Meet our newest team member: Lori Taylor
My name is Lori Taylor and I’m 33 years young. By 18 I was a pothead, alcoholic and ‘X’ addict. By 28 I traded all that for methamphetamines. I spent most of my life conforming to the world, living in wickedness, and I was very indecisive in my faith.
“Is God real?” “Is the Bible just a fairytale?” “If God is real, why does he hate me?” Those are just a few thoughts that would run through my mind on an almost daily basis. I had absolutely no Biblical knowledge and I didn’t care to. I was so deep into my own selfish ambitions. I had let sin take everything from me: my kids, my home and my dignity. Finally, I broke. Turning to God, I threw up my hands and begged for his help. That same day in August of 2018 my mother-in-law brought the House of Mercy to our attention. My boyfriend, Chris Taylor, and I packed what little we had and came straight to Olney.
For the first time in my life I had felt love like I never had before. The staff and residents were so understanding and caring, and I was such a broken and miserable person. How could they be so loving toward a stranger? And why? The more I studied the Bible, the more I realized it was God. God gave them their loving spirit and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to be able to trust God with everything in my life just as they did.
October 14th, 2018 Preston Crow, the program director, married Chris and I. Life seemed to be going so well but somewhere along the line we had placed God on the backburner and started living selfishly again. In July of 2019 we left, 10 months into the program and we didn’t go to God for guidance in the matter at all. During the next five months we let sin run our lives yet again. We ended up homeless, broken, filled with shame and back at the House of Mercy. This time though, we promised each other we wouldn’t lose sight of what was most important--God.
I started by saturating my mind with God’s word, learning the truth and in exchange He gave me new desires and new ambitions for my life. We both found a wonderful church family at Southside Baptist and at HOPE Ministries, and we’ve since then graduated the Christian Human Development Program. God has blessed us both with amazing jobs and a wonderful family. We went from being dead in our sin to living a spiritual life filled with faith, hope and love.
I used to think of addiction as just another disease but now I recognize that disease as sin. Sin which Christ paid for on the cross and it no longer needs to rule my life. By turning to Christ as the treatment, my faith is restored, my soul is healed, and my spirit is alive.
The House of Mercy saved us, not just once, but twice. Thanks be to God.
“The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all.”
~Psalm 34:17-19~