A young girl suffering abuse at the hands of her father grows up hard and bitter. She knows firsthand the cruelties and evil in the world and has built up walls in order to protect herself and those she loves. This young girl, years later, finds herself at the mercy of the hands of justice, which takes away the only thing in her life that holds meaning to her — her children. She finds herself forced by a judge and legal system, to take classes at a local center in the hopes of getting a second chance.

Kitty Bounds, volunteer community director at the Mosaic Center, remembers this young woman's story, as well as many other heart-wrenching stories from women, who have sought help from a home and a family of women who give out second chances to anyone who desires a change of life.

Brittony Lund/The Lufkin Daily News (ENLARGE)

Executive Director Donna Busler, Program Director Carol Ramsey, Community and Volunteer Director Kitty Bounds and Building Committee Chairman Rocky Thigpen stand in front of the new Mosaic Center house.

"They're my heroes," Bounds said. "They keep seeking. No matter how they get here, if they're willing to make changes God can change their hearts and their lives."

The Mosaic Center, a non-profit organization formed in 2004, seeks to help women and families in Angelina County who are looking for a way out of poverty. According to statistics provided by the Mosaic Center almost 20 percent of Angelina County lives in poverty, including single mothers, the under-educated, abuse victims and women overcoming substance abuse. The Mosaic Center offers these women a core 11-week program of classes that begins with a needs assessment and then focuses on job and life skills, counseling and spiritual and personal development so these at-risk women can become self-sufficient, healthy and strong.

Each woman who comes to the Mosaic Center has her own mentor and friend who prays with her and is there anytime she needs to talk. Bounds compared these volunteers to mothers looking out for their daughters. She said the center does not give handouts, but instead gives a helping hand.

"They know we're going to help them," Bounds said. "We're going to listen and they're going to hear God's truth."

Recently the Denman/Newman family of Lufkin donated a house on First Street to the Mosaic Center. The house, originally built in 1927, has become a welcome sight to many with its white columns seeming to symbolize strength and its warm golden interior complete with donated Victorian-style furniture and cozy fireplaces. Rocky Thigpen, through the donations of several organizations and individuals, as well as a $75,000 grant from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, helped coordinate the renovation of the center.

Thigpen and the board decided to keep the house with all its original personality, including the hardwood floors. However, Thigpen did oversee bringing the house up to city code for the facility. This included redoing the electrical wiring, rewiring it for computers, fixing the plumbing and making it wheelchair accessible as well as adding a parking lot. The renovation took four months to complete, and now the Mosaic Center is now up and running.

"Women can get knowledge you can't get anywhere else, including hygiene, cooking, sewing, nutrition and health," Thigpen said.

Along with a new, larger home the Mosaic Center also recently hired Donna Busler as the new executive director. Busler, who led the children's ministry at Carpenter's Way Baptist Church for the past 10 years, said she began to feel and see God's gently guiding hand in moving her from her longtime home at Carpenter's Way into women's ministry at the Mosaic Center. In front of her church, Busler told her story about going through a really rough spring and crying out to God through it.

"I'm hurting," she cried out to Him. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore."

Through a series of events and meetings Busler discovered a passion for women's ministry and when the job opened up for executive director she said she knew it was in God's plan for her.

"They are making a difference in girls' lives," Busler said. "They are breaking the cycle of poverty and giving a message of hope through Jesus Christ. It's just the next step in my spiritual journey."

The Mosaic Center has more than 200 volunteers. Just this year the center won Love INC's Agency of the Year; the 25th Annual Governor's Volunteer Award as a Community Motivator and a national grant from the Christian Women's Job Corps.

Bounds said the center first focuses on fixing a woman's brokenness before focusing on teaching her job skills. She said a woman can't feel valuable as a worker until she feels valuable as a person.

"They trust us," Bounds said. "God can heal them. This is a healing place and a place of hope."

The little girl who started out broken and hard-hearted because of her history of abuse is today married to a kind Christian man who treats her well. She got her children back and can now show them the love she never received as a child. And she credits God with all of the blessings in her life. Bounds said it's women her and many others that touch her heart and show her what it truly means to be a strong woman of faith and overcome all obstacles.

Anyone wishing to attend the open house can show up Oct. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. to see what the Mosaic Center is all about and view their new home. The new location is at 601 S. First St.