Turning Misery Into Ministry

Sophia Ruffin hosts a daily live show on Facebook where thousands of viewers listen to her candidly share her story of how she was delivered from homosexuality.

Sophia says, “Many people say ‘Once gay, always gay.’  Or they feel you can be delivered from everything but homosexuality.  People can be free from homosexuality.  God is a deliverer.”

Sophia’s popularity as a minister of the gospel is a far cry from her lonely days growing up in Chicago. Sophia’s mom worked long hours and her dad often wasn’t home.

Sophia shares, “I was missing some of that affection, needing those hugs and that embrace.”

In third grade she developed a crush on a female teacher who affirmed her and encouraged her.

Sophia remembers, “She called me pretty.  ‘Come here, pretty girl.’  She started doing my hair.  I would feel different.  I couldn’t share with anybody because I knew that it wasn't right.  I knew the girls are supposed to like boys.”

Sophia says early on she preferred hanging out with boys and playing basketball with them. She began to be bullied and Sophia resorted to the only thing she knew how to do…fight.

Sophia says, “When people would call me, ‘dyke, tomboy or butch,’ I would just outright fight them.”

Then when Sophia was 10 something happened that only added to her confusion. She was molested and the abuse lasted for four years. She never told anyone about it.

Sophia recalls, “I just felt like, ‘Why me?’ Then I really despised God because not only did I feel like I'm gay, I'm born gay, now uh you know, molested and violated.”

By now, Sophia’s basketball skills were so advanced that when she went to high school she made the varsity girl’s basketball team.

Sophia recalls, “On the varsity team we had some young ladies that was openly in the homosexual lifestyle. And I felt like, ‘Wow, I finally found people that are like me and they’re ok with it.’”

Sophia began wearing baggy clothes, and eventually threw away anything that connected her to feminine identity.

Sophia says, “I was ready to move into and be who I felt I was born to be.  And that was a man.”

In her junior year, Sophia started having relationships with other girls. She went to college on a basketball scholarship where she fully embraced lesbianism and her identity as a man. By this time, her mother Doris knew.

Doris shares, “My heart was broken. It was broken to pieces.”

Sophia lived as a lesbian for ten years. Her mom and many others prayed daily for her.

Sophia remembers, “I would say, ‘Look God, this is your child.  You only loaned her to me.  She belongs to you.  So you're going to have to do what needs to be done.’ I didn't get to a low point where I was going to give up on her.”

Sophia had a Christian friend named Devon who was persistent in inviting her to church. Finally she accepted her invitation. While there, something strange happened.

Sophia remembers, “And I kept saying, ‘I can't breathe.’ I started hyperventilating and I was holding their hands and it's like ‘I can't breathe, help.’  I was screaming for help.”

Devon shares, “I remember her taping her chest and saying, ‘Devon, I can't breathe.’  And at that moment I knew like, ‘God, you're now taking her breath away.’ Which means, for me, that when God comes and take her breath away, that means he's breathing in new life. It was like God said, ‘Now I got my daughter.’”

Sophia says she heard god telling her to go to the front of the church.

Sophia shares, “And the whole time I'm talking back to him, I said, ‘But please, cause if you let me down and you don't protect me like you said you are, this is it.  I'll never do this again.  It won't be a second shot.’  And God kept saying, ‘Trust me with your life.  I got you.’ I wasn't just going to the altar to say the sinner's prayer. I was going to give my whole life to the God that apprehended me in this service with a power that was greater than me.’”

When Sophia reached the front, the pastor, Apostle Tim Brinson began to pray with her.

Apostle Tim recalls, “I saw a person that was asking, ‘Father God, I want to change.  But will you help me, is this real.’”

Sophia says, “And I cried out and I lifted my hands and I said I was sorry.  And it was a genuine sorry.  I was sorry that I misunderstood who he was. I was sorry that I had such an anger towards him.  And I was really sorry for everything that I had done. And when I accepted Christ as my personal savior it wasn’t me asking God to come into my life just as a cliché. Me asking was Him to be Father, Lord, and God of my life. And I accepted him for real.”

Sophia says over the next four years, God began a transformation in her heart and mind to make her into the woman he created her to be. On mother’s day, Sophia surprised her mom and came to church dressed like a lady.

Doris shares, “And I looked and I said ‘Oh she is so beautiful.’”

Sophia shares, “And she opened her arms really wide and I ran to my Mom and the embrace - the embrace that she gave me, I forgot about all the years that I didn't get it.  She held me and she says, ‘Sophia, my baby.  You're back.  You look so pretty. I love you, I miss you. My baby is back.’  I said, ‘God thank you for allowing her to live to see that her prayers, her love, her believing in me and trusting in you was not in vain.’ I got my identity back. God supernaturally allowed me to see with eyes of purity and holiness. He delivered me. The whole being was delivered.”

As a minister and author of four books, Sophia helps to lead others out of the homosexual lifestyle and find healing and freedom in Jesus Christ.

Sophia says, “Hold onto his word. And just believe. Even if you gotta limp to him, limp your way, crawl your way, get to him.  Get to him. He's the only one that can set you free.”