Valerie

My name is Valerie Figueroa. I have a very loving mom who worked more than one job to support me. My grandparents helped raise me until the age of thirteen when mom married my step-father. My step dad changed things because we were able to live in a nice neighborhood, I went to a good school and life was good. I started getting good grades and was happy. My dad tried to correct me for my own good but I started to rebel. I was fifteen and had found the wrong kind of friends to hang around. My life began to spiral downward as more opportunities came up for me to get drugs. With my allowance I bought drugs right behind my parents back. They tried to straighten me out but I moved out and in with my grandparents. My life remained in rebellion doing my own thing. I couldn’t get money anymore so my new friends said they did prostitution to earn money. I decided I could do that to get my drug money so started my life as a prostitute. My drug habit became so severe that I couldn’t even get up to go outside and stand on the corner. I had lost my parents and I was losing my life. I started praying to God and asked Him to help me and He did. I had contacted something and at the doctors office I saw an article in a magazine about Teen Challenge but knew nothing about it. God was starting to work though. One night a cop asked me if I would like to get some help. I told him yes. That cop literally saved my life. I was taken here at Teen Challenge and within two weeks Jesus was my Savior.
My family and I are restored. Everyday I am drawn closer to Jesus, closer to the life I was meant to live. Its only been five months and I have a long way to go but He reveals something new to me daily. Lately I am convinced that He wants to use me in a street ministry to prostitutes.