October Newsletter - Dean's Story

“I saw changes in me that I’d never seen before”

Dean finds healing on the inside, thanks to God’s love and you!

The fingers on Dean’s young hands were stained pitch black from rolling opium pipes. As a nine year-old, this was Dean’s life: war, instability, and rolling pipes for the American soldiers who frequented his mother’s bar.

“My bed was on the second shelf of a bar,” Dean recalls of growing up in Vietnam during the war. “To me, it seemed natural that a nine-year-old would wake up and go to bed hungry, crave cigarettes and beer, and not have any shoes.”

It was the strange shadow of a childhood Dean knew. Until one day, everything changed.

Dean remembers hearing bombs and machine guns firing near his village. Not fully realizing what was going on, he quickly boarded onto an airplane. It was the last time Dean would ever see his mother again.

“Later on, I was told that I was on the final plane leaving Vietnam,” says Dean. “I remember seeing smoke in the distance and hearing that all the children had died.”

Terrified and alone, Dean watched his homeland fade into the distance. Dean’s father was an American soldier whom he never knew. But his father’s country — whose culture and customs were so foreign to Dean — would soon become his own.

Dean landed on U.S. soil with only the clothes on his back and a handful of English words. Instability continued to follow Dean as he was then passed around to seven different foster families. “I was just too much for them,” Dean shares. “Plus, I was battling a withdrawal of opiates. I would wake up crying, eyes swollen shut.”

Two years after he arrived in America, Dean was finally adopted by a family. “But I was still carrying the burden of trauma from everything that had happened to me,” Dean admits.

RETURN TO ADDICTION

With his limited English and late start in school, Dean struggled to keep up with academics. Seeking an escape from a lifetime of pain, Dean found solace in drugs and alcohol. After high school, Dean attended culinary school at the University of Hawaii. “I worked in some really beautiful, high-end resorts in Wailea.”

However, after 35 years of battling a drug and alcohol addiction, Dean found himself fleeing on an airplane again. But this time, Dean was escaping the wreckage of the war inside him.

“I left Hawaii questioning if I was ever going to break free from addiction. I came to Seattle searching for something better with a just windbreaker in the middle of winter, totally unprepared for the weather.”

ARRIVING AT THE MISSION

Dean spent his first night freezing on the waterfront. The following day, Dean arrived at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. “I was hungry. I was broken. And I needed rest.”

After filling up on a meal and getting a good night’s sleep, Dean entered the Mission’s recovery program. “After just a couple of months, I saw changes in me that I’d never seen before — being around the Gospel of Jesus motivated and nurtured my growth.”

THE POWER OF A MEAL

Now walking in freedom, Dean oversees all kitchen and food service operations at the Mission. “There are times in the kitchen when I just cry knowing what guys coming in are feeling. It’s amazing what a simple meal can do for a person when they’re hungry.”

Today, Dean feels called by God to share the hope he’s found with other homeless, hurting neighbors. “I thought my life was going to be destitute. For me to be 11 years clean and sober and carrying the message of recovery to others — I never would’ve believed that would happen.”

Give comfort through meals and care this Thanksgiving season. And help more neighbors like Dean heal.