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My name is Tammy Ashcraft and I was born and raised in
Arkansas. I have
one sister that is 20 months younger than
me. Our parents divorced when I was two or three years old
and we lived
with our mother afterwards. When I was eight,
she met and married a man named Merle so we moved to his
house in
a town that was 45 miles away. As time went on, he
began abusing me for a few months, probably less than six.
When
I told my mom she began to move herself, my sister and
me out of the house. We were in another house for two nights
when
Merle came over to get some paperwork. When Mom got
back outside with it, he shot and killed her. My sister
and I
eventually moved in with our Dad.
Our dad wasn’t accustomed to having
us live with him so
he was still set in his ways and not home very much. My sister
and I, had to take care of
ourselves a good bit of the time we
were at home. By the time I was ten and my sister was eight
we could run a
household with the exception of anything that
required a car. My dad wasn’t necessarily bad, he just didn’t
know
how to take care of children, especially ones that had
just lost their mother. Time went on, I seemed to struggle
through
school, not caring about myself or anything I did. I
didn’t care about doing a good job in school, if I completed
my
work, or if I did any school work at all.
In 1993, when I was 17,
my dad married a lady named
Linda. They were married a little over 20 years. After I
graduated from high
school, I started college. I went for about
a year and a half. I moved in with my aunt when I was 19.
At
that time I went to a vocational - technical school. I lived in an
apartment that my aunt provided for me so
I wouldn’t have to
make the 100 mile round trip every day.
While I lived in
this apartment, I began to drink almost
daily. My dad is an alcoholic so I thought to myself that it was
my destiny to be one also. It seemed that
no matter how
much I tried, I could not be addicted to alcohol. This
experiment went on for about six months.
I graduated from
the vocational school and moved in with my grandmother. I
lived with her for a few months and
then moved in with an
acquaintance of my aunt’s. This woman had a husband and
three children of her own.
She gave me the impression that
the reason I was there was so that she could rehabilitate me. I
was too blind
at the time to see how much of a manipulator
she was. I ended up quitting my job to take care of her kids
just
so she wouldn’t kick me out. She had brainwashed me so
much that I believed that I had nowhere to go.
During this time, Linda and my aunt were checking on this
christian girls’ home in Louisiana called Mercy Ministries,
a
place where girls ages 16 to 25 can go for free and receive
counseling and learn about God. I owe both of them
many
thanks for making me go to Mercy Ministries. I spent 14
difficult months there. It was there that God
pulled all the
scales off my eyes, and believe me I had many layers, so I
could see Him for the first time. I
left there in January 1994 to
come to Lee College, I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science
degree in psychology.
The best part of my life was about a
month after graduation when I fell in love in June 1996 with
my beautiful wife
Kristi. We have been together for over 11
years now. I am so thankful for what God has brought me
through.
It wasn’t fun going through everything. It is a great
blessing to look back to what God has brought me
through
and come out victorious on the other side.
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