In May of 2010, one of my neighbors was brought to Helping Up Mission after his friends did an intervention with him at his home. While I didn’t know Pat, I did know Marilyn and her husband, Dan, who were involved in his intervention. Knowing what we do here, they brought Pat to East Baltimore. We sent him to detox and afterwards he decided to stay and enrolled in our 12-monthy residential Spiritual Recovery Program. I have written about Pat and Marilyn before (see my 6/22/10 and 10/7/10 blogs).
It has now been over 13 months since Pat joined our Program. While here, he was given the job of Chaplain’s Assistant, which meant he worked for me and I really got to know my neighbor from Frederick County, Maryland. As an upper classman, Pat became the Intern supervisor of the Chaplain’s Office.
On May 28, 2011, Pat graduated from our Program and continued to stay on as a graduate intern. Last week Pat took on a new responsibility at Helping Up Mission. He is now a Treatment Coordinator on our staff.
We want to help every guy who comes through our doors and, hopefully, are able to do so. But we understand that everyone is not going to stay, so it is always rewarding to see a guy graduate. It would be great if we could hire all our graduates, but that doesn’t happen very often. I am happy for Pat and look forward to watching him continue in his recovery, spiritual walk and ministry to others.
God is good!
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director