Meet Tiffany!

Meet Tiff!

Name:

Tiffany Anderson McCarter

Age:

33

Favorite Food:

“Everything’s my favorite, I just don’t like vegetables,” she wants to make sure everybody knows.  After a fair amount of thought, though, Tiffany decided on the BBQ Chicken Luau pizza from 

Mountain Mikes.

Tiff enjoying some California sunshine!

Favorite Thing to Do:

“Just kick it” with her three sons, Robert, Tavian, and Rajan

OUR favorite thing about Tiffany:

Her heart and passion for South Oroville, or “The Southside” as she lovingly refers to it, her willingness to serve and love, her bubbly and fun-loving personality, as well as her sunny outlook on life in general.

         When deliberations began as to who to spotlight for our next segment of “The Faces of Kingdom Apprenticeship,” it didn’t take long for Tiffany to come to our mind. You see, Tiffany is the picture of what Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship hopes to accomplish and a perfect representation of  what “beauty for ashes” truly means. Tiffany is a strikingly accurate portrayal to the testimony of how much the love of Jesus can change a person.

         Not only does Tiffany attend morning classes and volunteer at The Father’s House Church from 8AM to 5PM, she also manages to hold down a regular job AND is the mother of three teenage boys! Phew! But miraculously, Tiffany rarely gets bogged down or over burdened by these things. When we asked her if sometimes her fast-paced life style ever gets to be too much, she told us very candidly,

         “No! I believe that as long as I keep God at my fore-front, burn out is not in my near future.” 

And you know what? Words like these can be very easily doubted, because they so goes against what we’ve all been taught, but for some reason when Tiffany spoke these words as truth, we couldn’t help but believe her.

Tiffany's two youngest sons, Tavian and Rajan, goofing around

         Whether a person be rich, poor, broken, whole, afflicted, or healthy, Tiffany will pour love them unhinderedly. She loves all people with no inhibition or “cap.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out, though, that her favorite people to love on are her three sons. Even when we went to visit Tiffany at her place of work, her oldest son, Robert (16), was there with her. It didn’t take long to see that there was a very special relationship between the two of them that supersedes most parent-child relationships. Whether jesting, working, or simply being together, there is a trust and comfort between the two that is quite apparent.

         But as we said in the beginning, Tiffany’s story is one of RESTORATION, and although she will be the first to tell you her life is better than it’s ever been, it hasn’t always been as “picture perfect” as some may say it is now. When asked to describe the life she used to live, or the way that she used to feel prior to her coming to know God’s love for her, Tiffany was for one of the first times we’ve ever seen at a loss for words.

 “I just don’t know how to sum it up” she said after trying to come up with an answer “except to say that I was lost in the darkness. I was hopeless, and there was always this ‘impending doom’ hanging over me!”

         At a relatively young age, Tiffany was, for lack of a better term, “slapped in the face” by the reality of what people in the world can be capable of.

“I was always in a place where people always loved and cared for me, then [suddenly] in a place where that was no longer the case.”

         On drugs since she was fifteen, Tiffany found herself in a tangle of broken dreams, horrendously abusive relationships, and a miserable hopelessness that she couldn’t make go away no matter how much she tried. Tiffany has said many times that while she was living in this downward spiral, the reason why she didn’t change was because she was never given any kind of ultimatum not to. In her mind she could keep going the way that she was and still be able to keep all the things she loved (her children, relationships, ETC.) as well. Tiffany was cognizant that she was completely unhappy with her situation, but saw no reason to put an end to it.

         Tiffany’s out of control life came to a boiling point one night when the home that Tiffany and her children were living in was raided by the police.

“It was horrible” Tiffany stated. “My kids were all home when the police kicked the door in. They were all crying, ‘Mommy!’”

         Later, after Tiffany was taken to jail for the contraband discovered in her house during the raid, her son Robert made it known to Tiffany that he’d had enough of her dysfunctional behavior.

“He told me, ‘Mom, I’m done with you, I’m stopping all communication with you [until this ends.]’ And I know that he meant it… That was a real turning point in my life, you know!”

         A turning point, it truly was. Not long after, Tiffany began to seek out a drug rehabilitation program in the hopes of getting her life back on track and to gain reconciliation with her children. Tiffany heard of Life Recovery Ministries* through a girl in her pod at jail who had called and gotten an interview right away. That was enough for Tiffany. When asked why she called Life Recovery Ministries (LRM) she told us quite frankly,

         “I called Life Recovery Ministries because I knew they’d answer the phone.”

Tiffany was right! She called the LRM office, they answered, and she was interviewed and accepted to the program in a matter of days. Tiffany was already ready to turn her life around, because she knew if she didn’t she would die. By the time the courts and probation approved Tiffany’s decision to come into LRM, 45 days after her initial acceptance into the program, it was “ON AND CRACKIN!’” (As Tiffany would say.) 

Tiffany (Right) with friends Vicki (Left) and Colleen (Middle)

“What happened in my time in LRM? I found God! Things started making sense and I figured out there was actually a plan for my life! I [suddenly] had a motivation to live differently.”

         The key to this revelation of God and how to find him? Love! As Tiffany shared in the beginning the key to her self destruction and degradation was a complete lack of love from people in her life. As she began to commit herself to the program of Life Recovery Ministries, she began to see the ABUNDANCE of love from people in her life!

“People opened up doors to me because they believed in me, and I started to believe that not only was GOD real, but his love for me was real too!” She went on to say, ““I understand now that God loves me, I love God, and therefore I love others.”

     After Tiffany’s successful graduation from Life Recovery Ministries, she was hungry to know this love in a greater and more powerful way. She knew there was more that God had for her, and didn’t want to miss out on it!

“I had vision in my life [for the first time ever] and I wanted to be a part of something! I saw the lives of the directors of Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship and I knew their vision lined up with mine. That was all it took to convince me!”

     Tiffany spoke at great length of the things she has learned and the ways that she has grown in her time affiliated with Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship. In trying to “edit down” exactly what she said as she shared her heart, we decided her heart would be conveyed more accurately with a direct quote. Here it is.

(In answer to the question “What have you learned in your time with Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship?”)

“I’ve been given the keys to the kingdom. God’s been THRASHING me with his love lately. And He’s given me a humongous heart for Him. As I push into the ‘safety net’ He has me in, He continues to teach me how to give my all!

He’s restoring EVERYTHING… I mean, there’s still some things that are in the process, but every major thing I thought I lost he’s brought back to me! It’s so awesome!

 I change every day, it seems like, more and more! I get to be a part of something that’s way bigger than myself and not only that, but I get to lead others in the process as well!”

Tiffany is currently enrolled in our “Core School In Action” Program, phase 2 of the Apprenticeship, and we can attest one hundred percent that Tiffany lives a life of ABSOLUTE restoration. She is a living breathing testimony to Jesus’ words, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.” Tiffany loves much! She used to live a life where there was no hope, nothing worth setting her sight to, nothing worth living for—Now Tiffany dreams of seeing the love of Christ transform South Oroville, and see hope come to the community through Jesus!

As her interview came to a close, Tiffany said,

“If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone!”

And we are so proud that it DID happen to her, because our lives are truly blessed and enriched through the life of Tiffany.

**Life Recovery Ministries is a residential 12-month drug and alcohol treatment facility and is situated in South Oroville as an arm of The Father’s House Church.