“If Not For The Milwaukee Rescue Mission, I Would Be Dead”

By Kenneth

Some people think kids who end up homeless addicts grew up in bad families. Well, it happened to me and I had great Christian parents, went to good schools, and as long as I earned good grades, I got anything I wanted.

After I left home, I enjoyed a successful military career and my star was rising as a federal corrections officer — until I left my faith and values behind and crack came into the picture. My philosophy was: I worked hard so I deserved to play hard.

But God brought me down hard.

Hitting Rock Bottom

My wife separated from me, my career fell apart, I lost my home, and even my mother wouldn’t let me live with her. She just said, “Son, until you get God in your life, it is not going to work.” But I didn’t want to hear it.

I finally hit rock bottom in 2009, when I found myself living in a crack house. I’d been a college man, a fraternity man, a military man, and a federal corrections officer … but now I was just a drug addict. And that hurt.

Doing All Things With Him

That’s when I finally came to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and joined their LifeSkills program in Safe Harbor. When I stopped using drugs, I had to face how much I’d hurt people — and then receive God’s forgiveness. Over the past year and a half, my faith has grown. I’ve learned that I can’t do anything without God — but I can do all things with Him.

Last August, I graduated from the program and landed a job transporting prison inmates around Wisconsin, which gives me the chance to tell them my story and maybe help them get their lives back on track. My relationship with my mom has never been better, and I’m even reconciling with my wife.

But most important, if not for the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, I would be dead. Simple as that. I used to wake up every day just to get high. That’s not living, that’s dying. Thanks to you, however, today I’m committed to being a Godly man the rest of my life.