1. "As I grew up God be-
came so distant, so frag-
ile of an idea, He hardly
existed to me at all ex-
cept in my bitterness. My
childhood and younger
years had filled me with
memories I hoped to
forget. I didn't want to
feel, and didn't have to."
Her way of forgetting
was not so uncommon to
so many.
While in the process of
forgetting, Gail con-
ceived children. Rather
than giving them up to
the state she decided to
give them up for adop-
tion. She had almost
Gail came to Lydia's Gate
in September 2012. Not
as a guest to a shelter
this time but with a re-
newed hope, as a new
person.
When Gail
was a child,
her birth fa-
ther, mother,
and sister
were regular
church atten-
dees; but years later she
was living in abandoned
building after abandoned
building somewhere in
Georgia, hopeless and
praying for death.
“So where do we begin?”
I ask Gail.
"Well, I suppose at the
beginning," And so
starts the not-so-
uncommon but none-
the-less magnificent
story of God's
redemption.
"As a child my
family always
went to church.
But in the vehi-
cle afterwards,
at home, my
father was a different
person. He had abused
my mother, us. My
mother had children as a
child and so she really
knew no one else. It
took her nineteen years
to leave him.
GAIL’S STORY
FROM ABANDONED BUILDINGS TO ABUNDANT LIFE
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Every four years we have
the pleasure of experi-
encing a presidential
campaign. Each candi-
date works endlessly to
convince you that they
have a plan to make the
future better. I have
found that we have a lot
of people in our country
that talk about hope and
change, but very few that
are willing to roll up their
sleeves and help to make
change happen.
That is why I enjoy the
work of the mission. I get
to work alongside staff,
volunteers, and donors
that want to do some-
thing - people that care
enough to put action to
their words.
This has been a difficult
time for this region, the
economy has been in a
decline, jobs have been
scarce, and doom and
gloom is in the air. But
ultimately we have a
choice, we can let all this
MAY 2013
IN THIS UPDATE:
GAIL’S STORY
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
WE CELEBRATE
PARTICIPANT CORNER
OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE
news depress us, or we
can find ways to start the
turnaround by our own
actions and attitudes.
The number of broken
lives walking through the
doors seeking help and
solution has continued to
increase everyday.
Continued on Back
“I have come that they may have life & have it abundantly .” – Jesus
We would like to
celebrate all of youcelebrate all of youcelebrate all of youcelebrate all of you who
have been involved, for
the blessings we have
received through the
grace of God to help in
our mission to serve the
community!
Thank You.
A SHELTER FOR THOSE IN NEED
LYDIA’S GATE

2. www.lydiasgate.org
Phone: 989.217.0973
Email: info.lydiasgate@gmail.com
Mailing Address: PO Box 988
Mio, MI 48647
Physical Address: 115 Deyarmond Street
Mio, MI 48647
Facebook.com/LydiasGate
CONTACT LYDIA’S GATE
Addiction and trouble caused her
to leave Gaylord under an alias and
she moved to Georgia. Homeless,
living from abandoned building to
abandoned building, she found
random jobs for $40 a day only to
get her next fix. Under the influ-
ence of drugs & alco-
hol “nothing matters”
she says. There was
no fear of her circum-
stances.
She ended up with a
man who in her words “lived a life
of crime”. They stole copper from
abandoned buildings which would
earn them enough to get high for
two or three days, then the cycle
was repeated, and repeated, and
repeated, for around two years.
One night Gail found herself lying
on the floor in the middle of an
abandoned building all alone. She
begged God to take her life.
(...continued online)
To read the rest of Gail’s story
of redemption and road to
peace, log on to:
Facebook.com/LydiasGate or
www.LydiasGate.org
(launching soon!)
casually commented that she didn’t
care, but you could detect the hurt.
When I probed her about this later,
"Do you think you really didn’t care,
or do you think you cared so much
that you couldn't bear to and so
determined not to care? Or because
you were afraid you
might not change?"
"I think you determine
not to" she said. "Of
course I care now. But
then, in the grip of drugs, you don’t
think about quitting, you think
about getting your next fix.”
During this time her biological fa-
ther passed away and for Gail it was
a celebration, “this man could no
longer hurt me.” but pausing in re-
flection, “It does.” she says. “You
don’t say goodbye. You don’t make
amends. You don’t give them a
chance to make amends.”
This led to one of Gail’s worst
downward spirals. Her mother
thought she was dead. "I treated
my mother and stepdad like gar-
bage.” she searches her thoughts,
“There really is no reason my
mother and step father should want
anything to do with me at all.”
GAIL’S STORY (CONTINUED)
ChristThe Key
by Larry
There is no prison with
Big enough walls
To keep out salvation
When the Savior is called.
For upon my knees
One night I fell,
Blessed in Christ
In a prison cell.
Behind these bars
I became free
To live in Him
Eternally free.
No longer chained
To my sinful ways
I became a new person
Who loves and prays.
Though seasons come
And Holidays pass,
In jail with Jesus,
My hope does last.
PARTICIPANT CORNERWE CELEBRATE!
We are so grateful for the blessings from God that allow us to extend His
love to those who enter Lydia’s Gate. We received a new furnace this past
winter which helped us reduce our heating bills so we can put those funds
to use in other areas of the shelter. Several of our previous guests have
found jobs in and outside of Oscoda County and have received housing
assistance allowing them to sustain their lives outside of Lydia’s Gate.
Some of our guests have opened their hearts and received the Lord into
their lives and have committed their lives to His service! We are very
grateful for all our volunteers that have joined us in our mission here to
serve others, and to all the people who have made numerous donations of
clothing, food, paper products and money. May God bless you all!
OPPORTUNITIES
TO GIVE
Please pray for the resources to add
a second bathroom and an outdoor
picnic table. Consider giving a
one-time or monthly tax-
deductible gift to Lydia’s Gate.
Make Checks Payable To:
Lydia’s Gate
PO Box 988, Mio, MI 48647
Include name, address & email
“God became so
distant, so frag-

3. they were able to be happy.
I ask Gail if she remembers the first
things she learned. "The tempta-
tions that Jesus went through. He
went through a lot of temptations
like we do and he survived them
and he made it through them." She
pauses to think. "The little old lady
told us, 'ya know God talked to
Him. God always guided and di-
rected them.' and I thought to my-
self, 'how could this be?'.”
"And I remember the beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Why
that one stuck I never knew."
"I suppose you were feeling pretty
poor in spirit…” I venture.
"Yeah. I did. But
I didn’t under-
stand it then."
She takes a mo-
ment to collect
her thoughts
into words. "I
never really started understanding
until I went to prison. It seems
most people who teach in correc-
tional facilities are so focused on
your life of crime, and getting you
away from your life of crime, that
sometimes I really think they ne-
glected to teach us about what we
really needed to learn – which was
about the salvation. That really
should have been my first memory:
Salvation… but it was not."
Naively, I ask, "Do you think it
would have made sense if it was
the first thing you learned? Would
it have seemed possible?"
She pauses to think before re-
sponding, “When you don’t under-
stand how anything came to be,
why Jesus was here, why he was
doing these miracles; When you
"My life had spiraled downward so
badly… living for drugs, alcohol,
from abandoned building to aban-
doned building, not knowing where
I was going to sleep, not knowing
where I was going to eat; I was
ready for death. ...Well, in his own
way, God answered my prayer.”
“Three days later I went to jail.” she
says. The man Gail had been living
her life with had purposely set a
building on fire after stripping it of
all its copper. Landed in jail Gail
went through delirium tremens and
withdrawals. Her emotions were raw
and bared and she was once again
gripped by bitterness and hatred.
One day an elderly woman asked
Gail if she could help her read, since
she had trouble. Reluctantly, Gail
said yes, thinking, ‘yah, ok, I’ve got
nothing better to do’, but when she
arrived to meet with the woman,
she was surprised to discover it was
the Bible she was reading! The
woman was leading a Bible Study.
"Every Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday women would come from
the prison church services laughing,
joking, singing and praising God. I
couldn't stand it!” So she tells me
that one day she burst out, “What in
the sam hill are ya'll havin' a good
time for? You realize ya'll are in jail,
right? What is there to laugh
about? What is there to joke about?
Why are you so freakin' happy?”
Then would come their response,
"God's got us covered! What do we
have to worry about?" Gail would
turn away frustrated and angry, all
the while still reading for the little
elderly woman doing the Bible stud-
ies. She sat in her cell for 3 weeks
before beginning to ask questions -
before even wanting to know why
GAIL’S STORY (CONTINUED)
don’t learn the 'why' first, ya know,
you don’t understand. Teaching
somebody about Salvation and
why God was put on this earth,
then miracles will make a little
more sense to you. You'll see what
things are possible and why they
were done the way they were done
- why he was doing them in the
first place."
This made sense. I had taken it for
granted that most Americans,
some time in their lives, have had
the story of the Cross explained to
them. But here was Gail, raised in a
church, studying the Bible and still
not having come across the whole
Gospel. She had learned that he
came, what he taught,
how to live, but why
was still elusive.
"I spent my first three
years very confused
about God. I was try-
ing to learn all I
could, but I just couldn’t under-
stand. I wanted to know, I wanted
to learn, I just couldn't under-
stand." So was the slow progress
of Gail’s understanding of Salva-
tion.
That's when Gail was transferred to
federal prison, where she says, she
first started to understand. “God
bless his soul." she says, reflecting
on the Pastor she met there. "The
first service I sat in, he looked at us
and said, 'Do you know why Jesus
died on the cross?' 'No, I really
don’t' I thought.”
The Pastor went on: "Jesus died on
the cross for you and for me. He
died on the cross in our place. He
is our mediator. He is the one who
goes between us and God."
"But I still don’t understand yet"
“I never really started
understanding until I
went to prison.”

4. don’t think anything's been like
that exact moment."
While Gail had been away her con-
tact with the family had been
sparse and hurtful. She had de-
cided to write her mom to tell her
she had been baptized on Father’s
Day - she began to make amends.
In reply, her father told Gail's
mother, "Tell her to come home
when she gets out."
"Them two parents of mine. No
way. I do not deserve parents like
them." Her comment seemed to
echo her experience with God. The
day she arrived at the bus stop in
Grayling both her parents were
there to greet her. "My mom and I,
we've never been any closer than
we are right now. And my dad,
he's proud of me today. I've never
been more happy to see my mama.
I've got the best parents in the
world."
So how did Gail come to us here at
Lydia's Gate?
"Well I couldn’t find a job around
here for anything. I prayed and
prayed and asked God to help me
find a job. Miss Laura down there
at Mental Health sent me here to
Lydia's Gate. Well, here I am. I
have been out one year and three
months after six years in jail. It
saved my life. You hope it doesn't
take that for everyone, but for me
it saved my life."
While volunteering at Lydia's Gate,
Gail is taking online courses to
earn her degree in Social Services
and will be spending a week at a
Saginaw Mission to gain more
training in Case Management.
"I don't know the whole story of
how this house became, but all I
recalls Gail. "Why would someone
want to go die on a cross for me?"
Whether a statement made by her
prison preacher or an answer to her
own rhetorical question Gail gives
the answer. "Because, in fact, we're
His children." She recalls, a little bit
more starts to sink in. “I'm God’s
child? Jesus died so that I would
have a home? Why would some-
body want to do that? Why would
somebody want to die for some-
body like me that is totally unwor-
thy - that lived a life of crime, drugs,
alcohol, promiscuity... Why would
anybody want to do that for me?"
Again, Gail seems to answer her
own rhetorical question, "Because
God has compassion for us and love
for us. He wants his children home
with Him. So he took his son and
put Him on that cross to give me a
life. To give you a life. To give us a
new start."
Gail began attending church ser-
vices and bible studies regularly in
prison and soon joined in spiritual
dancing, "A whole other eye opener
for me." Praising the Lord through
dance, out of love for him, became
another profound way Gail found to
worship God. "And it was awe-
some." she reminisced.
It was Father's Day, and Gail’s bap-
tism day. She sat in her chair shak-
ing and crying like a baby. The Pas-
tor asked, "Are you ready Gail? You
know you're fixin' to die to self right
now? You're gonna’ be reborn.
When you come up you will be res-
urrected in Christ.”
"And when he put me under I was
still crying and shaking," she recalls,
"but when I came up nothing felt
heavy. I felt a calmness and peace
that I don’t think I've felt again. I
GAIL’S STORY (CONTINUED)
care about is that this is the Lord’s
house, and everyone in it is His
servant."
The following morning after our
interview, Gail was facilitating her
first Celebrate Recovery group at
Lydia's Gate; a program that helps
people to recover from hurts, hab-
its, and hang ups through the
power of Christ. As for Gail
that power of Christ has
redeemed her life and
given her a new chance.
She will be seven years
clean in June.
www.lydiasgate.org
Phone: 989.217.0973
Email: info.lydiasgate@gmail.com
Mailing Address: PO Box 988
Mio, MI 48647
Physical Address: 115 Deyarmond Street
Mio, MI 48647
Facebook.com/LydiasGate
CONTACT LYDIA’S GATE
OPPORTUNITIES
TO GIVE
Please pray for the resources to add
a second bathroom and an outdoor
picnic table. Consider giving a
one-time or monthly tax-
deductible gift to Lydia’s Gate.
Make Checks Payable To:
Lydia’s Gate
PO Box 988, Mio, MI 48647
Include name, address & email