“The Lord wanted more from me.” Tim grew up in a strong Christian home with a desire to be a Godly man but, over the years, he’d fallen into a self-centered lifestyle. “I partied off and on. I wasn’t really following the Lord,” he says. He wasn’t at peace. He knew God wanted him living a different way, so he quit partying, started going to church and began spending his free time with his family. But he soon found out that it wasn’t enough. God was calling him to a deeper change. “The Lord wanted more from me, but I was still self-centered.” He couldn’t have known that God was about to use a hardship in his life to win his whole heart. “I got injured at work, and lost my job and my apartment in one day,” he says. It was then, at his mother’s urging, that Tim entered our Parker House Aftercare Program. “I thought it was just to put a roof over my head until I healed, but it turned out to be a much greater blessing,” he says. “Through counseling, chapel, prayer, and classes, I rededicated my life to the Lord and started thinking completely differently.” “I changed from self-centered to selfless.”
Tim demonstrated that selflessness by volunteering five days a week at our front desk, and working in our clothing closet and food pantry. Thanks to his hard work, after graduation, we invited him to join our staff as our Community Service Receptionist. “I now know my call is to human services. I’m so happy with the people I work with and what I do.” We also invited Tim to live in one of our West Street Apartments set aside for the homeless. “It’s rent-free for a year so I have time to get back on my feet,” he says. This Christmas, as Tim celebrates Christ’s birth, he’ll also celebrate the joyous new life he found inside our doors… because of your compassion. “The Mission gave me a wonderful chance to start over. They really do change lives.”
