Stories of Changed Lives

Learning About Our Forgiving Lord

It’s hard to catch Angelita as she bustles between her new apartment and her old room at Cornerstone Manor.  “Today I got my electric and gas turned on.  I’m drowning in blessings!” she laughs.

This bright, happy Angelita is a far cry from the depressed and standoffish woman who approached Cornerstone Manor late last summer.  A native of Brooklyn, she relocated to Buffalo to escape an abusive relationship.  “I had mood swings and I didn’t want people to bother me,” she says.  “The staff here had to have a lot of patience with me: I gave them a rough go.”

As Angelita watched the staff around her, her perspective began to change.  She saw the need for the curfews and other rules that had chaffed at her earlier.  She realized Cornerstone Manor offered opportunities that would bring her joy, stability and a sense of accomplishment!

“I started working on my GED last September,” she says.  “It took eight months, but I did it!  It was like going to college—I’d go to sleep with my books in my bed and my pen in my hand and be that way until someone woke me for breakfast!”

The hard work paid off and by spring Angelita passed her GED test with flying colors.  “I got a perfect score in social studies and it was my worst subject,” she boasts happily.

Another milestone on Angelita’s road to success:  “I’d backslidden since 1991, and I knew all the time something was missing.  My life without Christ wasn’t working, and I didn’t think He’d accept or forgive me.  But He is a forgiving God.  I let go of His hand a long time ago, and after all those years I came back and found his hand was still out there waiting for me to take it.”

Angelita compares God’s outstretched hand to a mother reaching to lift a fallen child.  “My spirit has truly been lifted,” she says.  “I reached out and He took away my fear.  You have no idea the joy I feel inside.”

As Angelita prepares to move, she is caught between the excitement of having her own place again and the love she has for the staff and residents at Cornerstone Manor.  “I have the utmost respect for the staff here.  I plan to come back and volunteer.  I’ve talked to a lot of the residents and I think it encourages them to see me and look at what happened to me here.”

“If you really work on the program, you can get to know yourself and the person God wants you to be.  It’s not an easy walk, but you can do it if you really want it.”