Eric's Story

As Seattle’s triple-threat winter comes on strong, your support will rescue people trapped on the streets in the freezing cold, wind, and rain. The turning point was a long time coming. That’s why Eric will never forget the night our Search + Rescue team found him. “I was cold, hungry, and wondering how I got here.”

“The Mission used to come out and feed homeless people in the community,” Eric recalls. He and one of our team members had really connected over the preceding months. “He had been speaking to me, to my heart, telling me I could change when I’m ready.”

On that cold and miserable night, Eric finally said, “I’m ready. I’m ready to change. My life was in a garbage bag. I just left it there. And that night, I joined the men’s recovery program. I was ‘searched and rescued.’”

Eric was homeless for 20 years, battling addiction, hurt, and bitterness. “I was living on the streets, with just a blanket,” Eric says. With no money, and paralyzed by addictions to alcohol and drugs, he lived day by day, and often had nothing to eat. He did what he had to in order to get by, living with dangerous people and in dark places. And then winter arrived. It brought a fight to survive.

Because of the constant wind, rain, and cold, it was almost impossible to get warm. Fatigue, illness, and hunger were a constant threat. This was life on the edge, a recipe for deadly hypothermia. “I ended up on the streets, trying to make it day by day.” Horrific conditions like these are why the Mission’s Search & Rescue teams are on the streets every night, reaching out to our homeless neighbors throughout greater Seattle.

Mission staff and volunteers distribute lifesaving essentials like warm, dry clothing. And we share God’s love. As His children, everyone we meet deserves respect, help, and an invitation to find hope in Jesus. All this through your prayers and financial support.

Since joining the Mission’s recovery program, Eric has experienced big changes in his life. “I’m recognizing my character defects,” he says. “The Lord revealed to me that it’s not about me. It’s for me.” Eric can see that what he always lacked was not just food, or shelter, or sobriety. It was a relationship with God.

Eric says, “He has helped me understand that He never left me. He wants to continue in my life. The Lord was calling me. I began listening. Then I surrendered.” A lot of men and women like Eric are lost and alone on the streets this winter, with nothing but a flimsy jacket standing between them and the killer cold.

That’s why your compassion and care is so important. Please give to save lives this winter.