09/08/2026
💜Our featured Story of Hope💜
STEPHANIE L. ATKINS
Recovery Date: January 10, 2016
Today, we celebrate STEPHANIE!!!
For 20 years, Stephanie’s life was caught in a painful cycle of addiction, chaos, rage, and violence.
She had known those things from an early age. Her mother struggled with addiction, and Stephanie endured years of abuse. Although her grandparents did the best they could when she went to live with them, the wounds were already deep—and she was already using.
The brokenness continued to grow, and Stephanie continued to spiral.
Then she found herself sitting in a jail cell, once again begging for another chance and making promises to a judge that she knew she would not keep.
But after she was released on bond, something began to change.
Stephanie met her Father’s House family.
They loved her when she could not love herself. They saw something in her that she did not yet know existed. They poured truth, love, and hope into her life. At the time, no one realized that God was using them to prepare Stephanie for prison—a place that would ultimately give her the space she needed to heal, grow, and discover who she truly was.
In prison, Stephanie found herself—and she learned to love the woman God created her to be.
Her first steps toward recovery were built upon three things:
Love. Hope. Faith.
Throughout her incarceration, Leah Broadie, Charles and Wendy Clevenger, Kent and Linda Fales and the entire Father’s House Church faithfully walked beside her. They stayed through the setbacks and celebrated the victories. They showed her what the love of Jesus looks like when it is lived out through people.
Many others also became part of Stephanie’s journey: Shanice Ledbetter, Christy Sweat, Chaplain Kerns, Sandra Gandy, Lisa Pamplin, Leanne, Dagny, Rhonda, Carolyn, Shontay, Melissa, Michelle, and Candy.
And through it all, her children—Caleb, Emalee, and Becca—never gave up on their mom.
Recovery began restoring what addiction had taken.
Stephanie’s relationships with her children were rebuilt. She had two sisters—one whose relationship had been broken and another whom she had only met once. After losing her parents, grandmother, and uncle, she feared leaving prison without a family.
But three months before her release, both sisters found her.
Together, they began rebuilding their relationships.
Stephanie also accomplished things she once never imagined possible. She earned her GED, associate degree, paralegal degree, and Victory Bible College degree. She graduated from Prison Fellowship and CWA and became part of the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center Signs and Wonders team. She was given the opportunity to serve as a leader for five years and pour into others alongside many of the same people who helped change her life.
Today, Stephanie describes herself this way:
“I am a woman of God. I am forgiven. I finally understand that I was created for a purpose, and in that I found my worth.”
She is a mother and a nana to a beautiful little boy, with a granddaughter on the way. She now gets to be the mother her three children need. She is learning to live and love with a heart that God has transformed from stone to flesh.
And it all began when she said yes to God.
Stephanie is grateful for the second chance God gave her and for the purpose He placed upon her life.
“God didn’t save me from something; He saved me for something.”
One of her greatest joys is knowing that her grandchildren will never have to know the person she was during addiction. Instead, they will know the woman she has become—a woman of faith, strength, love, peace, joy, and purpose.
To Stephanie, hope means a new future.
She knows that hopelessness can convince someone that there is nothing ahead for them. But hope gives life to a different future and a new way of thinking. Hope motivates her to continue growing, bettering herself, and reaching for things she never believed were possible.
To anyone who is still struggling with active addiction, Stephanie wants you to know:
“Trust the process. There are going to be good days, and there will be bad days. Don’t let one bad day take away everything you have worked for. Have hope that a new day is coming. If God did it for me, why wouldn’t He do it for you? Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you want change, fight for it.”
And always remember:
“You don’t fight for victory—Jesus already won the victory. You fight from victory.”
Stephanie wants her story to remind others that God uses people with stories like hers to carry His message. Change is real. Recovery is possible. You were created for a purpose, and God has a plan for your life.
Every difficult day it takes to get there is worth it.
“If He did it for me, He will most definitely do it for you.”
Recovery gave Stephanie life, love, family, peace, joy—and the discovery of her worth.
This is Stephanie’s Story of Hope. 💚
