Jeffrey never drank or did drugs. He’s a committed Christian. Just eight years ago, he had a good job and a comfortable life in Arizona, where he managed retail stores. He ended up a homeless guest at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.

“I was working my way up the corporate ladder of a major retail chain,” he says. “But I got addicted to the money and spending. I lost sight of my priorities. Instead of keeping God number one, I put money and things first. They were like a drug for me.”

By 2008, he had a nice apartment, a big-screen TV, first-rate furnishings, fine clothes, a nice car and more than 40 credit cards — with $35,000 in debt. Then, in 2012, the company he worked for went “belly up.”

Unable to find another job, his life unraveled. “It was basically like a row of falling dominoes,” he recalls. First, he lost his apartment and furnishings. Then his car. Eventually, all his remaining possessions fit in three duffel bags — and finally in just a single backpack.

A Refocused Life
“I feel like God was trying to tell me something. That I needed to get refocused on Him,” Jeffrey says. So he decided to return to his home city of Milwaukee to start over. He had to sell a ring he inherited from his dad to pay for the bus ticket.

After spending his first night back in Milwaukee in a raging rainstorm in Hoyt Park, he found his way to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. “I figured it would be a good place to get myself recentered,” he recalls. Over the next year and a half, he prayed, studied
the Bible, worshipped and refocused his whole life on Jesus Christ.

“I’m ashamed I had to go through all this,” Jeffrey confesses. “I should have known better. But I’ve learned to keep God number one now. Success isn’t about possessions. It’s being true to the Lord. After completing the New Journey and FOCUS programs, I am a new man in Christ.

Milwaukee is lucky to have a place like this. I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and the people who support it.”