June 3, 2002
Care of Texas Baptists changed troubled girl's life
___By Jonathan Echols
___South Texas Children's Home
___OKLAHOMA CITY--As she rocked in her housemother's arms that hot summer night at South Texas Children's Home, Jenny knew she had made a decision that would change her life.
___What she didn't know was that this decision would touch thousands of lives.
Jenny Broughton today speaks to groups across the country.
___Jenny had made a decision to follow Jesus Christ, and she felt secure for the first time. Unconditional love was a new concept for her.
___On April 19, 1963, Jenny's father strangled her mother and then shot himself, leaving Jenny and her four siblings homeless and without anyone to care for them. Jenny was only 11 years old.
___As a result, Jenny Broughton and two siblings went to live at South Texas Children's Home where, for the first time, she began to experience God.
___"I began to hear God's love. I began to see God's love. It was indeed as if I were standing on a corner blind, so blind from what was happening to me. I was saying, 'Lord, I want to see,'" she recalled.
___Looking back, Broughton believes it may have been a blessing to be orphaned at that young age.
___"Some kids grow up in habitual abuse, but we got to get out of it. I think being orphaned was probably a better thing for me. I had to have Jesus. I wasn't going back to a daddy," she said.
___Broughton and her siblings spent their early years in a somewhat dysfunctional family. Her father was in the Navy and often gone from home. When he was home, he and her mother often fought. Then there was the abuse. Broughton recalls just how bad the abuse had gotten before it finally and tragically ended that day in 1963.
___"The abuses had been physical from both of them to the point that blood sometimes had been drawn from my backside. The verbal (abuse) came from my mother every now and then being out of control when she would say: 'Jenny, you're an accident. I never meant to have you.' That was my life.
___"The sexual things came from the men Mother brought into our home when Dad was overseas and some of the materials I saw that I should not have seen as a child. Those things were there, and then there were things that happened to me."
___Many people would expect someone with Jenny's background to repeat the cycle of abuse and violence. Certainly no one would have expected her to be a renowned speaker who seeks to bring glory to God.
Broughton credits her abilities and her opportunities to the care she received as a child at South Texas Children's Home.
___"I didn't know I wanted to be a speaker," she said. "You wouldn't have ever told me I would do what I'm doing. I was shy, and I was introverted, but the more I healed and the more I grew, I got bolder and bolder."
___Broughton gives credit to Texas Baptists and South Texas Children's Home for her speaking abilities. Learning to give her testimony at the Baptist General Convention of Texas ministry surely helped to nurture her God-given talent.
___"A lot of my speaking ability goes back to the home giving me opportunities to speak," she said.
___In 1981, Broughton's faith and emotional strength once again were tested. Her brother repeated the cycle and the actions of their father. When his wife left, he kidnapped her, shot her and then shot himself. His suicide note read, "My Daddy did it this way, and so will I."
___After her brother's death, Broughton began speaking to small groups. Now, her speaking ministry has grown to the point she speaks all over the country at Christian conferences, corporate meetings and other special events. Through humor and personal anecdotes, she tells how God has changed her life and shaped her into the woman she is today.
___Now 50, Broughton lives in Oklahoma City with her husband, Sam, who is a pastor. They celebrated 29 years of marriage this year and have three daughters--Jana, Sarah and Abbie.
___Broughton believes South Texas Children's Home has been integral in her becoming who she is.
___"I wouldn't be where I am today," she said. "I went to college Scot-free. Some of that came from the Navy and from a trust, but the majority came from somebody doing gift annuities and scholarships. The home has continued to do things for us, and we're not their kids any more."
___Through South Texas Children's Home, Broughton was given the chance to thrive and to be healed by God's love, she said. "He heard my cry. He stopped for me. He touched me. He healed me.
___"I think that's what South Texas Children's Home is doing for kids. They are an extension of God's hands, and they are stopping, and they're touching and they're listening and hearing. They are doing whatever it takes--whatever it takes in the budget, for staff, for this program, with positives and negatives, whatever it takes to get these children to the feet of Jesus."
___
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