Blessed and A Blessing: Chelsea Bowden

I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My mother put me on the church bus every Wednesday evening, and made a way so I would be in Sunday School come Sunday morning. I had negative influences in my life, but my mother always showed me to the best of her ability how I should act and conduct myself. My father was abusive to both my mother and me. I remember praying a lot as a child but with years of abuse and no changes, God seemed to be something like a fairy tale to me.

I found myself very angry as well as rebellious at a young age. I looked for love and acceptance from the wrong people, which landed me into the legal system at the age of 13. At the age of 15 I was given a sentence of 8 years in the Texas Youth Commission. While incarcerated I felt like God was putting me some place where he could silence the chaos in my life. I got released on January 15, 2006. Long story short, I was still lost and searching for me and any sort of identity. Meth made me feel normal, so I thought, until I received a parole violation for having Meth in my system. So, I went to jail and once again God was trying to show me, he was real. I got sick and was hospitalized and flat lined three times and was in a coma for months before I woke up. I was still angry. I didn’t understand at the time God’s reasons. I now was living with an ostomy. This is still an obstacle for me today. I got diagnosed with Chron’s Disease in 2015. I began self-medicating with meth. It made the pain go away, but it is from the devil. It took me 5 years and losing everything and everyone I loved, including myself, to see the evil and destruction of my addiction. I came to the House of Mercy and at the time I thought life was over. After four weeks of being here I now see it’s just the beginning. Romans 8:28 tells me “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Today my life has meaning. Today I have a mission. My mission is to help other mothers afflicted with drug addiction and chronic illness find freedom, restoration, and get their Faith back through my testimony.

Chelsea Renee Bowden is a level 1 resident at the House of Mercy. Her life before the House of Mercy she describes as being lost and trying to please everyone but herself. What she likes the most about the House of Mercy is that they have shown her compassion and are teaching her to be independent, living her life by what makes her happy, not what makes everyone else happy. She has two children, a son – 11 years old, and a daughter – seven years old.