A Place of Refuge

Annamarie Kenny knew the insidious nature of drug addiction. Years of drug-use had resulted in repeated imprisonment,had cost her the custody of her young daughter, and had seen her child‘s father die from a fatal overdose of drugs. She hated her degrading job at a seedy massage parlour, but it was the only way she had of supporting her drug habit. Each time she was released from prison, even after participating in drug rehabilitation programmes, she would go back to doing drugs. “Staying off drugs was the one thing the judicial system here wanted me to do, but it was the one thing I could not do,” she says.

Like so many other released prisoners, Annamarie couldn‘t find a way out of her destructive lifestyle until she met God through Prison Fellowship. "Prison Fellowship taught me I could go to a loving God and lay my burdens at his feet,” she says, and after being sent back to prison for the last time, she decided to surrender herself and her problem to God. “I asked Him to give me liberty or give me death. [and] He not only gave me life, but the freedom to enjoy that life,” recalls Annamarie.

After being released from prison, she found the safe refuge of a friend who helped her become involved in a church and introduced her to the Oasis Centre, an aftercare facility established by PF Guam‘s Robert Zimmerman to help women recovering from drug addiction. Finally she had the support she needed to avoid the pitfalls of her past life and make a fresh start. Annamarie was so grateful for her new life that she began helping out at the Oasis Centre and then, late last year she became the full-time resident manager. The Oasis Centre is the first of its kind in Guam. “Until the opening of the Oasis, there was no supportive living environment for people who were going back to sick relationships,” says Annamarie. “I am blessed to be part of the Oasis, and so I continue to share what was so freely given to me.”