Meet Terry
Terry is celebrating new life this Easter! Thank you for touching his life with hope.
“I was hopeless and had no place to go…”
Terry still remembers the pain he felt when his parents divorced, and his beloved family members died a few years later.
“I was a pretty angry youth… mad at the world. I lost my older sister when I was 17 and my grandma a few years before that.”
He fell in with the wrong crowd and turned to drugs because he “liked the way they made me feel.” Terry dropped out of high school and spent decades lost in addiction, struggling to maintain jobs and relationships.
The turning point came when Terry and his wife, who was also an addict, separated. Terry was devastated and went to live with a friend, staying in a tent before moving into a rundown camper with no running water or electricity.
“I was feeling sorry for myself… I let the whole world crumble around me.”
Then Terry’s health began declining, and it was the wake-up call he needed to finally admit he needed help. “My wife came to the Mission because she was homeless when we separated, and she told me about it. I was just hoping to find a place to go and get a job.”
“When I got here I was hopeless… and now I know that God is working in me.”
Though Terry wasn’t looking for sobriety when he came here, he quickly started healing and growing. Classes have taught him how to deal with his anger in biblical ways, and he loves learning more about the Lord through Bible study.
“I came to the Mission because I had no place to go, and the Gateway program found me. When I got here, I was hopeless… and now I know that God is working in my life.”
Today, Terry is planning to get his GED and see what kind of job he can find with his health challenges. He’s strengthening his walk with the Lord daily, while he waits on guidance for his next steps.
Your generous support has filled Terry’s life with love, encouragement, and most of all, hope this Easter season. “As long as I stay in church and stay in the Bible, I’ll be good. Jesus has changed my life!”
It’s going to be a Christmas filled with joy for Carl and his fiancée – and they are grateful to you for this wonderful gift of a new life. “I’m thankful that this place is here… it’s given me a different outlook. This has been life-changing for me.”
To read his story in the Easter 2022 issue of Changing Lives, click here.