Generational Change | Step Into the Story
Shamika’s Story I hit rock bottom in 2019. Just four years earlier, my mom passed away. Then, in 2019, the woman who raised me, my precious grandmother, went to be with the Lord. I felt lost. Then, the man I loved and built a life with for more than a decade betrayed me. Throughout our […]
Shamika’s Story
I hit rock bottom in 2019. Just four years earlier, my mom passed away. Then, in 2019, the woman who raised me, my precious grandmother, went to be with the Lord. I felt lost. Then, the man I loved and built a life with for more than a decade betrayed me. Throughout our relationship, I raised his daughter and loved her as my own. When he left, I was separated from her. I lost someone else. If that wasn’t enough, he gathered people together against me, telling lies that would send me to prison.
I was devastated. My reputation was being destroyed. And I had lost everything. God was the last thing on my mind.
Yet, I clearly remember a moment late at night that I told myself I needed to seek God. I don’t even know where it came from. The next day happened to be Sunday. Even though I was scheduled for work at 1 PM, I found myself walking to a church I had never been to. Somehow, I ended up in Pastor Lord’s church. Every word he said felt like he knew exactly what I was going through. I knew that was exactly where I belonged.
As I continued to navigate grief and loss, I found myself begging God for a child. I still remember the prayer I said. After all the loss, I begged God for a love that nothing on earth, no man, could ever take away from me.
In 2020, I found out I was pregnant, and I thought I won. But the next nine months were lonely, difficult, and high risk. At one of my appointments, the doctors couldn’t find a heartbeat. I knew that this baby was an answered prayer, but did I believe enough? How could I believe when the doctor tells me the opposite?
Later that year, I gave birth to my son, the love and light of my life.
In 2022, I was invited to the Transformed Women’s Conference where I met Amy and the 28:19 Ministries team. In only a few days, I learned more about Jesus than I thought possible. For the past several years, I had believed in God, but this week left me with a decision to make about which road I wanted my life to take. I told myself, “Don’t forget who saved you when you needed it most.”
From that moment, I decided I want to be a woman of God. I want to let God transform me and my family. I want to dedicate my son to God and raise him to know the God that brought me through the deepest pits of grief and rejection. I want to break cycles that have ruled my family for generations, so my son can have better.
When the 28:19 Ministries team returned the following year, they hosted a Night of Worship right by my house. The speaker for the night was Pastor Lord, the same pastor whose church I wandered into four years earlier! At this point, I had moved more than two hours away in a rural village. How could he be here? How did 28:19 Ministries know him? Nothing made sense, but I knew God was up to something only He could do.
After that night, 28:19 Ministries and Pastor Lord started a church right by my house called “The Gathering”. In this little community, I have found a family I could have never expected. I have people I can count on, learn from, and grow with. My life is nothing like it was six years ago.
God brought me through the most impossible storm and transformed me into a new woman.
The story isn’t finished yet. When you become a Legacy Partner, you step into what God is already doing through 28:19 Ministries—sharing His love, strengthening communities, and changing lives for eternity.