A born and bred native of California, Jenny was raised in the Los Angeles area and surrounding suburbs. Even at a young age, she felt different from other girls. She didn’t like pink and she hated dresses. And no matter how much she liked a boy, she was always the best friend or “one of the guys”.
Jenny lived a fairly normal home life during her childhood with a mom, dad and younger brother. Around the age of 10 her childhood was ripped from underneath her. As her father began his love affair with drugs and alcohol, she was forced to step up and be the adult and parental figure to her younger brother as her mother desperately tried to keep a sense of normalcy in their home.
The absence of her father created a void that she refused to acknowledge. While still a freshman in high school, she found herself in her first relationship that would go on and off through her senior year. The relationship proved to be poisonous and left her with mental and emotional scars. Constantly questioning her worth and outer appearance, her only form of coping was to shut down. It did not matter the situation, she was convinced that emotions were for weak and frail women who couldn’t fend for themselves.
Fast forward to senior year. Due to more home drama, and getting kicked out of her house, Jenny failed her senior year. She enrolled in a school that allowed her to get a high school diploma and a certification in a field of her choice.
Her mother had chosen to take a job transfer opportunity in Chicago, so Jenny continued to live on campus to complete her schooling.
While there, she picked up a drinking habit that resulted in many nights and weekends where she woke up not knowing what had occured the night before. Due to extreme intoxication and on many occasions loss of consciousness, she had been raped twice by two different “friends” on two different occasions.
Between the relationship, the alcohol and finally sexual assualt, something inside began to grow cold. In Dec of 2008, she moved to Illinois to live with her mother and try to start over. The next five years became countless drunken nights, nameless faces, and a rap sheet of regret.
In April of 2013, her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She lived out the following months in denial and rebellion of the inevitable outcome. Her faith was always in the background, but never fully the driving force in her life. When put her father “God’s hands” it was really an order and expectation that God would fix it.
In December of 2013, her father passed away.
At that point, life didn’t matter anymore and she put her quest for destruction into high gear. Day after day, night after night, all blurred into a whirlwind of yesterdays. Her plan to move back to California had crumbled after a freak malfunction with her vehicle left her completely immobile.
Around March of 2014, Jenny took a last minute trip to Chicago to visit a close friend for her birthday. She had been exposed to a particular church that was being promoted by a Chicago area artist she had been following. On a last minute whim, she chose to attend on a Saturday evening. It was there that she was broken by the Gospel, leaving her with a sense of rescue she had never experienced before.
Jenny was then introduced to Vanessa and her husband Adriel – who was also the pastor of the church. At that moment a bond and connection was made as Vanessa stepped in to disciple Jenny. Today, Jenny is now the Social Media Director for Live Revolution and active member of World Renegade Church with plans to make a permanent home in Chicago.
