Ranee’s Story

Summary

I’m Ranee, born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, the middle child of an alcoholic dad, weakened by childhood asthma and allergies. At 15, my parents’ divorce shattered my trust in men, so I numbed the pain with heavy drinking and self-reliance 🥃. Then, on a dare—hungover on Easter—I sat front row at a “Road to Calvary” play and watched Jesus love people who mocked Him. In that moment, I wept and stood for Christ’s altar call 🙌. He filled my void, healed my rejection, and gave me purpose I’d never known.

Time Chapters

01:05 Discovering inner strength
01:50 Father’s divorce impact
02:42 Numbing pain with alcohol
03:40 Accepting the church dare
04:33 Moved by Road to Calvary

—————– Source —————–

Ranee’s story ✨Ranee showed up to church on a dare with a hangover. She met a man unlike any other man in her life who’d failed or abandoned her. Learn more: overflowhope.org

#alchohol #dareyou #tomboy #overflowhope #northeugenehighschool #eugeneoregon #junctioncityoregon

Partial Transcript
And a friend of mine said, I dare you. I just dare you to go to church tomorrow. And I’m like, I’ll take that dare. So, cause you never turned down a dare, right? So I just decided, all right. So the next day we all got up, we all had hangovers. Oh, so bad. Hi, my name is Renee and I live here in Junction City, Oregon, and I was born and raised in Eugene. I grew up here from a baby up and through high school. I went to North Eugene high school. We had a pretty tough upbringing, to be honest with you. My father was an alcoholic. Um, and so that made for a very,

uh, tense household. Um, I was the middle child, had a lot of health issues when I was a child. And so my parents were always having to take care of me and it was never strong. I was always weak and not able to do a lot of things. And so I felt like I was, kind of the problem for the family. I always felt like I was the reason my dad drank. I was the reason my parents had financial struggles and I never, there was nothing I could do about it. And, but as I got older, we found a doctor who helped me through all of those things, allergies, asthma, all that kind of stuff. And once I started feeling better, I’m like, okay, so this strength thing is really good.

So I got to figure out how to become strong. I didn’t, didn’t want to depend on anyone. I was a tomboy. My older sister, she was the girl of the family. But then when my little brother came along, that’s when I realized, okay, so this whole boy thing is exactly who I am. I loved cars. I loved dirt. I loved sports. And so when he came along, I felt like I finally knew who I was. But with all of that, I, once I started feeling better and I was starting to get healthier, I was starting to like, you know what? This feels good. I don’t, I don’t need people to take care of me. And, but as I grew, my parents’ marriage did end up in divorce. I was 15 years old when my dad left.

And although he left my mom, as people would say, I felt like he left me. And because of that, I, I just didn’t trust men anymore. He had taken care of me the best he could my whole growing up, but then he left me. And I, I struggled with that for so long. And so I just decided, I’m, I’m going to take care of myself. I don’t need anyone. I’m not weak anymore. I’m gaining strength. I’m healthy. I’m strong. I’m smart. And so I’m to heck with them. This is how I felt with my friend, Sherry and I, she was my first roommate. And so we moved out of our parents’ houses when we were 19, got an apartment over, um, on next to the river on Adams strength street.

I think it was, I don’t know. Um, but we were pretty heavy drinkers and because that’s what I, all I ever knew my parents. I drank my father mostly and, but just kind of numbed that feeling of men not caring about me and, and no one, you know, being there for me, that kind of thing. And so I numbed it with alcohol, but I was 20 years old. I remember it was the day before Easter and we were all in our apartment. We’re all getting drunk, all the things that you do when you’re young and a commercial came on the TV. And it was a commercial from Willamette, a Christian center here in Eugene. And they were doing a play, a sweet little Christian play called road to Calvary.

And, and so we were just ha haing about it, that sort of thing. And a friend of mine said, I dare you, I just dare you to go to church tomorrow. And I’m like, I’ll take that dare. So, cause I, you never turned down a dare, right? So I just decided, all right. So the next day we all got up, we all had hangovers. Oh, so bad. So we ended up having to sit in the very, very, very, very front row, all six of us with pounding headaches. So when this play came on this, this man named Jesus, um, I was just watching him. I was enamored by, by this person and they beat him and they laughed at him and they accused him of things that he didn’t do.

And yet through all of that, just that road to Calvary, I was watching him and he just loved them. He loved them where they were. He knew they didn’t understand what was going on. He knew they didn’t agree with his, with his ways. And yet he still loved them regardless of how they treated him. And I had never had a man in my life up to that point who ever took that place in my life or who even wanted to. And so this whole line, watching Jesus just come to, uh, through his last days on the planet, um, it just struck me and I just was telling myself, I was telling myself, I don’t know who this guy is. But I want him in my life.

And so when, when the time came for the altar call, I didn’t even know what that was. The pastor was if there was anyone who wanted to receive Christ, I stood up…

Overflow Hope

Local stories. Real hope in the Central Lane County community. These are the stories of people in the greater Eugene and Springfield, Oregon community who have experienced Jesus Christ change their lives. Their stories prove Christianity is more than religion and that it's possible to change your life. There is hope when you are hopeless, lack purpose or motivation, struggling with anxiety and depression, or just know there has to be more than life than this. We hope these stories show you that Jesus is alive, loving and willing to meet anyone who cries out to Him.

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