A Journey of Faith is the true story of a Tibetan girl the world tried to break—and the God who never let her go. As a child in the highlands of Tibet, Selena Desmaine watched her family pay the ultimate price for following Jesus. Her mother was killed by Chinese Communist authorities because of her Christian faith, and the little girl who loved her mother was suddenly left almost alone in a world that treated her beliefs like a crime. Her father turned his back on her, and for a season her grandmother did what she could, but most of Selena’s early life was marked by rejection, hunger, fear, and silence.

In that darkness, something unexplainable kept her alive. With nothing but courage, desperation, and a quiet trust that God had not forgotten her, Selena escaped Tibet on foot, crossing the Himalayan mountains into India. There she spent years as a stranger among many religions and languages, never fully belonging anywhere, but slowly learning that God’s presence could be felt even in crowded streets, train stations, and tiny rooms far from home. Every new place brought fresh adversity—poverty, danger, and constant uncertainty—but also small miracles of protection and provision that stitched a fragile hope back into her heart.

Eventually, Selena made her way to America, believing she had finally reached safety. Instead, she discovered a new battlefield: cancer in her own body, racism that cut deep, and a painful barrier of language that made her feel invisible in the country that promised opportunity. Doctors’ reports, harsh words, and closed doors became part of her daily life. Yet through every hospital visit and every tearful prayer, her faith grew more stubborn, more real. The same God who walked her over the mountains walked her through chemotherapy, loneliness, and the quiet humiliation of not being understood.

Out of this long road of suffering, something beautiful was born. Seeing people on the streets of Portland—alone, addicted, forgotten—Selena recognized the same emptiness she had carried as a child in Tibet. Instead of turning away, she and her fiancé, Gabriel Martinez, chose to step toward them. Together, just the two of them, they started a small Christian ministry with almost no money, but with a fierce belief that love and prayer could reach places that systems and programs could not. They pray with the homeless, share what little they have, and offer something Selena had once been denied: the dignity of being seen, heard, and loved in Jesus’ name.

A Journey of Faith is more than a testimony; it is the portrait of a woman who lost almost everything the world counts as valuable—family, homeland, health, security—and still decided to trust God. From the mountains of Tibet to the streets of Portland, from a hunted child to a quiet hero of compassion, Selena’s story invites listeners to ask a simple but unsettling question: if God could carry her through all of this, what might He be wanting to do through the pain and struggles in our own lives?

This podcast and short documentary will walk listeners step by step through that journey—childhood persecution, a dangerous escape, life as an outsider in India, the fight against cancer and prejudice in America, and the unexpected calling to serve the broken. It is raw, emotional, and unpolished at times, but that’s exactly what makes it powerful. A Journey of Faith is not about a perfect saint; it is about a wounded woman who kept saying “yes” to God when everything in her life screamed “no.”