Welcome

Hanceville, Alabama

Karen is the Founder and President; she serves our team as Ordained Chaplain and Project Leader. 

She graduated cum laude B.A. in Ministry from Andersonville Theological Seminary; an Alabama Notary; is certified in Mental Health First Aid, certified QPR (Suicide Awareness) Instructor with Cook Ministries and ASPARC (Alabama Suicide Prevention and Resource Coalition), serves as a volunteer Chaplain with Billy Graham Rapid Response Team and anticipating graduation from Colorado Christian University summer of 2025 with Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology with an emphasis in Clinical Counseling.

She is a piano player and singer who loves to share her testimony and sing for God.

Since 2010, she has served primarily in the Christian Street Ministry atmosphere, filling various leadership roles. 

She has spent time serving the homeless, the trafficked, and addicts, from being inside recovery centers to being on the streets.

She has taught Recovery inside the jail system, as well as in public settings, and even served as Chaplain at the local police department alongside one of her mentors, who helped guide her into finding the path she's on today with suicide prevention.

After her brother died by suicide it was then, that she found herself struggling with the path she was to be on, and it was through that grief and pain the vision for this ministry began and is named for her brother, Johnny 

Cullman, Alabama

Sheila serves as Mentor and Advisor to our ministry, as well as on our Board of Directors.

Sheila and Gary Self are founders of The Cross Ministries.

In December 2012 Sheila had a supernatural encounter with the Lord, feeling the presence of God, she was set free from sins, delivered from bondage, and received anointing, it was there she had an open vision and God gave her a new heart filled with love for people. 

 In 2014, she had another open vision of a sign that read: The Cross is where it all began.

After her encounter with the Lord in 2012, shortly after the Lord started teaching her about deliverance through dreams and visions.

He spoke to her heart and told her that she was going to have a ministry, and it would consist of casting out demons and healing.

In January 2015 she started volunteering at a women's home in Cullman and it was there the Lord created a hunger in her to learn more.

The Lord opened a door for her to go minister at the Cullman County Jail which led to begin a journey of 5 years teaching and mentoring inside the jail system, and it is there that God molded her into teaching His Word.

In January 2017, Sheila and Gary felt led to open one of their rental properties for a woman’s home, which was named The Grace House. The next 6 years was spent mentoring and counseling women to find inner healing and deliverance from addiction.

In 2021, she graduated from the Transformation Ministry School in Birmingham AL and for two years she also hosted the Cullman Campus for Transformation Ministries.

She also completed 24 hours of training Level 1 & 2 Armed and Dangerous Spiritual Warfare Training with Pastor Henry Schaffer of South Carolina.

She is now serving as Executive Director of The Cross Ministries, where she Biblically counsels with ones searching for freedom.

It has been a long hard journey, but it has been worth it. They are both so thankful to God for the transforming work he is doing in their lives. 

All praise honor and glory to Jesus Christ our Savior.  

Brent, Alabama

Bro. John serves as Mentor and Advisor to our ministry.

He founded Compassion & Hope Food Basket, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides hot meals for the hungry. 

He has been going to the streets actively feeding the hungry since 1996 & in 2019 opened the Soup Kitchen in Brent.

It was on the streets in Birmingham, AL, in 2011 that Bro. John first met our founder, Karen, and it was then that God bonded a friendship.

It was Bro. John who helped spark the vision for our program, The Food Basket. and he continuously gives guidance and encouragement not only for that program, but our ministry as a whole. 

He continues to teach us that "we get to serve" and to love others.

Cold Springs, Alabama

 Gene is from Alabama.

He has been a lifelong family friend of the Cook’s and serves with our team as a volunteer.

Gene is always ready and willing to facilitate any moving, he has a heart to help others & always first in line to see that needs are met to help families 

 Birmingham, Alabama

She serves with our team as Legal Advocate, Certified Counselor and Suicide Awareness Advocate. 

She is the founder of One Touch Freedom.

She currently assists with various cases at The Lovelady Center and is an advocate at the Pardon and Parole Board in Montgomery A,L. She has a passion for fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves and loves for God to use her in all areas of His kingdom.

Susan is a Certified Ministry Leader; an Addiction Recovery Certified Christian Counselor, an ordained minister with Joan Hunter Ministries and Heaven of Earth Ministries.

Crane Hill, Alabama

Keith serves on our team in several aspects, including, but not limited to, mentoring those in recovery, including SAA meetings, as well as those struggling with suicide ideations.

Born in 1959, he would barely qualify as a “baby boomer”. Born a Methodist, raised theologically Baptist, and spent time in the Church of God.

His family was in church every time the doors were open. His mom sang in the choir & his dad was a Sunday School teacher and a prominent lay leader in every church they attended.

The middle of three boys who are all less than three years apart and have a sister who is 10 years his elder. The three boys attended a Christian school for 6 years, where he first drank liquor and smoked his first marijuana.

After Christian school and high school, he graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Accounting.

After that first taste of liquor and marijuana in 10th grade he was mostly abstinent until after college, when he then got hooked up with the wrong crowd and drank and smoked off and on for 10+years.

He became VERY adept at balancing himself with church on Sundays but smoked and drank the other 6 days of the week. His family was mostly unaware of his double life. By the time he was in his late 30’s he was a mess, and eventually received a foreclosure notice on the house he had bought, which was a major wake up call and he began a 2year stint in Alcoholics Anonymous. He basically only attended meetings but no work on himself at all, eventually stopped going to meetings all together and spent almost two years being high literally every waking hour until he found himself in the back seat of a police car with his hands handcuffed behind his back.

He began to take AA and the 12 step seriously and within the next two years got completely sober and met his beautiful wife, Jackie.

The rest, as they say, is history. He now takes God seriously and daily sees how God has begun to do marvelous things with his life.

Tyler, Texas

Susan serves with our team on our social media team. 

She facilitates our Facebook page an our Facebook grief support group.

Susan has a heart to uplift and encourage others and we are so very thankful for her faithfulness to God and to our ministry and to help others!