Rescue Portland November 2010
Special Holiday Issue
Making New Memories Jim’s Traumatic Past Won’t Keep Him from a Positive Future
Jim was five years old when his baby sister climbed into a toilet and drowned. He was left an only child. “My mom never really bounced back after that.” A few years later, child protective services visited his family’s house because they’d heard that Jim shared his small bedroom with three Doberman pinschers. His bed was on the floor, surrounded by dog waste. When Jim was a teen, his stepfather pointed a gun at his own head, threatening to kill himself. When he turned it on Jim’s mother, Jim protested… CONTINUES INSIDE
A Season To Remember The holiday season is a time that is rich in memories. For many of us, the memories hearken back to pleasant times with family and friends—memories filled with warmth and joy that create hopeful expectations of the holidays ahead. But when I get to know the homeless and hurting people who come through our doors, I find that their holiday memories are usually as bleak as their present condition. In fact, the harshness and pain in their past often has defined them. Their memories reinforce their despair and suggest the future holds nothing better. That’s why Portland Rescue Mission is here—to compassionately embrace hurting people in order to instill hope for a better future. We share the Christmas story all year long—for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. God truly instills new hope in troubled hearts through the gifts of love and grace. What a privilege it is for our staff and volunteers to share these precious gifts and see lives redeemed. Friends, your dedication to the hurting men, women and children we serve— your prayers, your service and your gifts—is transforming lives that are being filled with positive memories. When they look back on their time at the Mission, it will motivate them for the future. They will remember finally experiencing true sobriety. They will remember breaking the chains of addiction to unhealthy relationships. They will remember new educational and vocational skills. They’ll remember the names and faces of staff and volunteers who helped them fight for freedom from the past. They’ll remember their first taste of God’s goodness. Your special gift of hope this Christmas provides meals, shelter, counseling and healing to many hurting men, women and children. You help these precious people understand their past, delve into their pain and give their broken hearts to God. And He’s the One who transforms their past into a beautiful future. The memories they create here will remind them of the hope they have found in Christ. I hope you will be encouraged by these stories of lives transformed by God’s love and grace. And may this Christmas season be filled with blessings for you and your family.
Eric Bauer, Executive Director
More than a bed. More than a meal. GIVE
P.O. Box 3713 Portland, OR 97208-3713 503-MISSION (647-7466) www.PortlandRescueMission.org
Mission Needs We consistently need: • Life Recovery Bibles (NLT) • Socks • Hooded sweatshirts • Sleeping bags • Backpacks • Deodorant (spray or solid) • Disposable razors • Toothbrushes • Toothpaste • Travel-size toiletries We especially need: • New undergarments (men and women) • Men’s jeans • Twin blankets • Yard equipment: mowers, weed-eaters, leaf blowers, etc. • Digital video recorder for our Learning Center Your financial support and donations of practical items makes relationships possible! Please bring donations to the Burnside Shelter at 111 W. Burnside, Portland, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Short-term street parking is usually available at our front door.
HOPE.
Portland Rescue Mission receives no government funding, but relies completely on voluntary support from individuals, businesses, foundations, organizations and churches. $1.88 pays for one meal for one person, and that’s just the beginning of total life recovery. Thanks for considering a gift today! www.PortlandRescueMission.org/GiveNovember
Making New Memories CONTINUED FROM FRONT COVER
…but then the gun was aimed at him. No shots were fired, but “his anger was spontaneous, like TNT,” Jim recalls. Jim remembers being molested by a family friend, drinking underage at the bar his stepdad owned and smoking pot to fit in at school. He recalls getting his first job at 16 and being thrown against a wall by his stepfather for spending his paycheck. His memories are a tangled knot of fearful upbringing, unmet expectations and acceptance of abuse as something normal. These stories, far from picturesque, have shaped the man Jim has grown to be. As an adult, he has had just as many tarnished memories. There have been false starts, failures and disappointments. He’s been addicted to drugs, alcohol, women and work.
Rescue Mission. “I started to feel hope. It was a new beginning.” At the Mission, Jim began to go through his past to uncover the lies he’d been taught. All his life, he’d believed that he could make up for trauma and addictions with good behavior and habits. And all his life, he’d failed. None of his efforts got at the root of his pain. Today, God intervenes in Jim’s painful memories.
“I let Him talk to me. I hear Him now. It’s an intimate conversation.” God moved in Jim’s life to become a real Father, and He’s lovingly rewritten his story. That new story has given Jim a new way to live. He’s torn down his walls of self-protection. He recognizes his own self-pity and victim tendencies and his defensive pride and arrogance. Jim traces his survival behaviors back to their original source and understands the damage they’ve caused. And he falls back on God’s strength to change. “The Holy Spirit is my Hope.” There’s one happy memory from Jim’s past that inspires him this season. On Christmas Eve when he was seven years old, Jim heard Santa downstairs. He snuck out of bed, only to learn it was his parents who were making noise, laughing and playing with new toys like they were little kids. “That family picture reminds me that there can be some happiness, despite the brokenness all around us.”
But this year, Jim will celebrate a truly miraculous Christmas gift—a new life where brokenness Counselors and mentors encourage Jim to dig into his past to find a better future. is healed and joy is lasting. He’s Last Christmas, Jim was still broken, still addicted, surrounded by church family and friends at the and still very much alone. Over the years, he’d learned Mission. He makes healthy memories here every day, the rules and guidelines of sobriety, but his story was memories of God revealing Himself as the Redeemer, the same—he’d never experienced transformation that will carry him through the season and into hope into the person God designed him to be. It wasn’t for the future. No matter what comes, Jim knows addiction that was the root problem. It was the that God’s hand is writing hope into his story, memories and all the wounds that came with them. every turn of the page. Jim set his course on finding true recovery. He sold everything he owned and made his way to Portland
See for yourself! Watch Jim’s video story of hope online at www.PortlandRescueMission.org/Jim
Kristen Received Mercy and Grace Kristen spent her younger years on the road. She traveled with a band on an old school bus across the country. They’d stay six weeks in one city and then move on. Her friends were bar owners, musicians’ wives and waitresses. But Kristen wasn’t in the band—she was a roadie. Her parents were the musicians. Kristen was only eight years old. It was hard to find friends her age on the road. When the band stopped touring and Kristen lived at home with her parents in Washington, kids were still hard to get close to. “My dad grew marijuana at home, so I couldn’t have friends over.” By the age of ten, Kristen was stealing pot from her dad to smoke it with new friends at school to be accepted. Pot led to drinking, and by her early teen years, Kristen took meth intravenously. She hung out with drug dealers, and she was in and out of juvenile detention. Kristen ran away from home, sometimes for periods so long that she would see “Missing Person” posters with her face on them.
“My mom didn’t know what to do with me,” Kristen admits today. “I was out of control.” Kristen ran on all cylinders without a care for what or whom she hurt. She’d hit rock-bottom over and over again, but the only place she found true comfort was in her addictions. In jail again in 2008, Kristen met a woman named Susan. Susan came to the prison once a week to talk with women, hear about their struggles and pray for their lives. “I didn’t have anything else to do, so I talked to her.” Kristen was used to hearing about Jesus in prison—she even accepted Him a few times— but she’d never seen the love and forgiveness of Jesus actually demonstrated by anyone. Susan was different. “She never condemned me.” Instead, she showed Kristen the real love of Jesus. Kristen knew she needed to be surrounded by people like Susan to find recovery. It took some time, but last spring, Kristen came to Shepherd’s Door, the women and children’s ministry of Portland
Kristen shares the joy of music and worship with Mercy Grace.
Rescue Mission. She was pregnant, and finally ready to seek real recovery for herself and her unborn child. Almost immediately after arriving at Shepherd’s Door, Kristen began to grow in faith and understanding. She received counseling, connected with other women and experienced worship like never before. As she carried her baby, she found new life. Mercy Grace was born in June. This giggly, extroverted child defines what Kristen has found in recovery. Just like God created Mercy Grace to be healthy and happy, “He has done a good work in me,” Kristen explains, “and He will perfect it until the day Christ Jesus returns.” Kristen has no plans of touring in a band any time soon, but she shares her love of music and creativity with Mercy Grace every day. Two lives have been saved by Christ’s love. Two new lives now have the gift of hope. The story continues. Watch Kristen’s video story of hope online at www.PortlandRescueMission.org/Kristen
With your support, women like Kristen get a second chance at motherhood. Thanks for considering a gift today!