By the time Codie was just nine years old, he was already running drugs for his mother’s boyfriend. “I didn’t know what was going on and I’d do it without hesitation, thinking everything was okay,” he says. “Growing up, I thought I lived a pretty normal life, but I soon realized that it was crazy.” When Codie was 12, he started drinking to cope with the chaos in his life and, by the time he was 14, was using hard drugs. It was the beginning of an eight-year struggle with addiction that cost him everything he held dear. “I lost my friends and my family and wound up homeless, roaming the streets.” Codie had tried rehabs in the past and always relapsed, but when he was 22, he decided to give it another try and came to our Addiction Stabilization Center. It was then, during a chapel service at the Mission, that he gave his life to Christ. “An overwhelming joy came over me and I felt like Jesus was actually hugging me. I’d never felt so calm, so at peace with myself,” Codie says.
He then entered our Parker House Aftercare Program, and through counseling, case management, Bible studies and life skills classes, has grown stronger in the Lord and in his sobriety. Codie’s relationships with family and friends have been restored, as well. “Everything has been falling into place. It’s a miracle.” Codie plans to go to college and become a certified substance abuse counselor with hopes of working at the Mission one day. “I’m going to help people just like the Mission helped me,” he says. “They gave me hope.” This Easter, Codie will be celebrating the beautiful new beginning in his life – made possible by your generous support. “Before coming to the Mission, I was a homeless drug addict. I thought that would be my life forever, that I’d never be able to have a normal life. But now I have everything I could ever ask for and more. I see a bright future.” “I thought I’d never have a normal life. Now I have everything I could ask for.”
