Some days, Timothy looks back at his old self and shakes his head in disbelief.

“I was angry all the time,” he says. “I even yelled at homeless people. ‘What’s wrong with you? Get a job!’”

Timothy’s anger didn’t develop overnight. Raised in a military family, he spent his early years constantly moving — and the instability took its toll. “I hated that life,” Timothy remembers. “My dad was a Navy SEAL, so we lived all over — the Philippines, Okinawa, San Diego. Dad was always gone, so it was just me, my mom and my brother. We were so isolated.” Timothy begged to live with his grandparents in Chicago, which his parents eventually allowed.

“My grandparents were great,” Timothy says. “But they were old and didn’t have rules.” The lack of structure was disastrous. “I didn’t know anything about drugs or alcohol before. But in Chicago, I had my first beer at 12. Soon after, I started smoking pot daily.”

The anger and rebellion that began in those years shaped the next four decades — and Timothy’s addiction to marijuana spiraled. By the time he was an adult, he needed it just to function. “I worked as a sous chef, but I’d sneak off the job to smoke. Eventually, my boss said, ‘You’re a great worker, but we can’t tolerate this anymore.’ They let me go.”

Timothy lost his apartment, and it wasn’t long after that he wore out his welcome sleeping on friends’ couches. Homeless, desperate and hopeless, Timothy lugged his suitcase to a bus stop. Suddenly, he noticed a woman beside him, who asked if he was okay.

Timothy opened up about his situation. The woman listened intently, then mentioned MRM. “They’ll help you,” she said. He looked down at his phone to search for directions, and when he looked up to thank her, she was gone. Timothy doesn’t know who she was, but believes God crossed their paths for a reason.

That day, Timothy walked through our doors, thinking he’d hit rock bottom. But conversations with our team buoyed his spirit. One said, “You know God loves you, right? And he has a plan for you.” In time, Timothy started to believe it. He joined our recovery program, gave his life to the Lord and has been sober now for almost a year — his longest stretch since childhood. Today, he works in our kitchen, using his culinary talents to serve others.

“I asked God to forgive me for the way I treated people before,” he says. “Now I say to them, ‘You know God loves you, right? He has a plan for you.’

Timothy’s transformation is indeed due to the Lord, but it couldn’t have happened without supporters like you. To you, Timothy says thank you!