05/18/2026
✨Spring Celebrations 2026✨
A message from our Sr Director Deborah McDonald💙💙💙
There are moments in ministry when time seems to pause — when the air shifts, when voices crack with emotion, and when you realize that what you are witnessing is not simply an event, but evidence. This past Thursday and today, ATC SNE women’s home experienced exactly that. Two Spring Celebrations. Two gatherings under a great big beautiful white tent, right here on our property — the very ground where so much healing has happened, where so many lives have been quietly, powerfully remade. And over both of those days, one presence made itself unmistakably known. 🔥God’s🔥
From the very first testimony spoken, it was clear this was not going to be an ordinary gathering. These were not rehearsed words or polished presentations. These were lives — broken, rebuilt, transformed, and standing upright. Staff and Residents who had walked through fire stepped forward and let their stories speak for themselves, and everyone under that tent felt every single word. There is no program you can write, no agenda you can plan, that moves hearts the way a changed life does. God was there, and He made sure every person present knew it.
The tent was full — not just with staff and residents, but with volunteers. So many of them. Men and women who give their time, their energy, and their hearts to this work without fanfare or expectation. They show up week after week, year after year, because they believe in what God is doing here. Seeing them gathered together this week, witnessing the fruit of their faithfulness alongside us — that was its own kind of testimony. Volunteers are often the unseen hands behind visible miracles, and we want them to know….you were seen this week, and you are deeply cherished.
To our partners and guests who came and bore witness — thank you. Your partnership is not merely financial; it is spiritual. Your generosity has helped provide the space, the time, and the resources that allow transformation to take root and grow. This week, you saw with your own eyes what that investment looks like when God breathes life into it. We hope you left with full hearts — because you helped fill them.
But woven through these two beautiful days was a story within the story. One that moved me more than I have words to fully express.
Twenty-eight years ago, I was a volunteer here. Just a volunteer — someone who believed in the mission and wanted to serve it. I did not have a title or an office. I had a willing heart and a few hours a week to give. And it was in that season, as a volunteer, that a young woman named Shondi walked through the doors of this program as a resident.
I watched her then. I prayed for her then. And over the years, as God grew both of us — her in her healing and me in my calling — our paths continued to intertwine. The volunteer became the Director. And the resident also became something I could never have dared to script 26 yrs later …the Director.
Shondi now stands at the helm of this ministry, carrying it with wisdom, authority, and a love for the women who come through these doors that could only be born from having once been one of them.
Twenty-eight years. Thank you Jesus
And then there is Tanya. Four years ago, she entered this program as a resident — during my tenure as Director. I sat across from her in a very different capacity than I had once sat with Shondi, but the heart behind it was the same….I believe in what God is going to do in you. And God, true to His nature, did it. Today, Tanya serves as our Assistant Director, walking alongside Shondi, pouring into residents the way she herself was once poured into.
Two women. Two very different chapters of this ministry’s story. Both of them now leading it.
Watching Shondi and Tanya move through those celebrations under that white tent was one of the greatest privileges of my calling.
They held space with grace. They led with confidence and warmth. Every decision, every word, every moment they navigated — it was exactly what I would have done. And yet it was entirely, authentically, gloriously them.
That is what true mentorship looks like when it works. It does not produce copies. It produces leaders. Women who have internalized the why behind the what, who can carry it forward in their own voice, with their own God-given gifts, shaped by their own remarkable stories.
I stood back during those moments — and I let myself stand back — and I simply watched them lead. And something deep settled in my spirit. A quiet thought that whispered…This will continue. This will outlast you. This is the point.
There is a particular joy that belongs only to those who have mentored someone and then watched them soar. It is not the joy of personal accomplishment — it is something humbler and holier than that. It is the joy of legacy.
-Of knowing that the thing God called you to do will not crumble when your hands eventually step aside.
-Of knowing that the women you believed in, trained,mentored, challenged, and loved — they are ready.
To Shondi and Tanya — hear this clearly….you did not just lead two events this week. You embodied this mission. You stood under that tent, on this sacred ground, before a room full of testimony and partnership and expectation — and you were exactly who this ministry needed you to be. I am not just proud of you. I am grateful for you. Grateful that you said yes to the healing. Grateful that you said yes to the calling. Grateful that you trusted the process in every hard season along the way.
To our volunteers — you are the quiet backbone of everything beautiful that happens here. Thank you for showing up, for staying faithful, and for celebrating with us this week. Your labor is never lost.
To our residents — you are the reason. Every testimony you offered, every moment of courage and vulnerability under that tent — it was a gift to every soul present. Your transformation is someone else’s HOPE. Never stop telling your story.
And to God — who showed up over two extraordinary days, not because the tent was perfect or the program was flawless, but because He is faithful — thank You. Thank You for letting us be part of something so clearly and unmistakably Yours.
Thirty plus years of seeds. And the harvest is still coming.
What a beautiful thing to be part of.
