Sheena Lyn Hanson was the queen of the LGBT community in Jamaica and was engaged and preparing to have a family with another woman when God interrupted her life like Saul on the road to Damascus.
The life of the former lesbian has been completely transformed. Instead of helping to organise LGBT events, she launched the YouTube interview programme Sheena Power Talk, which provides inspirational testimonies from those who have been transformed and are living a victorious life.
“There was purpose in my life, even though I was doing my own thing, because there is a way that seems right, but the end thereof is death,” she said.
“God saved me on time. I was a drug addict, a sex addict, and I was promiscuous. I was everything bad you could think of,” she shared of her former life before transformation.
Hanson believes that being molested from an early age opened the door for evil to step in, and she soon found herself, in her own words ‘wallowing in the deceptive sin of the enemy”. As a member of the LGBT community, she organised one of the community’s largest events in Jamaica with the hope of creating a safe place for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and people who were struggling with their sexual identity.
Looking back on how her downward trajectory started, she said being molested opened doors to all types of spirits and ultimately, a struggle with her sexual identity.
Attending an all-girls school also saw her continue to be lured more and more in that direction. Her path was cemented after facing so much domestic abuse from men she dated that she soon believed the heterosexual lifestyle was not for her at all.
“My self-esteem and my confidence were very low, and I didn’t love who I was. I sought love in all the wrong directions, and when what I was seeking couldn’t fill me up, the enemy lured me into a deceptive alternative lifestyle that I carried on from that day,” Hanson shared.
Speaking about the power of God to restore ‘damaged goods, Hanson says that when you come to Him as a nobody, He can transform damaged goods into masterpieces.
“I’m so glad for the transformation, you know, as I got lured into that lifestyle looking for love in all the wrong places and all the wrong directions,” she told the Freedom Come Rain newspaper.
Foundation came to the fore
Hanson grew up attending Sabbath and Sunday schools and so she was raised with Christian values. She wondered why her parents, who were not Christians, thought it necessary to send her both days to church.
On reflection, she said she now understands that it was a process to getting to know God.
“I was getting to know God, but I didn’t know Him until now. Glory to God. I’ve always been this person in sin who would strongly believe in prayer. I’ll go to church every now and then, even when I was dealing with fraud and money and dealing with just scamming and so forth. I would normally sow my seed and throw my tithes,” she shared, adding that no matter what, she always remembered God because she grew up knowing Him.
God’s call on Hanson’s life started to become more and more obvious to her, as she said people would just randomly tell her that God was calling her and that Jesus loved her.
Even her own lesbian friends would encourage her to give her life to the Lord.
“I didn’t understand why I would always be picked out. I didn’t understand why I always got a warning. I was rebellious about it, because I was like, ‘What about me would God want because I’m a liar, I’m a thief, I’m a deceiver, I have my whorish ways, and there were just so many things—damages, traumas, and depression—going on inside my head,” she notes, pointing out that she was wondering why God was calling her.
Still, she refused and remained stubborn. Then the dreams and the warnings came from prophets and other men of God, telling her there was a calling on her life. She eventually surrendered after having an encounter with God. Describing the moment, she said she was outside the church but then ran inside and started crying out to God. There she got her first touch, and that was the defining moment for her to know that she was living a “careless” life and God needed to be a part of her life.
Sitting from a place of being sweetly saved, Hanson rubbished the theory that persons are born ‘gay’ with the quote that they “be born again!” She stressed that the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to wash away any sin.
Commenting on the allegations that gays are sometimes beaten and abused, she said that back then she had to rescue a few as Jamaicans are homophobic. However, from where she sits, she said she has noticed that they are not as rigid as they used to be.
“People are kind of softening down and accepting it. I think it is being more accepted in Jamaica now, but yes, I’ve seen the abuse. I wouldn’t say that the abuse is right. As I think that this situation must be dealt with in love because you never know what people go through. As I said, I have been through my fair share that led me to the lifestyle,” were her cautioning words.
Sheena Power Talk recruits people who have been through a lot of trials and sees them opening up and sharing their stories. Hanson said it is evident that God is still in the miracle business and that He is still transforming lives.
