Before joining our program at the Orange County Rescue Mission, Terry had been living on the streets for three years. But he’d been an alcoholic long before that. All he wanted to do was drink. When Terry was first married, he didn’t care about anything, he just drank. Drinking cost Terry his job and his marriage. Soon after he divorced, Terry was homeless.

“Homelessness is tough,” Terry remembers. “Cops harass you. I took cans and bottles from dumpsters and recycled them for fast-food money. Maybe I’d go to a soup kitchen. But sometimes I’d go two days without food and just drink. Drink to live, live to drink. That was me,” he says.

Through it all, Terry held on to one thing, and that was the Lord. He was a backslidden Christian and always had a desire to come back to the Lord. Like the prodigal son, he wanted to come home. It was then that Terry decided to come to us and asked to join our program. Today, Terry lives at the Village of Hope.

“I’m strong in the Lord and putting on the armor of God every day,” Terry says now. “I don’t have the desire to drink anymore. When I was on the streets,” he continues, “I always knew I could change, but alcohol had me. ‘You cannot serve two masters,’ the Bible says. Alcohol was my master then. But now my master is Jesus Christ.”

Your support made this possible. Terry is grateful for you, and so are we. Thank you for helping change lives.