Bethesa House of Mercy.”
Angela
“I have learned so many things since I came to Bethesda and I am maturing and learning about Christ. When I first came here I really did not know anything. I had not been exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ. I knew practically nothing about the Bible. I am now learning about the Old Testament. I also did not know that I had a “spirit man.” I did not know that God loved me unconditionally. I did not know that I could talk to God and that through praying and reading spiritual material that He will speak to me if I will listen. The things that I am learning are things that I never knew and now I can keep them with me the rest of my life. Of course it is sometimes a struggle to stay but I know that God brought me here and that He will keep me here.
I never thought that I would be able to get into school and learn but I am doing that as well. I will be ready when I leave to have the kind of life that God intended me to have. Without Bethesda, and more importantly without God, I would not still be here. I thank God for bringing me here and giving me to strength to hold steady.”
Rosie