Joseph’s father abandoned him when he was young, leaving him to be raised by his alcoholic mother. “I’d come home from school and find her passed out on the couch all the time,” Joseph says. “And her boyfriends would abuse me. It was traumatic.”
He was angry that his father had left him, angry that he wasn’t safe in his own home and that his mother didn’t care. So he began running the streets, using drugs to kill his pain. For years, Joseph struggled with addiction. “I lived in chaos and darkness. All I saw was the negative in everything.”
Then he fell in love, and when he and his wife had a child, Joseph was transformed. “The day I first held that little life I helped create, I went from being angry and resentful to being happy.”
But he knew he needed help to make deep and lasting changes in his life to become the father he longed to be, so he entered our Life Transformation Program.
Through faith-based training, spiritual guidance and counseling, Joseph has now built a strong relationship with the Lord, found emotional healing and learned to see the world in a new way. “God opened my heart and my eyes to see the positive in everything, and my counselors helped me forgive myself and the people who hurt me.”
“I stepped out of the chaos and saw the beauty all around me.”
Joseph is now earning his Commercial Driver’s License, and soon he’ll be reunited with his family, equipped to provide for them and love them the way God intends. “Every day I get a step closer to who I want to become – the best father in the world. Nothing is going to stop me.”
Thank you for sharing God’s love with Joseph this Easter. He has been renewed through the promise of a new life! “The Rescue Mission brought me closer to God, set me on the right path and gave me the support I needed to live a godly life.”
To read this issue of Bay Area Hope, click here.
Help other people like Joseph…
Joseph’s story of hope and healing is inspiring. Our long-term recovery programs exist to help other men and women find healing. Will you help provide this help to others?