Thanks to YOU, Michael is seven years sober . . . and helping others find hope and transformation, too!
The cold November air cut through Michael’s clothes as he stepped out of the prison doors. He was free, but after four and a half years behind bars, he had no home to return to. No family waiting. No warm jacket to shield him from the wind.
Michael had known the streets off and on since the late ’80s. Battling a drug addiction that had consumed him for decades of his life, he had reached his breaking point.
Fortunately, someone had handed him a pamphlet for Central Union Mission just before he left prison.
“A BLESSING”
Michael arrived early the next day. He says, “I had breakfast and I’ve been here ever since.”
The smell of hot food, the warmth of a bed, clean clothes—these simple things meant the world to him after lacking these things for so long. To Michael, it was all simply “a blessing.”
“When I came here, I came with nothing but the clothes on my back,” he recalls. “They serve three hot meals a day. I got a warm bed to sleep in. They gave me clothes, toiletries.”
The meals and shelter met Michael’s physical needs—but it was the spiritual support that truly transformed him. Hungry for more than just food, he joined the Fresh Start program determined to rebuild not only his life, but his soul.
“Nothing kept me clean until I found God. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t use drugs anymore,” he declares. “I used to do all of it. Now? None of it. I’ve been clean for seven years.”
Then there were the holidays. The Mission made them truly special. For Michael, they brought unexpected joy. He remembers holiday dinners of turkey, candied yams and pies of every kind. Volunteers serving food with a smile. Laughter in the air. And something Michael hadn’t had in years—Christmas gifts.
“The meals were dynamite,” he says. “And I got gifts—two or three times over the holidays.”
Today, Michael is a transformed man. He’s passionate about telling his story to others who are still in the grip of addiction.
His message to them? “Don’t hesitate. Be willing to listen. Be willing to let someone help you. This is the perfect place to get your life together, to be in a relationship with God and to get help. Whatever you need is right here.”