Her Radical Journey from Brokenness to Redemption

BROKEN BEGINNINGS

Lynn Eldridge was conceived of wedlock. Her parents were forced into a shotgun wedding. Lynn’s father adored her, while her mother resented her. Lynn’s dad never truly loved her mom and said so, but openly declared his love for his daughter and this created friction between Lynn and her mother.  

Growing up Lynn always felt depressed. She tried telling her parents about her constant sadness, but they didn’t know how to help her. It made her mother angry, and her dad would just buy her something to try and cheer her up. Mental illness ran rampant throughout her family with some relatives being institutionalized. 

Even though her family was dysfunctional, they were good at business. They became very successful after opening general stores in Illinois. Lynn learned early on how to be an entrepreneur while helping in the stores. But all the money and material things never brought Lynn happiness.
Always reprimanded, the tension between Lynn and her mother continued to grow. “I finally said to myself one day, ‘I’ll give you a reason to ground me. Game on,’” she explains.

Lynn turned to alcohol and drugs to ease the pain and eventually began selling drugs to make money. At 17 years old, she moved in with her much older drug dealer boyfriend. Lynn shares, “I moved in with my 30-year-old boyfriend--a drug dealer--and the next thing I know, I’m carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in a suitcase to Florida to meet up with drug cartels and buying kilos of cocaine with a bunch of 30-year-olds. I didn’t realize I was being one of their mules. When word got out and her mom and dad got wind that the FBI was on to Lynn and her drug-dealing friends, "My mother told me the FBI came to them because I was a minor, and extended to them one chance to save my life from the cartel men. She said, 'She'd put me where no one would find me...Bible College,'" Lynn recalls.

When she arrived on campus, Lynn felt the power of the Holy Spirit and was set free. But her experience with the Church wasn’t all she had hoped for. I never learned about God's ways of keeping "doors" shut by living in forgiveness, hunger, peace, and guarding my heart. The culture of my family's church was like the world's culture.

For years, she was a truth seeker which included other religions. Her problem wasn’t with God, Lynn was mad at Jesus. She explains, “I was still furious with Jesus because I was a defeated Christian who had never been set free for any substantial length of time. I decided I could have a relationship with God who was loving, compassionate, kind, and all the things but I wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He symbolized religion to me, and religion was powerless.” 

Lynn eventually went to rehab but relapsed again. She was also diagnosed with bipolar depression and was medicated with psychotropic drugs (antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, stimulants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers) and was in therapy for 17 years. Regardless of what she tried, darkness kept closing in and Lynn was suicidal on several occasions. One day, she decided she was finally ready to end her life. When she called her cousin, he told her a healing evangelist was coming to his church and invited her to go. Willing to give life one last shot, she went.

While attending the service, the evangelist called her out of the crowd and prayed for her. Then, a lady handed her an invitation card to a healing room where several people would meet and intercede for those needing healing. Lynn went to the healing room and filled out the prayer form. “I wrote down suicidal, bipolar, and addicted,” Lynn shares.

She continued going to the healing room twice a week and kept testing God to see if lasting change was possible. This is where she learned about generational curses. The group of intercessors began praying and breaking generational curses of addiction and mental illness off Lynn and she was healed! The last psychotropic drug Lynn took was in 2011. God set her free! 

Since then, Lynn has gone on several mission trips to Mozambique. Some with Randy Clarke’s ministry, Global Awakening, where she was ordained as a minister. In addition to being an inner healing minister, Lynn is a life coach, speaker, and author. She loves to minister to women trapped in addiction and has mentored women at Teen Challenge. She continues to minister to anyone that God sets in her path.