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Perhaps you have had a loved one or friend whose life has been overtaken by drugs and alcohol. You may be feeling disheartened and dismayed, but let this book encourage you.
My name is Patty Davis. I am a retired deputy from the Clatsop County Jail. As you might have guessed, that is where I met Rachelle. Whenever she came into the jail, I would encourage her in her walk with the Lord. We had many discussions during the times she was incarcerated. Often, when I left her cell, I would tell her, “You are on my Holy Spirit hit list. I am praying for you.” Throughout the seventeen years I worked at the jail, many inmates told me how they wanted to remain clean and sober. Unfortunately, most failed, returning to the jail not just once but many times. Some died in their pit of despair. So sad…so hard. Many years later, I was happy to find Rachelle working out her salvation and sobriety at the Women’s Gospel Mission in Medford. She studied the Scriptures, worked hard, and through the power of Holy Spirit, she succeeded. When the Lord led Rachelle to start Hope and a Future Ministries my heart sang! Through this ministry, I finally got to hear about many success stories. I am joyfully supporting Hope and a Future because it is good seed. Rachelle’s testimony will spur you on to keep the faith. I knew Rachelle when her life was nothing but jail cells, despair, and addiction. Today she is ministering to women who are suffering with the same issues. I am encouraged by Rachelle’s ministry, “Hope and a Future.” I believe the Lord is going to use her ministry to help those in the pit of addiction. I support her one hundred percent! Patty Davis, Retired Corporal, Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office, and Board Member of Hope and a Future. |
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We have seen first hand how God takes a broken life and restores it for His Glory, then uses that person to heal others. Rachelle came to us in the year 2000, broken and beat up. God has done an awesome work in her life. She is committed to Jail and prison ministry and as her mentor’s we believe God has prepared and anointed her for this ministry. We believe what God has done in her life and in the ministry of “Hope and a Future” and that is why we have chosen as husband and wife to partner with Rachelle in prayer and with financial support.
Daryl and Janet Fairrington Retired Directors Medford Gospel Mission Women’s Center. |
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As a State Institutional Chaplain I first met Chaplain Rachelle Benthin at a HGO Regional training/planning meeting in Jackson County. I remember from our first meeting being very impressed and as we began to work together as our mission was the same “To Help People with their Reentry”. What I noticed right away was that she sincerely loved the ladies and understood what they were going through. I am always grateful when someone chooses to invest their lives and spend their lives on helping others find comfort, purpose and meaning for their lives. Chaplain Rachelle is a perfect example of the absolute treasure that is the lives of those who are Reentering our Communities from the Jails and Community Corrections if they make the right choices and ask for God’s help to bring real change in their lives. I remember the conversation around bringing Rachelle on as a Community Chaplain. As I looked around the room everyone was in agreement “If anyone had the distinction of being a Community Chaplain it was Rachelle”. She lives it every day. It is such a pleasure to serve with her.
Retired, Chaplain Larry Bowen, ODOC |
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It has been said, if God could not use our mistakes, He would not have much to work with. One of Rachelle’s admirable qualities is that she has allowed God to fashion her past into a ministry of compassion for those ladies coming from the consequences of sin and brokenness to know the love, acceptance and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. While incarcerated at the Jackson County Sherriff’s Jail, the female inmates find her Godly council a source of health and encouragement. Rachelle’s practical assistance upon release enables them to assemble the broken pieces of their lives into wholeness.
My wife and I personally endorse and support Rachelle’s ministry, “Hope and a Future.” Darrel Wiltrout, Chaplain Jackson County Sherriff’s Jail |
What a joy in life to be a part of the story that many will read in these pages and find hope, deliverance, and a desire to believe God for more. First you must know, Rachelle is one who we lovingly refer to as our daughter in the Lord (and have nicknamed her aka “Shelly Baby”).
You see, there was a day on the backdoor stairs of Lighthouse Church, when we were still on Holly Street, that I looked into the eyes of a different woman—a woman not yet surrendered! I can say, “We have been to hell and back with her.” We have seen her at her worst, running from God and blaming everyone else for it, declaring there was no problem with her. But, by the mercy and grace of God, Jeremiah 29:11 became the foundation of her entire life. She surrendered her life to Jesus, and she became submissive to us as her pastors and leadership.
I’ll never forget the day Pastor Bud asked her to take the Cleaning Ministry for the church. She submitted and did it. Boy! Did she ever do it. That action would become a sign of how she would do everything that would come her way in the future—with all of her heart. She showed up with a professional cleaning cart that she got donated to carry all the cleaning supplies. (I believe it still resides in that cleaning closet just off the gym.) She not only cleaned great, but she also took responsibility of true leadership and trained a team under her. As she grew in the Lord, she was faced with many, many obstacles that could have taken her away from ministry and the Lord, but she stood the test of time, and walked in her deliverance. She always honored the Holy Spirit, declaring that He made the difference in helping her to walk away from addictions to wholeness.
We know that the ministry is not a place for lazy or weak people. Rachelle has taken her call as serious before the Lord and given her all. She has endured major cancer surgery and extensive therapy, the loss of both her parents, and then a second cancer surgery. While walking through all of that, she was giving herself to Hope and a Future Ministries, living on-site 24/7 and handling leadership of the ministry. Recovery ministry can be a heavy weight to carry. She has been blessed with volunteers, and together, they have made a difference in many women’s lives.
The words that describe her best—stubborn but submissive, grateful for God’s goodness, faithful even when others don’t understand, not sure of her own strength but secure in His calling and empowering. She is a fighter for the Kingdom of God. A solid support system is vital in recovery for anyone, and Rachelle had just that. Initially, her sister Juanita got both of us on board praying and supporting her. Juanita would fight for her and be there for her harder than Rachelle could fight against her own deliverance. Her Mom, Eva, had shared many regrets she had in raising Rachelle and partially blamed herself for the decisions that Rachelle had made that took her down the wrong path. Eva had found serving Jesus was the answer also, and she was a sure and steady force in Rachelle’s face every day, inspiring her to dream again.
That is truly what her book is about—finding your hope so you can live out the purpose (dream) that God made you for. And for mothers just like Eva, to fight and believe for the best for their daughters and sons. And, I hope, to inspire many sisters to be like Juanita, to fight when everyone else in the family says give up, because sisters do come home to Jesus! Many lives have been challenged, inspired, and restored after hearing Rachelle’s story. Still on the sidelines saying, “Yes, you can do it, let’s believe God for more!
Pastors Bud and Susan Dawn Coffman, Previously at Lighthouse Church in Medford, Oregon
and now serving at Echo's from Calvary Church in Salinas, Calif.
You see, there was a day on the backdoor stairs of Lighthouse Church, when we were still on Holly Street, that I looked into the eyes of a different woman—a woman not yet surrendered! I can say, “We have been to hell and back with her.” We have seen her at her worst, running from God and blaming everyone else for it, declaring there was no problem with her. But, by the mercy and grace of God, Jeremiah 29:11 became the foundation of her entire life. She surrendered her life to Jesus, and she became submissive to us as her pastors and leadership.
I’ll never forget the day Pastor Bud asked her to take the Cleaning Ministry for the church. She submitted and did it. Boy! Did she ever do it. That action would become a sign of how she would do everything that would come her way in the future—with all of her heart. She showed up with a professional cleaning cart that she got donated to carry all the cleaning supplies. (I believe it still resides in that cleaning closet just off the gym.) She not only cleaned great, but she also took responsibility of true leadership and trained a team under her. As she grew in the Lord, she was faced with many, many obstacles that could have taken her away from ministry and the Lord, but she stood the test of time, and walked in her deliverance. She always honored the Holy Spirit, declaring that He made the difference in helping her to walk away from addictions to wholeness.
We know that the ministry is not a place for lazy or weak people. Rachelle has taken her call as serious before the Lord and given her all. She has endured major cancer surgery and extensive therapy, the loss of both her parents, and then a second cancer surgery. While walking through all of that, she was giving herself to Hope and a Future Ministries, living on-site 24/7 and handling leadership of the ministry. Recovery ministry can be a heavy weight to carry. She has been blessed with volunteers, and together, they have made a difference in many women’s lives.
The words that describe her best—stubborn but submissive, grateful for God’s goodness, faithful even when others don’t understand, not sure of her own strength but secure in His calling and empowering. She is a fighter for the Kingdom of God. A solid support system is vital in recovery for anyone, and Rachelle had just that. Initially, her sister Juanita got both of us on board praying and supporting her. Juanita would fight for her and be there for her harder than Rachelle could fight against her own deliverance. Her Mom, Eva, had shared many regrets she had in raising Rachelle and partially blamed herself for the decisions that Rachelle had made that took her down the wrong path. Eva had found serving Jesus was the answer also, and she was a sure and steady force in Rachelle’s face every day, inspiring her to dream again.
That is truly what her book is about—finding your hope so you can live out the purpose (dream) that God made you for. And for mothers just like Eva, to fight and believe for the best for their daughters and sons. And, I hope, to inspire many sisters to be like Juanita, to fight when everyone else in the family says give up, because sisters do come home to Jesus! Many lives have been challenged, inspired, and restored after hearing Rachelle’s story. Still on the sidelines saying, “Yes, you can do it, let’s believe God for more!
Pastors Bud and Susan Dawn Coffman, Previously at Lighthouse Church in Medford, Oregon
and now serving at Echo's from Calvary Church in Salinas, Calif.