Stepping into Year Five: A Story Still Being Written

Five years ago, Esther’s Place began not with certainty but with faith.

Two women from very different parts of the country, each carrying their own story of loss, transition and obedience, found themselves in Statesboro sensing that God was asking them to step into something far bigger than themselves. They didn’t have all the answers. They didn’t know all the pieces. They simply said yes.

As Esther’s Place begins its fifth year of ministry, co-directors Tanya Wright and Lori Brent look back with deep gratitude at what God has done and  look forward with hopeful expectation for what He is still writing in their story and the story of Esther’s Place. Because if the last four years have proven anything, it is that sometimes the most sacred moments begin with something very small.

For Lori, one of those early moments came before the ministry had fully taken shape. She remembers carrying two empty jars into a meeting, representing faith and expectation. The image was inspired by the story in 2 Kings, where a widow gathers empty vessels before God miraculously fills them with oil. For Lori, those jars symbolized a simple but powerful prayer: that God would provide what they could not.

At the time, neither she nor Tanya knew exactly what Esther’s Place would become. What they did know was that God was asking them to step out in faith. As Lori jokingly says now, the ministry exists because “two kooky girls stepped out of the boat.” Tanya reflects saying, “Lori and I were blessed to be called to it and just crazy enough to jump out of the boat and start swimming.”

Both women arrived in Statesboro through seasons of deep transition that prepared their hearts for the work they would eventually share.

Long before Esther’s Place ever opened its doors, God was already writing the story. Tanya moved to Georgia in 2013 after the loss of her husband, determined to see beauty rise from ashes as she poured herself into serving others. Years later, Lori would arrive from Pennsylvania after pandemic layoffs and family hardship led her and her husband to seek a fresh start in the south. Both journeys, though different, were quietly leading them to the same place. 

In hindsight, it’s hard not to see that God truly picked up two girls from different parts of the country and placed them in Statesboro for a time such as this.

In the earliest days of Esther’s Place, the ministry began by meeting simple, practical needs; things like laundry and showers. But it didn’t take long for them to realize that something much deeper was happening. One woman in particular made that clear.

Dani, a homeless veteran, first came through the doors simply needing a place to shower. When she arrived, she could barely lift her head to speak. Shame seemed to weigh heavily on her.

“What we thought was just providing a safe place for her to shower,” Tanya recalls, “God meant for healing.” At first Dani came every few days. Soon she began coming every morning, greeting them with a cheerful “Good morning, my ladies.”

Over time the woman who once struggled to meet anyone’s eyes became someone full of light and joy. She found purpose, connection and eventually a roof over her head. Today she still stays in touch with the ministry and even donates to support the work.

For Tanya, Dani’s story revealed the deeper heart of Esther’s Place.

“It’s not about a shower,” she says. “It’s about connection. It’s about sharing the love of Jesus and women in community creating that ripple effect…from being served to serving others.”

That ripple effect is something both women see time again and time again in the lives of those who walk through the doors of Esther’s Place. Some women arrive carrying visible burdens, homelessness, addiction recovery, financial hardship. Others appear to have everything together on the outside. But as they have learned over the years, need is not always obvious.

“We are all women who need something,” Tanya says. “Sometimes it’s the homeless woman or the struggling single mom. But sometimes it’s the woman who looks like she has everything together. When you look behind the mask, she may be carrying grief, loneliness, abuse or a deep emptiness.”

Lori has witnessed that same longing for connection. “Many women have carried things alone for years,” she says. “When they finally find a place where they can be honest without judgment, it creates powerful moments of healing and growth.”

That sense of belonging is exactly what the both ladies hope every woman feels when she walks through the doors of Esther’s Place: love, warmth and the sense that she has just stepped into a friend’s home.

“We want her to feel seen and heard,” Tanya says. “Not judged.”

Neither Tanya nor Lori claim they knew exactly what they were doing when the ministry began. In fact, Lori remembers one of her biggest fears in the first year was simply not knowing how everything would work. But time after time, God answered each prayer; sometimes in quiet ways, sometimes in unmistakable ones.

“Our faith has grown tremendously,” they both agree. For Tanya, the journey has been one of learning to step aside and trust God’s provision. “I thought I was helping by trying to figure everything out,” she admits. “But I had to learn to stop getting in His way.” Over the last four years, that lesson has become a testimony. Month after month, what the ministry needed arrived.

Along the way, their partnership has been strengthened by something even deeper than shared leadership, a deep and meaningful friendship.

Leading Esther’s Place together has been, in Tanya’s words, “an absolute gift from God.” For Lori, that friendship has created a level of trust that has helped sustain the ministry through every season.

“We encourage each other during the hard moments and celebrate the victories together,” she says. “We hold each other accountable in the calling.” That honesty has also meant learning to extend grace to one another. “We’re not perfect,” Lori says. “Forgiveness has anchored our partnership and our friendship.”

Some moments in their shared journey are impossible to forget. One of the main ones being the day their nonprofit status was approved far sooner than expected. What they were told would take nine months arrived in a single week, which prompted a squeal of excitement from Lori that Tanya says she will never forget.

Another time, faced with a difficult decision, the two women spent a week walking around the block surrounding Esther’s Place in prayer, recalling the story of Jericho in the book of Joshua. For six days they walked in prayerful silence. On the seventh day, they were met with the sound of a trumpet from a neighbor and cheering. “The walls came down,” Lori says. “And God opened one door after another.”

Now, as Esther’s Place steps into year five, both women sense that God is preparing the ministry for something new. They have begun referring to this season as the “Year of Change.” For Lori, it means learning once again to step out of the way and allow God to move.

“For the first four years God has been moving,” she says. “Now it feels like He’s telling us to get out of our own way.”

Tanya sees the shift as well. What began as a place to meet physical needs has become something deeper. It has become a place where women form real friendships, build community and rediscover hope. Some of them receiving hope for the very first time.

What began with a load of laundry has grown into a network of relationships that extend far beyond the walls of Esther’s Place. When women find healing, they carry it into their families, their workplaces and their neighborhoods. The impact spreads in ways no one could have predicted. A ripple effect of grace, hope and love.

Looking ahead five years from now, both women share the same prayer for the ministry: that Esther’s Place will continue to be known as a place where women encounter healing, restoration and the love of Jesus Christ. A place where women discover hope and then turn around to help the next woman behind them. A place where transformation multiplies. A place known for and by the presence of Jesus. 

If asked to summarize the last four years in a single word, Tanya doesn’t hesitate. “Miraculous.” Lori chooses a different word; “Amazing.” But whatever the word, they both agree that they would summarize it all in one name, Jesus.

But both women agree that the story of Esther’s Place is far from finished. As year five begins, they step forward with the same faith that started it all; with hands open, hearts expectant and trusting the God who called them to this place in the first place. 

The jars they once carried in faith are no longer empty. They have been filled time again and time again with stories of healing, friendship, courage, hope and lives (and eternities) forever changed. And yet, even now, they believe God is still pouring. The next chapter of Esther’s Place is already being written, one woman, one story, one act of grace at a time. 

Both Tanya and Lori truly know and believe that a good God can only write good stories. And the story that He is writing through their lives and the ministry of Esther’s Place is and always will be for their good and His glory. Because if the first four years have shown anything, it is that when God moves through ordinary people willing to say yes and that extraordinary things happen.