Revival…In the Parking Lot!

As I was going from building to building on our campus, John stopped me for a moment. His daily duties here are as a driver for us — getting men to appointments off campus.

John graduates this month and just wanted to tell me thanks for all that has happened to him here. When he arrived at Helping Up Mission 11 months ago, he was homeless — living in his car.

His drug habit, which had estranged John from his family, was also slowly killing him. In fact, at that point, it wasn’t even going slowly any longer.

John got directed to our 12-month residential Spiritual Recovery Program and, while he had no intention to stay here a year, he was just too sick and tired to try and do anything else.

In our little meeting in the parking lot, John just wanted to reiterate what I’d already seen in him, myself. His 11 months here have been “transformative” (his term).

He spoke to me about his spiritual walk and his 12 Step recovery process and network. And then there was family — like a real family, again.

It was just a brief encounter — we both had places to be — but I felt like I’d been to a revival meeting in our parking lot!

This Jesus stuff really works!

One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Deputy Director