Dear friends,
My name is Linda Caswell and I am the founder of the All Things New Inc. ministries in Oklahoma City. I am writing this to give testimony to the goodness and the redemptive power of Jesus Christ, and to share why I do what I do.
I grew up in a suburb of Denver, Colorado and I had a good childhood even though we did not know Jesus.
My parents allowed me to attend church with friends as a young teenager and I received Jesus at the age of thirteen; however, at the age of sixteen I became disillusioned with the church. I left for the next twenty-one years.
During the late 1960's and early 1970's I bit into the lie of sexual liberty. Getting high on drugs was becoming a common occurrence and "free" sex was everywhere. Thus began the downward spiral in my own life.
I started experimenting with alcohol and marijuana at the age of seventeen. By the age of twenty-four, I was a full-blown alcoholic and drug addict. Although I was what is referred to as a "functioning" alcoholic, I had no self-respect and my life was in chaos. I was convinced that God did not exist and lived my life accordingly.
I was married for two years and then divorced. Soon after that I was in a common-law marriage for ten years to someone who was also an addict. Out of this union were born two wonderful children.
My then husband and I were drug dealers and we would go to an airport in Colorado and pick up suitcases full of hundreds of pounds of marijuana. We then delivered and sold it to a local street dealer who sold it to others, including high school students. In due time the street dealer was arrested and my husband and I quickly moved to New Orleans where my addictions became much worse.
It was at this time that I got involved in prostitution. I was a "companion" to millionaires and to corrupt cops. Although I was considered a "high class" call girl, prostitution is prostitution and there is always a price to be paid whether it is physical, emotional or both.
At the beginning of this part of my life there was a veil of deceit over my eyes because I had lots of money and drugs were always available in abundance. I had a rich "sugar daddy" and we flew all over the United States. I was at his beck and call. As time went on, the darkness I was in came to the forefront; I was expected to perform all kinds of horrible sex acts with different people. Sometimes a group of these millionaires would take us on a vacation and I would wake up in the morning to hear these men talking about the other women and me in degrading ways. I was a "show" girl - someone to be paraded around for beauty - yet regarded as stupid in the eyes of the one who controlled me. If a sexual act was not pleasing to him it was my fault, and there were many times he inflicted physical pain on me but it was not noticeable to the public eye. I was also expected to give sexual favors to the corrupt cops who were given "hush" money by the millionaires I was involved with.
In the midst of all of this, I became pregnant. In the spring of 1984, I was thirty years old, the mother of one, still an addict and pregnant again. Tragically, I chose to abort my child. Soon after my marriage fell apart. I was hopeless, helpless and alone.
The next couple of years continued in the same pattern until one day I took a walk with my four-year old daughter. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "You don't love me anymore because you are never home." It was at that moment I realized how much I was hurting her and I was getting sick of the way I was living.
In September of 1990, I started nursing school and one of my instructors was a Christian. She saw my sadness and began to minister God's love to me for about six months, never pushing but always ready with an answer. I truly hated men and God used women to bring me to Jesus. I could no longer bear the weight of the things I had done and on March 12, 1991 I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and I was also baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was immediately delivered from alcohol and drugs and set free from a life of immorality. And I came face-to-face with my choice to abort my baby.
In 1998 I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma and I graduated from Victory Bible Institute. I started a street ministry while in Tulsa and I was on staff at a ministry for women coming out of prison.
On August 17, 2003, I married a wonderful man of God and we started a faith-based house for women coming out of prison in the state of Kansas. We moved to Oklahoma in 2007 and I became the State Director of Concerned Women for America of Oklahoma. I am now the founder of All Things New Inc. which is a rescue house for women and children who are coming out of sex trafficking and prostitution.
There is no sin too great for God to forgive. The Word says in Isaiah 53:4-5: Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
I thank God every day for the new life He has given me. He truly has made "all things new."