Luis Fortuny moved to the United States from Barcelona, Spain when he was 10 years old, and has lived here ever since. Like many young people, his initial relationship with alcohol was merely “social” and his life was, in many respects, no different from many other immigrants who had traveled to the Land of Opportunity to start a new life.

But Luis recalls a time when he, as he puts it, “crossed a fine line” between having a few drinks now and then to needing many more than a few drinks all the time. He had slowly, but surely, progressed into an addiction that would latch on to his life for 30 years to come and lead him to a life of despair.

Initially, his addictive lifestyle didn't seem to produce any ill effects. Luis held down a decent job, made pretty good money and experienced the kind of contentment that any anesthesia might be expected to bring. But if you were to talk with him now, he would tell you of an emptiness that, regardless of any outward success or artificial fulfillment he may have been enjoying, was driving him to find satisfaction in the very things that were robbing him of his life.

After losing his job in 1995, Luis spent the next 6 years bouncing from drinking binge to odd job to temporary dwelling to drinking binge, his health all the while suffering the toll of his addictive lifestyle. Finally, when he had all but given up hope, something inside him compelled him to try “The Spiritual Road”, and in June of 2001, he came to the Orange County Rescue Mission for help.

In the weeks that followed, Luis learned of the unconditional acceptance found in the arms of a loving Savior. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and began to experience the peace and hope (and, yes, deliverance!) found only in Him. His road to recovery has by no means been an easy one, but none of the programs he has tried—and he has tried them all—have brought him the freedom from addiction that he is now enjoyng.

“All the praise goes to God,” Luis quietly, yet emphatically, proclaims. “There's no way I could have done it without Him.”

Luis will complete what he calls his “pact with God” this December (2002) and graduate from the Men's New Life Program. He then plans to return to Barcelona, Spain where his two older sisters now live. By the way, just last month Luis traveled to Barcelona to visit his sisters and, while he was there, led them both to receive Jesus as their Lord!

There is little doubt that, for the past 30 years, God has been looking down on a lost, hopeless drunk by the name of Luis Fortuny and saying, “I can use a man like that.”

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