For the past 24 years, my walk with the Lord has been marked by seasons of joy, victory, heartbreak, and complete brokenness. My journey has taken me from prison to homelessness, through unimaginable spiritual battles, personal hardships, and devastating loss.

The greatest tragedy of my life came when I lost my only child—my son, my pride and joy. Just months later, I lost my home. Those losses changed everything.

For the first time in my life, at 46 years old, I cried not only for my son, but for myself. Until then, I had never known pain that deep. When my son died, a part of me died with him. I was no longer the person I had been. That chapter of my life ended forever.

Everything connected to the life I shared with my son changed. Relationships, family connections, business colleagues, and the familiar world I had known seemed to disappear. I found myself standing in the middle of unimaginable grief, stripped of everything that had once defined my life.

Yet it was in that place of complete brokenness that I experienced the sustaining presence of the Lord in ways I never had before. My testimony is not that I was spared from suffering, but that God met me in the midst of it. He carried me when I could no longer carry myself. Rather than restoring my old life, He began creating something entirely new.

Today, my story is one of hope born through suffering. It is a testimony that even in our darkest moments, when everything familiar has been taken away, God remains present, faithful, and able to bring purpose from pain.

Looking back, I can see that God was not only healing my heart—He was preparing me for a greater purpose. My testimony is not about what I lost, but about what God has done through that loss. It is the foundation of my calling to serve others, to bring hope where there is despair, and to help build stronger communities through compassion, integrity, and love. My life is living proof that God can redeem even the deepest sorrow and transform it into a purpose that reaches far beyond ourselves.

— Founder, Shakera Santiago-Dunn