Finding solid ground after many lost years
Tracey today is a Salvation Army Soldier. (Photo courtesy of War Cry)
After an unstable childhood and a series of traumas, Tracey began using drugs and “hanging out with the wrong people.” It took 25 years before she found her faith again.
While her parents loved her, Tracey’s life never had a stable home environment. Her father was a kangaroo shooter, and she grew up roaming the outback across West Australia, NSW and Queensland, living on stations or missions in a caravan.
Her parents separated when she was three, then Tracey’s father kidnapped her and took her to live with an aunt in Queensland. It took three years and the help of a private detective before her mother found her, and her father was taken away by the police.
For a short time, Tracey says “life was good” and she was happy. Her mum remarried and the family moved to New Zealand. But her mum and new stepfather separated when she was 10 and the family returned to Perth. Her grandmother died soon after.
“I’d been happy with my stepfather and suddenly he was gone and now so was my grandmother. I found myself on an emotional rollercoaster,” she says. “I hung onto my belief in Jesus, but with all the change and stuff going on, I eventually lost it.”
“When I was 11, I was raped and bashed, which left me in hospital with a broken jaw…By 13, I was on drugs and that life continued until I was 38.”
Throughout her early adult years, Tracey was in and out of abusive relationships – and in and out of jail. She also had two children.
It wasn’t until she hit 38 that she got to the point where she’d “had enough” and turned to God for help.
“I prayed for the first time in years and I asked simply for a better life,” Tracey says. “I didn’t notice anything change drastically, but as I look back I can see that was the point that things did begin to get better.”
In 2003 she went into rehab in Cessnock in the Hunter region of NSW, and she has been clean and sober ever since.
“That put me on the path of faith again, with Jesus in the mix of the 12-step program. I also began going to The Salvation Army. The Salvos had been part of my life since I was 23. They helped me with accommodation, food and someone to talk to during the years of my addiction.
“They’ve always been there when I needed anything, never judging or turning me away, always being warm and friendly, which is just what I needed.”
Five years ago Tracey moved to Cowra and was looking for activities for her daughter, Amethyst, when she heard about the Salvos’ ‘Mainly Music’ program.
“They invited me along to church as well and I felt immediately at home.”
“After a while I went to Louise, our minister, to see if I could open up an AA program because there wasn’t one close by. She agreed, and it’s been going strong for the past four years. I wanted to create a place where people had somewhere to go and talk about what was happening to them.
“Last Christmas, I became a member of The Salvation Army at Cowra and now I’m hoping, with the help of others at our church, to open a drop-in centre where people can have a meal.
“They were there for me and now I want to do that for others,” she says.
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