Roy's Story

No Hope

“I was in a bad place in my life,” Roy says of his time when he was homeless. “I had no hope. I had nothing going for me. No job. No, nothing. I had been disconnected from my family.” Roy says the lowest point for him “was not having a place to eat, to shower. I barely had a place to live. I had a tent and I was trying to numb myself from all the pain by doing drugs and alcohol and it was separating me from life, everything.”

Roy says his time on the streets humbled him, “Being homeless brought me to a point of despair. I didn't know how I was going to get out of it. But I did start to be more grateful for the things that I did have.”

Roy prayed that God would help him find a way to turn his life around. That prayer was answered when one of Roy’s pastors helped him get into the Mission.

A Different Person

Once Roy arrived at the Mission, “I decided to surrender everything that I ever believed, everything that I ever wanted, everything,” he says. “On my will, I surrendered it all. And then I came to know Jesus as my Savior.”

Roy shares that coming to the Mission and surrendering himself to Jesus completely changed him “forever … I'm a whole different person now. And I feel a lot better about myself. I feel better about life and how to deal with it. One of my favorite Bible verses is Matthew 6:33 - it tells us to always focus on the Kingdom and God's righteousness and all things will be added to you … ”

Roy took that verse to heart and began focusing on God and His will for his life. Doing so, and learning from the various people and classes in his recovery program, helped him begin to unlearn some of the lies he’d believed, replacing them with truth from God’s Word. “That’s what sets you free,” he says. “It’s been pretty awesome.”

New Life

Today, Roy has a new life, something for which he’s grateful. “Like I said, Matthew 6:33, seek the Kingdom first and all His righteousness and all these things will be added to you ... I'm going to continue on seeking the Lord. And if this much has been done in one year, I can't even imagine what's going to happen in the next year or the next five years. So that's where I'm focused, really grateful.”

Roy says that if he could say anything to people coming into the Mission’s recovery program, it would be to “stay still and focus on God,” adding, “This is a good program … It’ll save your life. It saved mine.”