Earl grew up longing to fit it, but it wasn’t to be. “I had ADHD and social anxiety. I didn’t feel accepted by the world. I felt like an outcast.” When he was 9 years old, his father remarried, and Earl’s sense of rejection grew. “My dad only saw me two weekends a month. In my eyes, that meant I wasn’t important.” Earl began numbing his pain with drugs and, by the time he was 16, he was using every day. For more than 15 years, he struggled with addiction, unable to hold down jobs and, eventually, finding himself homeless. With each day on the streets, his depression grew and, finally, he tried to take his own life. But God had other plans. Earl survived and, after completing rehab, came to our Parker House Aftercare Program. Through chapel services, devotions and Bible studies, Earl surrendered his life to the Lord. “I feel God’s presence and I’m allowing Him to work within me,” he says. “I’m learning more about Him every day and I know that, even if no one in the world accepts me, He does.” “Now I know God doesn’t see me as an outcast.”
After coming to the Mission, Earl was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and placed on medication. He’s also been processing his emotional pain during regular visits with a therapist. “I’m healing and learning how to control my emotions.” He plans to complete the program and study to become a drug and alcohol counselor so he can help others who struggle as he once did. “God is good and I want people to know He will help make them better,” he says. It’s going to be a Christmas filled with joy for Earl – and he is so grateful to you for this wonderful gift of a new life. “Everything about my life is better. I’m growing mentally and spiritually and I know that God accepts me. He’ll never leave me.”
