Journey To Purpose
The Beginning of My Calling

From poverty and pain to purpose—a powerful memoir of faith and resilience.

Shelia Watkins was the eldest girl among fifteen children in rural Virginia, raised in extreme poverty with an alcoholic father and an overwhelmed mother. She worked tobacco fields, raised her siblings, and survived on scraps and hope.

But God had a bigger plan.

Journey to Purpose follows Shelia's remarkable transformation—leaving home with $86 in nickels, discovering faith in a new city, building a career in public service, losing her husband, and finding love again. Through every trial, she learned that her struggles were shaping her for something greater.

A raw, inspiring story of survival, faith, and discovering that every hardship has divine purpose.