Meet the 2025 Life Change Program Graduates: McKenzie Hopper

McKenzie Hopper grew up in a home with two parents who gave her everything she could ever want, except a healthy home.

 She was immersed in church life, small groups and outreach events weekly, but showing up to church functions couldn’t change the reality of the abuse she faced at home. She says her brother began sexually abusing her from the time she was 7 years old. The seeds of mistrust for authority and unhealthy relationships with men were already planted.

 McKenzie grew up desperately desiring love, attention and validation but she hadn’t been shown how to find those in healthy places. “I found pain everywhere I turned in life. I had no direction, and my aimlessness intensified when my parents’ dysfunctional marriage split in two,” she said. “There was so much hurt thrown back and forth and I was caught in the crossfire. I was facing inner demons of rebellion, so I turned my back on my family and most importantly, on God.”

 By the time she was in fourth grade, she suffered from depression, anxiety and PTSD, but she just wanted to fit in, and that meant developing a pattern of finding unhealthy men, abuse and toxic self-hate.

 When she eventually discovered she was pregnant, she felt like God had abandoned her. McKenzie struggled through a suicide attempt and lacked the support she needed to move forward. She eventually chose adoption for her baby and found wonderful adoptive parents, but her severe post-partum depression led her toward the numbing effects of drugs.

 Through the Life Change Program, McKenzie learned that co-dependency was her most significant addiction, even more so than drugs. She had always wanted to do things her way because people in authority had so totally failed her, but “her way” took her to the bottom, and she needed to discover a new, healthy way that she had never known.

 She eventually checked into the Eugene Mission’s Rescue Shelter at Christmas and was attending the Life Change candlelight Christmas Eve service when she saw what she calls a radiant light coming from the women who were in the program.

 “I craved change so badly, but had no hope. (Life Change Program Manager) Kimber accepted me into the program the next day, and that’s when I had to hang up my running shoes,” she said. “I still fought hard, but God met me where I was.”

 Today, after working through her childhood trauma, piece by piece, she is enrolled in the welding program at Lane Community College and she is nurturing a relationship with her son, who is healthy, happy and thriving. She has also renewed relationships with many family members, including her parents.

 “I’m a leader in my house, someone that people can look up to, but most importantly, my relationship with God is stronger than ever,” she said. “I’m overjoyed and have a sense of serenity that can only come from his presence.”

 As she moves forward into the future, she said she has that same light in her now that she saw all those months ago in the other women. “I have a passion to help others in the same way God helped me and be that light that he showed me in my darkest hours,” she said.  

Help us celebrate McKenzie and the other graduates of the Life Change Program! Come and show your support for a group of men and women who have worked through incredible adversity to come to a place of healing, authentic change and new life.

 You are invited to her graduation ceremony!

Click the button below to join our Facebook event page, and get important updates, graduate news and more:

March 7

6 p.m.

City First Church

830 Madison Street, Eugene