Do You Have The Courage To Change?

‘BRE DAY 2024’

Only 1500 beds.

Over 4000 houseless community members.

Judgement comes easily when you sit in a place of privilege.

Growing up, my mother would roll the windows up as we drove past struggling community members, and the judgment lay thick. “Give them money, and they will spend it on drugs or stop being lazy and get a job” was the rhetoric. I couldn't help them as we drove past them, but I would look back and wish I could have. I dared not talk back or disagree with her points of view, so I kept my mouth shut as a good Christian daughter does.

Our community was the cult—a selfish community that prided itself on looking down on the struggling. Outreach was of satanic belief. The denying of the teachings William Branham brought is why the world is in its state. William Branham believed that if he had reached Marilyn Monroe, she would have accepted the word he had brought. Talk about brainwashing.

Fellow humans on the outside were not of our concern; our ‘Chosen Ones God Complex’ kept us on a pedestal, better than. The cult didn't even help their own without strings attached.

Mom will tell you she knew I was different from a young age. She labels me wild and free, and I've caused her more growing pains than anyone else.

On October 22, 2021, I called her and said, “Mom, I started a blog about my life and the cult.”

Her: “BREANNA! No, you didn’t! Just live your life quietly.”

Me: “Fuck that.”

Her: ……

Me: Love you!

I began to share stories of other cult members with her, and as I shared my own, the world she once knew and chose started to shake and crumble. She did not read my blog; it was painful, but I kept writing and talking to her.

We fought and fought some more... and some more again. We hung up on each other, and months passed without seeing each other. I constantly challenged her deep-rooted beliefs with my actions and my words. Other people drive people to drink; I drove my mom to obtain a therapist.

‘BRE DAY 2022’

I told Mom all about it, but she was silent. She struggled greatly with what I was doing. Once again, that deep-rooted judgement reared. It would help if you remembered that we were as right-wing as possible. Selfish, arrogant assholes are what we were, so here I was, challenging her to take a step to the left.

At her next therapy session, ‘BRE DAY’ took up her 50-minute session.

‘BRE DAY 2023’ happened, and she told me she was happy I was doing it. That was as far as her involvement went. The judgment was lingering, but I kept doing and talking.

That brings me to ‘BRE DAY 2024!’

EVERYTHING has changed.

She didn't hesitate to provide financial support, and one step further to the left, she asked to come with us.

😱🤯

Santa, aka my mom, asked my children what they would like for Christmas. Brielle replied, “ All I want for Christmas is to do what Mommy does; I want to give hotdogs to the homeless.”

Friends, the magic of Santa is alive.

In our talks, I told her she needed to talk with them, listen to their stories, and feel their hearts as they spoke. I needed her to see them as fellow humans and not as “drug zombies,” as those in power refer to them as, who are dragging down the system. I needed her to see first-hand the SYSTEMIC issue. I needed her to know that her vote in political elections is either a hand-up or a push-down on humanity. I needed her to feel the reality of the houseless that would be mine with my five children.

I didn't know what to expect from her there, but to my surprise, I watched tears pour down her cheeks as a woman told her of her cognitive disability and about the car accident that disabled her legs. I watched as she listened intently as a man told her he was a prosperous man making $150,000 per year, but with just a few life misfortunes, he does not know where his head will lay each night, if it will lay at all. She listened as a man told her that the police smiled gleefully as they tore down their encampments and threw all of what they owned into dumpsters. She asked their names and held the hands of one young man as they shook from the cold. We had run out of bags by the time we reached him, but we gave him the gloves off our hands, and his wife was in need, too.

As you'll see in the video below, cops were breaking up a group of houseless near us as we were on the other side lending a helping hand. The juxtaposition tells the whole story. My mom would have been the one to call the police in the past, but last night, she answered the community's call.

When a lady asked for hand sanitizer, she rushed to her vehicle. Mom had two she wasn't using.

Mom: “That young girl only has running shoes on.”

Me: “It’s only -13. Imagine when it is -30.”

Upon arriving home, I asked her what impact ‘BRE DAY’ had on her, if any. She replied, “My eyes are now open. My life is changed.”

‘BRE DAY’ is about humanity. We have to hold onto care, love and hope while those in power choose to play with our lives as pawns in their egotistical games.

Generational trauma ends with me.

Change is possible. It starts with one.

You can be that one too.

Do you have the courage to change?

We can bloom in concrete. My mom and I are proof.

Fyi - if you believe in Christ, this is what Jesus would do. It is what he did.