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A label can feel like a sentence—until it becomes a testimony. Kathy sits down with Kayleen Mendez for a candid, unflinching conversation about growing up tender-hearted in church, slipping into control and secrecy, and the abusive marriage that shattered safety and trust. When drinking in her thirties opened the door to meth and homelessness, life narrowed to survival—hotel lobbies, gang threats, a brutal assault, and the numbing calculus of where to lay a head at night. Then came a stark inner warning: leave now or die. Kayleen walked nine miles to her parents while high, praying with every step for a door to open.
What follows is a blueprint for restoration that doesn’t pretend the road is easy. Teen Challenge slowed her down long enough to name the core wound—unhealed trauma and a lifelong hunger to be accepted. Released early with nowhere to go, she chose faith on empty: a train station floor, a welfare office, and the audacity to pray out loud for strangers. Enter the Abbotts, mentors who mixed backbone with tenderness, moving her from shelter to safety and from shame to steady steps. We talk about boundaries, gossip in the church world, and why direct questions—Are you sleeping together?—can save a life when paired with real support.

Listen in, for the rest of the story.

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Kathy has two books out and they can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online:

Redeem California, With God it IS Possible:

God of the Impossible: 30-Prayers for the Redemption and Restoration of California