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Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County Takes Families -- Cara Speicher Part 2 · Welcome Home. Here, Us, Now.

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome home, Hear Us Now, a podcast of the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, a space for all of us seeking what's real and sacred in a world that rushes past the soul.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Eric Engelman, a volunteer at UGMTC, and your co-host, President and CEO of UGMTC, Charles Wolford.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: This is Eric Engelman, and I'm alone editing recordings.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: We heard from Kara Spiker of UGMTC Families program last week.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: We had enough material to make another episode, so we're going to pick up the conversation shortly before we left off.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Charles, um I myself have had quite a journey throughout my life, quite a testimony.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I've had to um go through a lot of hard seasons and I've overcome a lot of hard life experiences, devastation, despair, loss, failures.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um many years in my life.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was walking in deception because I had no investments throughout my entire first part of life.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I had tried numerous times over the years to try to crawl out of those places where um I lacked coping skills, I lacked direction, and I lacked so many things, but God had a hold of me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sit just sitting here today, my family would testify to you that I'm a miracle.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: God called me out of my family.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Many of my family members are still struggling, but God touched me and called me out of some very deep dark places.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so um how he did that is he brought me through when I was ready and realized that you know I couldn't do things on my own.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Several um experiences with prison, addiction, wow, um, failed marriages, losing my children to CPS.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just you know, a lot of failures, you know.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And but I came to the end of myself January 19th, 2014.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so at that point, um a major transformation started to occur.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so um when I came to that place, um, the last I got out of prison December 12, 2014.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, I um reached out to my community and got involved.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I live in Parker County, so got involved with um the Parker County Center of Hope.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um God sent me a just an army of saints that began investing in my life, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was through that consistent investment.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Every corner I turned, mind you, I was coming out of years of trauma, crisis, disappointment, and just dysfunction and failure.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just can't express that.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's barely summing up the actual experience I had.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: But it was through God and His saints that just kept ministering to me at every place I turned.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I started getting involved with the programs at this community agency.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I became a volunteer.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um just, you know, through the course of a few years, I had experienced a healing that just transformed the entire rest of my life, as well as, you know, the trajectory of the direction that I was headed.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I um was able through that support to learn that my identity was not on what my choices and my experiences were and everything that I had failed at.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so it just drew me out of that place I could never get out of myself.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so at that point, my my journey with Christ really took on a whole new meaning.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And everything I could not do, Christ did for me.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he just um, you know, my relationship with the Lord has not only impacted my life, but God is a restorer.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know I know by my own life I'm walking now, how he has changed the the generations of of dysfunction throughout my household and my my children have all been restored to me.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, praise Jesus.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir, and I'm raising my helping raise my grandson, and so it's been a journey, but I understand the power of redemption and transformation.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's my world.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's my well find that button, and we need an applause for that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man, praise Jesus.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: But there is a Holy Ghost shout up in heaven for your testimony.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: I I just want to pause in a minute, just say, uh, Father, we thank you for Kara Spiker and the journey that you've led her on, but you led her in the Union Gospel mission.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: And God, we thank you that you healed her, restored her, and redeemed her.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_04: In the name of Jesus, I pray.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: You don't look like what you've been through.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_04: There's a there's a catchphrase in the community.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_04: It says, You don't look like what you've been through.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: And that is an expression that clearly epitomizes uh the journey that God has had you on.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: And uh when we applaud you and we thank you, and I just want to spend a more a little bit more time there, if we could.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: I know that um we probably will have an opportunity to extend some of our conversations here, but uh how do you speak to uh one of our listeners who, if we were to go back and talk through you know, the places and spaces that God has walked you through?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um we unpack some stories of addiction and um you share that God has brought you through that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: And but I you you you also mentioned the uh the these the journey of uh of your your kiddos not being with you as well and CPS being involved.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh can we just talk a little bit about how what what that experience because you see that maybe day in and day out of our neighbors, so many families or an unaccompanied woman we call them here at Union Gospel Mission.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_04: So as you Kara, Eric, sirs on the women's in the in the family side, but there's so many women who come to us at Union Gospel Mission, and they too have a season where they are separated from their children and child protective services may be involved or they may be another with another family or relative.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: Let's park there and just stay in that moment for a while, if you don't mind, and just kind of give it give that an expression and a and a narrative in that space, if you don't mind.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, because I believe that God has called me to UGM, yeah, you know, I I embrace opportunities to instill hope in those those women that are you can just I I understand the experience that they're having, and so to be able to just breathe life into them and share a little bit of my testimony, yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Many of them are very shocked that I'm where I'm at now and where I came from.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so do I would imagine that some of them see themselves in you, at least they could probably start seeing, you know, yes.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if Kara can do it, I can't right.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I can relate to making poor choices, I can remake relate to um making poor choices over and over again because I couldn't see, you know, I couldn't see the way out.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, being able to share our program and our faith, you know, with them.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um instill that, you know, there's always more.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: God is always working things together for our good, you know, if we just allow him into our lives and we get to know him.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and that, you know, um, we don't have to have it all figured out, you know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: So so let's talk about addiction.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, through my own experience, I um had no guidance growing up.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lack of investments.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I say that a lot because it's very important.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: I hear I heard you use that the first time.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: So you said you had a lack of investment.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: So that means your family dynamic was not investing in you.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a divorced home.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there's many pathways to addiction, but for me, yeah, my my recollection of things is I lived in a um uh a dysfunctional home.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I my my parents were divorced, my mother had been married five times.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So from early on, I kind of grew up with a wall-up against, you know, the father figures and different things.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I raised myself basically.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_04: From what age?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: What would you say that age was when you started?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So about 13 or 14 years of age, I started veering from, you know, the family um life and started just um hanging out with the wrong crowd, looking for something to fill the void with in me because I was lonely and I that was my journey that I began to isolate and filling those things with worldly things.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I had mastered the art of survival at a very young age, and it started um started dictating the the trajectory of my life.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I began juvenile halls, you know, and just I was filling my life with the wrong things and going that direction.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: So would did that that lead to criminogenic behavior?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: You started.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: What was that?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, were you were you were you you know stealing cars, robbing banks?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: What what was going on there?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_04: Did I I know this is not confessions, but we know we know confessions is good for the bigger.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: No, okay.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't I don't want to minimize nor do I want to very difficult journey.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've lived about ten lifetimes.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So at at an early age I got um involved with an older man who was manufacturing methamphetamine.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, okay and so I began using meth at a very early age.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, with that lifestyle, you know, you you you do um develop criminal activity to support your habit.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: So is that a part of the word of addiction?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Is that it it leads to those type of decision or poor decision-making skills?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: Is that what s typically we see in addiction?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is is definitely part of that addiction dynamic for sure.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, um I had mastered the art of survival, and so that just carried with me until my early nineteen, twenty years of age season.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I became a mother, I was not equipped with the skills to to raise children or even be in a healthy relationship.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: My marriage had failed six years in, but for five or six years I tried to, you know, be the best mother I could be, and and it just I wasn't equipped at that time.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I I did not understand how to live in society, be a productive member of society, handle the stress of raising children, the responsibility of relationships, yeah, so many things, you know.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, wow, you know, um and I didn't have a church family.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, so let's talk about that journey too, then.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: So, how did you meet Jesus?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I met Jesus on my journey through all of this, these hard life experiences.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I know now that he was right there with me.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here today.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in the in the jail systems, you know, every time I went to prison, the Lord had my full attention and all the wonderful saints that come in and minister in prison ministry and different things like that.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord just began doing a work on me.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was very blind and couldn't understand for many years, but I look back now and see how how his love just carried me through, and then here today I wouldn't trade any of it, Charles.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I have a heart for prison ministry now because of all of the investments I received, and so that's part of my story as well.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's how God uses me today.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: So you you're you have part of your journey is you're doing some prison ministry as well.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Where do you go for that?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um I uh work with a Bridges to Life Restorative Justice program uh in you shout out to Bridges for life, Bridges to Life.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: Shout out to that ministry, God bless you.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I work with women.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I work one week in a month with women in a transitional home in Parker County.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: They they come straight from prison to this like year to 18 month program.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so um that's another area that God uses me to you know just to empower women and do their journey with them.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_04: You are a walking you are a walking gift to us all.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you so much for what you do.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um I am um uh thankful to God that He is using you in a mighty way to change and transform the lives of so many who knows the the legacy that's being left behind in in in the story that you're sharing.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_04: So you mentioned a period in the season where you were separated from family, but you said you're you're there's reconciliation.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: Let's talk about reconciliation and how that ha happened and and how that's going now.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, at some point when I recognized that um I needed to grow both personally, spiritually, and all of those things, and when I had lost everything, including my children, and basically my identity that I worked so hard to build, and I knew I had to make some changes.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I didn't have my children, it was very painful.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um how long was that period that you were your children were away with you from you?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Probably um probably eight years.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, eight years or so.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had lost them to CPS.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: Oh wow.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: Did they go into the foot they went into foster care?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: They foster care and then they got adopted out.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, and then I had my oldest son that was with family.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just decided to look up and receive a better way, and that's that's how the transformation began.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't look back.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I might have a reflection on my life, but I didn't look back.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just hit the ground running, and I just was like a sponge, Charles.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was volunteering and going to every self-help group, every, you know, every every avenue the Lord led me just to grow.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I needed to do some growing, and and that's how my journey began for my new life and my new identity.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know how to forgive myself.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord taught me how to do that and move on.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: What is it um in Corinthians 7th chapter 14?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: Behold, the old is gone and the new has come.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um Kara, we we want to maybe just uh uh talk through as we close out our time together is to give you an opportunity just to uh uh uh share with someone who uh uh may be a part of a family or maybe aware of a family that's uh in a very dark place.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_04: I heard you use those words that was a dark place that you were in and family, and it sounds like the family of six that you shared may have found themselves in a dark place.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_04: What would you say to one, a family that's in a dark place, but second, to a member who knows of a family that's in a dark place, what can they do and say to encourage them to seek services or to get some help?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: What would you say as we share and transition and close out our time together?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: I want you to speak to that person and to that family.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: First and foremost is that sometimes it's real hard for not only families but even individuals to accept support and um they feel like they have to have all the answers and rectify their own situations and have the answers, and when they fail at that, it's very difficult to accept that and accept help.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: My encouragement is to be willing to accept the support that surrounds you, um, and and be willing to get out of your comfort zone and be open-minded to um to those that are sowing seeds of hope.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and, you know, we don't have all the answers in this life, but God does.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that, you know, there is always hope and there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement would be to, you know, just um reach out and and and and allow people to be your support systems to help you through that journey because we weren't created to do it alone, you know, and I grew up my entire life isolated and thinking I had to fix it, everything, I had to be my own savior.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: But when I recognized that God was my savior, that just let everything, all the problems, all the just kind of decrease, and then the hope increased.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, there are people out there that love you.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, God loves you, I love you, I don't know you, but you know, I'm always open to be willing to do things that even are uncomfortable for me to help somebody else because it's by the word that lives are transformed and hope happens.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, we would love to be a small part of your journey, you know.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have a scripture, Charles, I'd like to share.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I have this very special scripture that I've held on to, I've used it many times, I've shared it many times, and it's Micah 7.8.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't gloat over me, my enemy.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Although I have fallen, I will rise.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And even though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you for sharing that.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's rich.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: That is rich.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: Do you say that every day?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: I say it a lot and I share it a lot because in ministry, the different places I find myself, there's people that that really uplifts and encourages.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I know it it was a light for me for a long time because I felt so worthless.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like such a failure.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like, you know, there was no good plans for me.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that was a light for me for a long time.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I had to really get that internalized to be able to think, you know, you know, maybe there is something for me.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: God does love me, and I do have a new identity.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not what was, I'm what I'm becoming.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it sounds to me like you're kind of increasing your awareness every day a little bit with that that same scripture, don't gloat over me, my enemy.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I still struggle, I still have seasons, you know, I have valleys, I have mountaintops, you know, but I just keep getting up and showing up every day, and and you know, um, I just keep letting the Lord lead my life.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: And God is your friend.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's good.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um I'm gonna pray.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: Father in heaven in Jesus' name, your kingdom come, your will be done.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you, God, for Kara Spiker.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the family ministry.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Lord, for your life and your restoring people for helping us, letting us look up and repeat your promises, knowing that you're faithful and that you do make a change in Jesus' name.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_04: Amen.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Amen.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Carol.