Robert has a NEW LIFE in Christ this Easter!
“I knew where my life was headed… I would’ve OD’ed and I probably wouldn’t come back.”
Robert was just 6 years old when he experienced a trauma no child should face: his father tried to kill his mother with a knife. Thankfully, she survived. Robert’s father was imprisoned, leaving Robert and his sisters with his mom – and the pain of knowing their father tried to take her away from everyone.
Raising kids on her own, she worked a lot, leaving for a late-night job when the kids would arrive home from school. “We didn’t have any supervision. We got to do what we wanted to do,” Robert says. The lack of supervision during his middle school years led Robert to experiment with substances, and started him down a road of addiction and quitting school.
Robert eventually went to the Job Corps and earned his GED. When his girlfriend got pregnant and he struggled to find a job, Robert began selling substances to support his family. Selling turned into using, and using led to an overdose.
Robert found the Rescue Mission and went through our 90-day Life Builders Program and secured a job. But the influence of a coworker led him to fall back into old patterns. “I ended up deciding I needed to come back,” Robert says. “I knew where my life was headed… I would’ve OD’ed and I probably wouldn’t come back this time.”
“The people at the Rescue Mission pour a lot of stuff into us, and it’s to help better ourselves, to help better the world.”
Despite his nervousness about coming back and admitting his mistakes, Robert found a warm welcome. “The people that work here actually care about you,” Robert says. “The Rescue Mission is giving us tools to be able to work on ourselves, and show us ways that we can help somebody else.”
Now over 10 months sober, Robert is in our 1-year Transformers Program. He has been giving back to others by working on the house crew at the Rescue Mission, welcoming new residents who come in.
This Easter, Robert is experiencing God’s gift of new life! Thank you for empowering him to follow Christ’s calling in his life. “I’m thankful to the Rescue Mission because they made me a better person than what I used to be.”
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