08/08/2026
MY STORY - 🔥 Hopeless to HOPE 🔥
My name is Ella Hanna I am 30 from Belfast.
I was raised in a Christian home with my mum, dad and sister. From a very young age, I knew about Jesus, loved church, and wanted my life to be lived for God. 🙏✝️
At just 6 years old, I gave my life to Jesus. I loved Him, I loved church, and I believed God had a purpose for my life. ✨
But as I grew older, I experienced rejection and deep hurt. Life changed, and I lost much of what I had known. I didn’t understand the pain I was carrying, and I didn’t know how to process it. 💔
So I ran.
At 12, I turned to alcohol, smoking and w**d to numb the pain 🥹
What began as an escape became a 17-year battle with addiction. 🔗
During those years, I blamed God.
I questioned God.
I was angry with God.
I even hated God.
I couldn’t understand how a God who loved me could allow so much pain into my life.
But now I look back and realise something:
Even when I walked away from God, God never walked away from me. 🙏🤍
At 18, after a huge fight with my family, I moved into a hostel and my life spiralled further. I experienced homelessness, lost friends to addiction, and found myself in one of the darkest seasons of my life. 🖤
I felt completely lost 💔
But the presence of God was never absent ✝️
As Psalm 23:4 says:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” 🤍
Through my mum reaching out, I eventually became clean enough to function again and returned home. For a while, life became steady. 🏡
But the wounds underneath were still there.
I spent years searching for love, acceptance and security in relationships, trying to find in people what only God could truly give me. 💔
I accepted far less than I deserved because I was terrified of being rejected and abandoned again.
Then, in 2021, I entered a relationship that would take me to the lowest point of my life.
Over the following years, I lost myself, my dream job, and almost all hope for my future.
My addiction became worse.
I felt completely broken.
I genuinely believed I was too far gone. 😔
But God was still writing my story. 🙌📖
A friend’s mum gave me the number for Teen Challenge NI , and on 3 September 2025, I walked through the doors of Hope House. 🚪✨
I didn’t know it at the time, but God was leading me into a new chapter.
A chapter of restoration.
A chapter of healing.
A chapter of surrender.
A chapter of freedom. 🕊️
God met me in my brokenness.
He reminded me that I was His child. 👑
He showed me that I was not forgotten.
I was not disqualified.
I was not too far gone.
And my past would not have the final word over my future. ✝️
God’s grace was greater than my sin.
God’s mercy was greater than my mistakes.
And God’s love was greater than my shame. ❤️
2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” ✨✝️
And I can honestly say that God has been making me new.
Through Jesus and through the incredible people at Teen Challenge, I have experienced a love, grace and acceptance that I spent years searching for in all the wrong places. 🤍
The chains I thought would hold me forever have been broken. 🔓
Not because I was strong enough.
But because God is faithful. 🙏
Not because I had it all figured out.
But because God never gave up on me.
Not because I deserved another chance.
But because His grace is a gift. 🎁
This journey has not been easy.
It has been one of the hardest years of my life.
I have had to learn to face pain instead of running from it, surrender my past to God, forgive, grow, rebuild, and discover who I am in Christ. 🕊️
But God has been faithful through every step.
And on 6 July 2026, by the grace of God, I completed the 11-month programme. 🎓🙌
Now I’m volunteering at Hope House for the summer, giving back to the place where God began restoring my life. ❤️
On 4 September, I’ll be moving to Nottingham to start TCLA and continue growing in my relationship with Jesus. 📖🙏
I don’t know exactly what the future holds.
But I know Who holds my future. ✝️
And for the first time in a very long time, I’m excited about it. 🥹✨
My prayer now is simple:
Lord, use my life for Your glory. 🙏
I want to help people.
I want to serve.
I want to give back what was so freely given to me.
I want to point people towards Jesus.
And I want my life to be a testimony that God still restores what we thought was lost. 🕊️
Jeremiah 29:11 says:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 🤍
So if you’re reading this while trapped in addiction, carrying shame, feeling rejected, broken, or convinced that you’ve gone too far:
Please hear me. 🙏
There is hope.
You are not your addiction.
You are not your past.
You are not your worst mistake.
Your story is not over. ❤️
I know what it feels like to believe there is no way forward.
But I also know that Jesus can meet you in the darkest place and lead you into the light. ✝️🕊️
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. — Psalm 40:1 🤍
I thank God every single day for the life He has given me.
When I look at where I was and where I am now, I can only say:
God did this. 🙌
All glory belongs to Him. ✝️
If God can take someone as broken as I was and begin restoring their life, then I believe He can do more than we could ever imagine.
“With God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:26 ✝️
Jesus saves.
Jesus restores.
Jesus redeems.
Jesus makes all things new. 🕊️
My life is not a testimony of how strong I am.
It is a testimony of how faithful God is. 🤍
To God be all the glory. 🙏❤️🕊️
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You never know who might be sitting alone at home right now, struggling and thinking there’s no way out 💔🥹
This story could be the one they need to hear — a reminder that change is possible, recovery is real, and help is there 🙏🙏🙏
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