Christian Venture Capitalist Defies Sex Scandal With God's Calling
"I wish I didn't have to tell you the next part of my story. But I asked you what would it be like if you were only known for the worst thing you've ever done? And that became my story," she told the audience.
"When I was 31, I'm 38 and a half now. When I was 31, I was divorced, it came unexpectedly to me. I had been married for nine years. In the wake of my divorce, I made some decisions that I am not proud of," she continued.
"I ended up having some relationships with people who had been released from the Texas prison system. My own graduates. It went against my own spiritual values. It went against every good leadership decision," she said.
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Hoke was forced to resign from the job she felt was her calling. Here she was, once known for helping others find second chances, she was now in need of one herself. And she found it in the church.
"The best thing that happened to me was that after I made my mistakes, my coming clean process is what started to heal me," she said.
"The first person that I went to was a pastor. And you know what he said to me? 'That's child's play. That's what the cross is for. Do you believe that? Our sins are like scarlet but they will be as white as snow. Do you believe that? Do you believe that for me? Do you believe that for you? Do you believe that for the people that we serve?'" she asked.
"Well, I wanted to believe that. But then the news of my crisis went out nationally and then it went out internationally. And so, I was known for this. Everywhere people were blogging and saying really ugly things about me. And that's when I didn't want to live anymore because I felt like I had ruined God's calling for my life," said Hoke.
"It was people like yourselves, people from the church who said we stand with you, we believe in you and what are you doing next? And I had no answer. People loved me back to life and that was six years ago," she said.
Hoke said she was lured back to New York City with a job offer in the venture capital industry.
"[I] felt like a sell-out the minute I got the offer because I know why God has put me on Earth even though I have made a lot of mistakes," she said.
