Rescue Portland November 2012
SICK, COLD and ALONE A Meal and a Bed Gave Richard Hope Richard shivered in the cold Portland rain. Sick with the flu, he walked along the littered sidewalks of Old Town, feverish and... - Continues inside -
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The Survivor Tree On the grounds of New York City’s 9/11 memorial stands a battered pear tree. This “Survivor Tree” was uncovered in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Recovery workers were astonished, since they’d long given up hope of finding anything alive at the site. The “Survivor Tree” was badly burned, covered in ash, with only one living branch. Rather than abandon it, caretakers replanted it and nursed it back to health. Within a year, the tree sprouted new growth. Over a decade later, the tree stands strong, budding with life. On a recent trip to New York city, I stood captivated by the miracle of this tree. It’s a powerful symbol of God’s work in the lives of the men and women who come to Portland Rescue Mission for help. Dedicated staff and volunteers at the Mission work in the rubble of homelessness and addiction. The people we find are devastated, deeply hurting and barely living. We reach out with emergency care – meals, shelter, clothing and other services to sustain hurting, homeless people – hundreds who come to us every day. We offer hope through counseling, job skills and the love of Christ. Men and women who choose to embrace recovery are replanted, pruned and nourished – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Out of the ashes, on branches once thought dead, buds of life appear. People who felt beyond hope emerge strong and healthy. Like the Survivor Tree, Richard and Lauren are remarkable survivors, too. Thanks to the support of friends like you, God has created a miracle of new life within them. And with God’s grace, we’ll see many more new-life stories like theirs this Thanksgiving and Christmas.
P.O. Box 3713 Portland, OR 97208-3713 503-MISSION (647-7466) www.PortlandRescueMission.org
Mission Needs Socks are a constant need for men and women on the streets. We also need: • New undergarments • Blankets • Backpacks • Deodorant (spray or solid) • Disposable razors • Toothbrushes • Toothpaste • Travel-size toiletries • Jeans • Life Recovery Bibles (NLT) • Yard equipment: mowers, weed-eaters, leaf blowers, garden soil and pea gravel • Office furniture: conference table (8‘ x 4‘) with 10 chairs • Couch/chair set
Eric Bauer Executive Director P.S. – Thanksgiving and Christmas are especially difficult for homeless men, women and children. Your special gift today helps offer them meals, warmth, friendship and encouragement. Thanks.
300,000 Meals Give Hope! The basic daily needs of hungry men, women and children in our community continue to rise. We’re serving 28% more meals to hurting people since the recession began in 2008 – over 300,000 meals this year alone! Each hot, nutritious meal offers care, hope – and the first steps toward a new life. And still just $1.88 per meal. Thanks. More than a meal. More than a bed. GIVE HOPE.
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.
Eventually his addiction took him down. Richard lost Richard is learning valuable life skills to prepare him for a successful new life.
his job and home. He was lost, alone and – more than ever before – empty. “I came to the Mission for a meal and a bed,” he says. Richard didn’t know it yet, but that meal was the first step toward healing. After a week in our emergency shelter, he enrolled in our New Life Recovery Program. Through months of care and counseling, Richard discovered a relationship with God that changed his entire outlook on life. “It was the one piece of the puzzle that made other things clear,” he says.
SICK, COLD and ALONE
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...completely soaked. “I was constantly walking. I had nowhere to rest,” Richard remembers. “I couldn’t lay down on the ground. I had no medicine. No one to comfort me. I just felt so alone and lost.” Thanksgiving was just a few days away, but Richard would spend the holiday homeless. Even though he had
“I began to care about myself and other people. I began to care about being responsible and just began to feel joy – something I haven’t felt for a long time.” As God filled the void in Richard’s life, the need for drugs and alcohol fell away. “Portland Rescue Mission has given me a place to learn and grow – and a fighting chance to address the roots of my addiction through Christ.” He has forgiveness and a freedom he never thought possible. Richard’s family has seen him change. “When I talk to my mother, I can definitely tell that she’s proud of me. Confidence and trust is being rebuilt.” After graduation, Richard looks forward to finishing
family nearby, he couldn’t bear to have them see him in
college, maybe to pursue his passion for art and music.
his condition. Years of alcohol and drug abuse had deeply
“I love the process of creating something beautiful out of
hurt the people he loved. His mother couldn’t trust him. His
nothing,” says Richard – just as God has done with him.
sister didn’t want his bad example around her children. Richard’s addiction isn’t completely surprising. His father used and dealt heroin. Most of his extended family were consumed by drugs and alcohol. For Richard, drugs were a way to fit in with the crowd and hide from his problems. But his life was a void. “I felt like I was wandering
Men like Richard have meals, shelter and hope thanks to your compassionate support. Thank you.
aimlessly through a desert, trying any drug or relationship or anything to fill the emptiness.” For years, Richard managed to hold a job even while spiraling deeper into addiction. He married, but it fell apart after just two years. “It was doomed to begin with,” he says, “because I loved drinking and drugs more than anything – even my wife.”
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Richard won’t be alone this Thanksgiving and Christmas. See more at www.PortlandRescueMission.org/Richard
having kids,” she says. “I felt left behind. Why could they be successful with their lives and I couldn’t?” To cope with the pain, Lauren shut down. She built emotional walls of isolation between her and the outside world. She shut God out, too. Lauren stopped living. Through the help of her family, Lauren found Shepherd’s Door, the women and children’s ministry of Portland Rescue Mission. Desperate for hope and a connection with God, Lauren enrolled in the New Life Recovery Program. In her first few weeks at Shepherd’s Door, Lauren felt herself slowly open up to God’s love. While in prayer one day, she sensed Him saying, “You are MINE.” It moved her deeply.
Lauren Stopped Living
For the first time, I understood that God loved me. I went around the whole day telling everybody, ‘Guess what? God loves me!’ The wall between her and God came tumbling down in a cascade of His embrace. Other walls came down in Lauren’s life, too. Anger that once boiled inside her fell away. Meaningful friendships with other women in the recovery program began to blossom.
Lauren felt like she was dying. For weeks, she rarely left
Her parents have experienced their own healing and her
the darkness of a small bedroom she was renting. Numb to the
relationship with them has grown deeper. “We’re starting new,
world around her, she was isolated in sleep, constant TV or
because I’m new.”
the private world of her computer. “It was the deepest, darkest depression I’ve ever experienced,” Lauren remembers. “I was done living my life.”
Other people have noticed Lauren’s transformation. “I’ve had people from my past come up to me and say, ‘You’ve changed. You just look brighter. You look happy,’” Lauren says.
The dark clouds of depression weren’t new to Lauren. She’d felt unwanted, abandoned, even despised for most of her
Her answer is simple. “This place is saturated with God. You can’t leave here without being touched by Him.”
life. After her parents’ divorce when she was young, Lauren rarely saw her father. Her mother, caught up in an unhealthy lifestyle, was distant and sometimes left Lauren to fend for herself. In school, Lauren was bullied by kids and emotionally abused by one of her teachers.
Your gift today will help more people like Lauren escape homelessness and devastating addictions. Thanks.
The effect of so much rejection was devastating. “I believed that God couldn’t love me,” says Lauren. “I believed that I had no value, that I was a mistake.”
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As an adult, the heaviness continued to plague Lauren. She worked multiple jobs, but couldn’t seem to make ends meet. She enrolled in college, but couldn’t stay motivated. “People around me started moving on with their lives… getting married,
See how Lauren found hope with the New Life Recovery Program.
www.PortlandRescueMission.org/Lauren