There was something in me that told me that I had that I was meant for something

better than what I had had my whole life. I was sitting there looking at these drugs

in front of me and I just begged God I said

God please either save me or let me die and he chose to save me.

Welcome to the experience Jesus Calling Podcast.

Today we present the second in our series on the Women of the Next Door.

Tammy Arnold grew up in a world of pain,

abandoned by her family at an early age. Tammy Arnold grew up in a world of pain.

Abandoned by her family at an early age, Tammy sought to escape her trauma through drugs and alcohol.

This spiral took her down a dark road for many years, and it wasn't until she prayed to God for help that she began to see the light that would eventually lead her to the next door. My name is Tammy

Arnold and I graduated from the next door in 2013. I left on May 28th, but my

graduation was in July. I'm originally from Tallahassee, Florida. I moved around Florida quite a bit when I was young. My mother left when I was just a baby and my grandmother and my grandfather took me in.

When my father graduated from college he married a girl that he met in college and they came and took me from my grandparents home.

He was trying to live up to his responsibility, but the woman that he

married hated me, she hated me from the first time she ever met me, she hated me. I spent

the next seven years with them. I had a ten full on my windows so I

couldn't see outside. I wasn't allowed to to play outside with the other

children.

She would beat me on a regular basis.

I still have scars on my legs from where she would beat me

with my dad's belt buckle. That's where my issues with my father come in because I'll never

forget one day when he was sitting in his chair watching her do this and I'm screaming,

...