Mary Frances Bowley wasn't sure the young woman would show up that cold December day, but there she was in the parking lot of the south Atlanta condo as planned.
At 24, Melissa Stanfield was just a whiff of a girl with dirty blond hair, dirty coveralls and a dirty past.
Bowley, the woman who'd stepped up to rescue Stanfield from a life of forced prostitution, stood gazing, wondering what she'd gotten herself into.
It was an unlikely meeting between two women who couldn't have been more different. But with one little word -- "yes" -- Stanfield made a sharp turn toward recovery.
What began that afternoon out of desperation has ended in joy not just for Stanfield but for Bowley, founder and CEO of Wellspring Living, a non-profit organization that provides a refuge, restoration and renewal to women who've suffered childhood sexual abuse and exploitation.
Today, Stanfield, who recently celebrated her eighth wedding anniversary, is a 35-year-old wife and stay-at-home mom. And Bowley has nurtured Wellspring from a one bedroom condo to three residential programs and four resale stores across metro Atlanta.
Seated at a pub table in Bowely's kitchen in Peachtree City, the two women recently traced their journey across the last decade and marveled at how far both Stanfield and Wellspring have come.
"Melissa's life is different, but so is mine," Bowley said. "So is my family's."
In 1996, Bowley was teaching kindergarten when she decided to quit and home-school her two sons.
In her spare time, she volunteered with the women's ministry at First Baptist Church Peachtree City, putting on conferences and partnering with organizations that help women escape the sex trade.
For the first time in her life, Bowley had to step outside her middle-class bubble. She was beginning to see what suffering really looked like.
"I began to have a real passion for women who seemed to be falling through the crack — marginalized women, forgotten women," Bowley said.
Initially, the ministry provided food, clothing, transportation, tutoring and job skills training. They mobilized volunteers to connect women with organizations that could help.
Eventually Bowley said they realized they needed to do more. They needed to create a place where sexually abused and exploited women could feel safe and heal.
In March 2001, they founded Wellspring Living, and eight months later they opened their first residential treatment program in a south Atlanta condo.
At 17, Melissa Stanfield had already lived through more than most adults: sexual abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse.
"I was drinking and taking a lot of pills," Stanfield said. "I wanted to die."
Instead, Stanfield would eventually take control of her life and after several crooks and turns move to Atlanta.
She was living in a Roswell apartment when a man knocked on the door to use the phone. He told her she was beautiful, that she had a nice body. He asked if she stripped to make money.
Call if you ever want to make money, he told her.
She never made that call, but the man began to supply Melissa with an endless amount of cocaine nonetheless. He treated her to shopping sprees, manicures and pedicures.
But she would soon pay a heavy price for his generosity.
"In a blink of an eye everything changed," Stanfield said.
One night, he forced her to have sex with him and eventually other men.
For an entire year, that was her life until one day she met a man who invited her to North Point Community Church in Alpharetta.
"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," Stanfield said. "I was mesmerized."
A few weeks later a stranger told her about Bowley, and Stanfield's life took a dramatic turn..
"God moved quickly in my life," she said, now crying. "I left everything I had to come to Wellspring Living."
For the first time in her life, Stanfield said she was surrounded by people who didn't judge her, who loved and cared for her.
"No one was ever willing to help without a price tag on it," she said, "but they walked alongside of me."
When she decided to get her GED, they were there. When she enrolled at Clayton State University, they were there.
"God changed my life and used Wellspring to show me that I had worth, and that I was capable of living a new life." Stanfield said.
Wellspring Living, 140 Howell Road, Suite C-2 Tyrone. 770-631-8889. www.wellspringliving.org. Proceeds from the sale of Kevin Rowe's new single, "Everything I Was Made For," go to Wellspring Living at his upcoming concert. 7 p.m. Aug 18. $12 advance, $16 at the door. Tavern 99, 128 Andrews Drive, Atlanta. www.kevinrowe.com.
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