Video Transcript: Karen Green - iamsecond.com

Shall I say, it wasn't a happy childhood. My mom worked morning and she  worked evenings, which left us uncovered. And a lot of things happened. A lot of  things happened. I can remember her leaving us under the care of my neighbor  next door. He used to tell me all the time that I had big, pretty legs, and I can  remember him asking me, won't you let me touch you? And when he did, you  know, he gave me money. And there was a store up the street, and I went up  and got candy. Then there came a time where he said that, you know, I want you to let Lewis lay on top of you. And I did, and I did. From there, the spiral began.  By the time I reached the age of 13, I had a baby myself, and my mother got  very angry she had a boyfriend. I remember the boyfriend making advances at  me instead of her dismissing him, she dismissed me. I ran into this guy. We got  together, and I felt like he would take care of me and my son. I allowed certain  things to happen. He hit me, you know, he put guns to my head. Surely, he took  care of us, but it came with a big price. These men were like FDA 60s. She  would ask me, Well, how much money did they give you? Did he give you some  money? And I would tell her, yeah, well, you need to give it here, you know. So I  would give it to her. I ran into this guy. He took me in and he fed me drugs, crack cocaine, my son, he seen all of this. I was very angry. I had 13 assault cases. I  was sick of everything. It just really didn't matter, you know, I needed money to  survive. I remembered how, you know, I went out with the older men. This is the  way I lived my life. Men were the way that I bought my food. Were the way that I  paid my rent. This had gotten so bad, the street in men is all I knew. It got worse  and worse. I didn't know anything else but to go to the street not only support  what happened, but to make sure my son ate. I remember walking into a Dairy  Queen and I asked him to feed my baby. And the lady told me, she said, anytime your baby's hungry, you bring him here. I'll feed him. I knew I had to do  something to get my son up off the streets. You know, I would pray, literally pray. When I was out there, I remember going to get the drugs, the only one I had to  do prostitution, getting the money coming back, getting the motel room, throwing the drugs on the bed, and asking, God, please, please help me after I got  through praying I would pick the drugs up and just continue to use became a  point where I was just tired. I was so tired of my life. I was so tired of hurting. I  was so tired. I knew they had a warrant for my arrest, you know? And I asked  the lady behind her to dance. I said, Don't you have a warrant for my arrest?  And she looked at me and started laughing. I said, I just want to turn myself in.  She said, Baby, I can't find the warrant. I said, No, the warrant is there. It's there, it's there, it's there. In my mind, you say you got this hot $20 you might as well  go on back out this door and going on and get you, get you another hidden just  going on. They can't even find a warrant. But something inside of me said, just  sit there. I sit there, and I trip, and she said, Baby, I found it. I said, Thank You,  Lord, thank you. And you know, I told, God, I can't even see the time that they're talking about. I can't even see 25 to life. But God, whatever you do, I don't want 

to go back out here the same way I came in. Please help me. And I remember,  that's when my life begin to change. That's when I served, because I didn't know nothing else to do. They had church down there. Church. I didn't do church, but  just to get out of the dorm with all those women, I went to church, I began to  hear what the pastor was saying how so many times when we're in the we've  been through so much in our life, it becomes a cover, and it covers our souls,  you know, and it's our souls begin to be just it's just dark because it's so much  that is covering our souls. But he said, what the Spirit of God does, and the  Word of God does it. It comes in and it begins to peel back the covers, and what happens is your soul begin to get like and you begin to gain strength where you  can live. And when he said that, I said, God, this is what's happening. I thank  you, Jesus. I knew I had to change, but I didn't know how to change, and God,  through His Word, began to teach how to change. Said, God. If you are God,  and if you're the God that they say you are, then God change. Me change. And  he did just that. He changed my life. And my name is Karen, and I am second.