Cassie McArthur
I first came to CMBTC May 1, 2019. I was 30, bitter, broken and hopeless. My story isn’t unlike most. A child of divorce, sexual abuse, 3 step mothers by the age of 10. To say the least, I had a very twisted (and wrong) idea of what love was and zero trust in anyone. Even as a small child, I couldn’t deny the existence of a designer; a creator. I always believed in God, but felt as if I had just slipped through the cracks. I started drinking heavily and using copious amounts of hallucinagens in highschool in order to “be someplace else”.
Diagnosed with cirrhosis at 26, spending a month in the hospital, I had my best friend wheel me down to the chapel every night. There was just comfort there that I couldn’t explain. I had been saved for a reason; I was just filled with so much self-pity that I didn’t want to see it. Shortly after, I entered into an extremely toxic relationship with my, now, ex-husband who was abusive in every sense of the word.
March of 2019, after he had gone to prison and I was sleeping on my in-laws couch drinking myself to death (yet again), they invited my mother over for an intervention, bringing in Tom Garner from Harbour’s Gate who told me all about CMBTC. He didn’t sugar-coat a thing. Everything in me should have stuck a finger in the air, but I called the next day. I graduated the program January 1, 2020, still bound by most of the things that got me there. I still felt unworthy of being saved. By the grace of God (with a little help from the Grainger County court system), I was back 2 months later and call this city on a hill that cannot be hidden “home”.
God used this place to save my life, but that was only the beginning. I know what love is now because I know Him. I get to show that to others the same way it was shown to me. The Lord has blessed my life beyond measure because I seek Him with all my heart. The restoration I have experienced with my family and loved ones is only explained by the Holy Spirit. I also have a family that is beyond flesh and blood. He has blessed me with a wonderful man who also had to find out the hard way what true love is. A man who puts me second because he seeks God first, as well. Now, we get to be excited together for what’s in store next. Because, He didn’t bring us together just to bless us. He has work for us to do.