Janet Boynes grew up in a family of seven kids, by four different fathers. The man who raised her was an alcoholic. The Boynes family always had the police outside. Janet’s mother was abused as she grew up.

"I think what you have a tendency of doing is repeating what was done to you," Janet said. "I know she wanted the best for me, but the abuse was beyond measure. I can’t remember to this day as a kid that my mother ever, you know, hugged me or told me that she loved me."

The violence she experienced at home spilled over to fights at school. Janet developed a reputation as a bully and a tomboy.

"A lot of people used to say, 'well, are you going to be (what they called back then) a dyke or a lesbian?' and I didn’t associate myself with that, but that’s what a lot of people assumed," Janet said.

When she was 12, Janet was molested by a relative. A few months later, she was raped by an altar boy at church. Janet started smoking and doing drugs to deal with the pain.

"I was afraid to tell my mom because I thought I would be blamed for it," Janet said. "I started getting high quite a bit. Even though I was a great basketball player, I got high and went to practice."

Janet finished high school and went on to college. She still used drugs, but there were other problems.

"I was starting to become more attracted to women," she said. "So many men had hurt me that these women, I thought, were a lot more like me."

Janet struggled to put those thoughts aside. She started attending a church and accepted Christ as her savior. She got off drugs and started dating a man she met at church. When he asked her to marry him, everything seemed perfect.

"My family loved him. And they just thought that we would make a great couple," Janet said. "I was looking forward to marrying him, but because he was a professional bike racer, he did these things on the weekend where it left me pretty much by myself."

Janet started spending a lot of time with a woman she met at work.

"She introduced me to her family, who were Christians. Her dad was a pastor of a small church in the St. Paul area, and met her mother," Janet said. "It was late one night and I stayed there and we wound up sleeping together."

Janet was confused and scared, so she went to her pastor for advice.

"He said three things to me. He said, 'call off your wedding, get counseling, and tell your fiancé,'" Janet recalled. "Well, I did one of the three. I told my fiancé what happened, gave him back his ring and I walked away from the lord."

For the next 14 years, Janet lived a homosexual lifestyle and moved from relationship to relationship. She became deeply involved in drugs, cocaine this time, and developed bulimia.

"My life was miserable. It was starting to go literally down the tubes," Janet said. "But I was refusing to come back to God."

She and her girlfriend decided to get married.

"We went to see a priest," Janet said. "The priest told us that what we were doing was okay, that we would still go to heaven. And so we went out and got engagement rings because we thought, ‘we’re going to get married.' he said it was ok. I wanted both. I wanted God, and I wanted to live a homosexual life. I wanted to find a way to have both."

During that time, something strange happened.

"There was this church called maple grove assemblies of God. Every time I would go past this church, it was almost like I stepped out of myself and I was in that church," Janet said. "I would look at my girlfriend and go, 'I’m going to go to that church someday.' and she would look at me like, 'what are you talking about, Janet?'"

Janet started her own business cleaning health clubs. One night, she had an odd encounter while she was working.

"I left at 3:00 a.m. And told them I was going to the store," she said.

She struck up a conversation with a woman in the grocery store parking lot.

"I said, 'ma’am, what are you doing out here at 3:00 a.m. With all these groceries?' and she said, 'well, I just dropped my son off at college.' and I go, 'what college is open this time of night?' and she said, 'north central bible college.' I began to tell her that I was a backslidden Christian and that I’m living a homosexual life, and she pulled out this brochure - maple grove assemblies of God," Janet said.

The woman invited Janet to a women’s bible study.

"And me, not thinking in my right mind, I said, 'sure, I’ll go.' and I came in with these sweat pants on, looking grubby, not knowing what to expect," Janet said. "I’m in a room with nine other women, just beautiful women, feminine, and I thought, 'what have I gotten myself into?' so, I’m sitting there with my head down, feeling so ashamed, thinking these women are cruel, they’re going to chew me up and spit me out. Everyone introduced themselves, and when they got to me, they asked me my name, and I said, 'my name is Janet.' and I said, 'I’m living a homosexual life. But if you help me, I will live my life for the lord.'"

Janet was surprised by their reaction.

"They didn’t talk about me. They didn’t tell me I dressed stupid. They allowed God to change me, they didn’t try to change me," she said. "One of them came to me a few months later and her and her husband were praying and they felt in their heart that I was supposed to come and live with them. Well, I sold my home, asked my girlfriend to move and at the age of 40 I moved in with this Christian home for a year. And it was the most amazing thing to watch this family have something that I never experienced."

And Janet’s heart began to heal.

"God started putting, you know, great Godly men in my life," Janet said, "men at church that would just come up and give me a hug. And as I continue to be around people that love me and care about me, God continues to heal me from the inside out."

Ten years later, Janet is active in her church and ministering to others who want to leave the homosexual lifestyle. She wants them to know that healing is a process, but that they can experience complete freedom in Jesus Christ.

"I want everybody else that’s living the homosexual life who didn’t have a great mother or who didn’t have a great father to experience that God is a father to the fatherless or motherless. That what he’s done for me, he will do for them also'" Janet said.