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Editor's Note: In Sunday's edition, the News & Record will introduce you to people who have moved on to jobs and homes after spending last winter in emergency homeless shelters at area churches. Here is one of the profiles.

GREENSBORO -- Stacey looked out the window of her room at Moses Cone Hospital, just three days after hip replacement surgery, and she saw not cold, winter skies but opportunities.

Stacey, a New Jersey transplant, arrived in Greensboro in 2004 . She stayed at boarding homes and cheap motels where she had to live near drug deals and prostitution. It was all she could afford on the little she made from jobs here and there.

She suffers from avascular necrosis, a progressive disease marked by the loss of bone tissue caused by a lack of blood supply. The bone cracks and eventually collapses. The pain in her hips made working difficult.

“Pain is depressing. It’s hard to do anything when you’re in constant pain,” said Stacey, 46, who asked that her full name not be used for this article.

Last year at this time, Stacey found herself at Grace Community Church . They had opened a winter shelter for nearly two dozen homeless women.

“It was like God was looking out for me that day,” Stacey said. “I felt so grateful and thankful.”

She made friends with other women staying at the shelter. She started attending services at Grace. And the love and support she received helped her believe in herself again.

So by the time the temporary shelter program ended, Stacey was ready to move on. She and her boyfriend found a studio apartment off West Meadowview Road. There’s a pharmacy nearby, along with a grocery store and a city bus stop. Stacey calls it a “nice section of town” that is “110 percent” better than where she had been living before her time at Grace.

Church members offered to help her with the moving costs, but Stacey and her boyfriend were able to come up with the money on their own, she said. So Grace helped her furnish the apartment.

“It made me feel so special,” Stacey said. “It made me feel really loved.”

They encouraged her to get hip surgery, which her doctor told her was necessary or she would be permanently wheelchair bound. She’ll have to get the second hip done as well.

Stacey appreciates the kindness that Grace showed her. Her experiences there made her “want to be a better person.”

She plans to go back to college when her surgeries are finished — Medicare and Medicaid are covering the medical costs — and get a more long-lasting job.

She quotes Psalm 34:4 when she thinks of Grace:

“I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”