Rescue Portland July 2013
RIPPED AWAY
Jonathan’s Heartache Leads Him Home“ “I was alone in a room by myself… dying slowly.”
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Jonathan had a good life growing up in California. He loved football, track, wrestling and theatre. He regularly attended church with his parents, devout Christians, and was active in his church youth group. Surrounded by extended family and lifelong friends, Jonathan felt secure and happy. But in two simple words, Jonathan’s idyllic life was shattered. - Continues inside -
Drowning In Grace I’m a strong swimmer. During my high school years, I worked as a lifeguard. The first thing you learn in lifeguard training is how to avoid being drowned by the person you are rescuing. When someone is drowning, they are in utter panic. They have reached the point where they are so frantic and fearful, they will grab onto and drag their rescuer under the water with them. Jonathan and Gina were just that desperate. They felt the ache of a life stripped bare by abuse and addiction. Like so many people who come to the Mission for help, they were flailing in a last-ditch effort just to breathe for one more day. The addictions they clung to for relief only caused them to sink lower into hopelessness. In so many ways, the ministry of Portland Rescue Mission is one of life and death. Your support helps provide life-giving care for emergency needs like food, shelter and clothing – restoring dignity and physical health. And you help offer soul-restoring care for hearts broken by deep relational wounds, devastating addictions and self-destructive behavior. Our work together is hard, but rewarding. We have the great opportunity to jump into the water in a person’s greatest crisis to offer a hand of rescue – God’s grace in action – to provide rest, safety and healing. And many lives are saved. Thank you for being God’s hand of rescue,
Eric Bauer Executive Director P.S. – Summertime giving is often at its lowest in July and August. But the needs of homeless men, women and children continue to rise in Portland. Your extra support today would be such a blessing. Thanks.
Birthday Party for the Homeless Send a Birthday Card, Bring A Smile To A Hurting Person Imagine spending your birthday wandering the streets, no friends or family in sight, unsure of whether you will even have a meal to eat. We want these hurting people to know they are not forgotten by hosting a Birthday Party for the Homeless.
You can help by sending a birthday card with a donation, to bring a smile to a hurting person and to help provide nutritious meals and other care. Learn more on our website: www.PortlandRescueMission.org/Birthday
More than a meal. More than a bed. GIVE HOPE.
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 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.
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Jonathan looks forward to a deeper relationship with God, and a life focused on future hope instead of day-to-day searching.
“I committed crimes and became a felon. I didn’t care,” says Jonathan. “It went from making myself happy to doing whatever it took to survive the day.” Jonathan ended up homeless. He never slept on the streets, but always found someone’s couch or floor to crash on. Still, he’d never felt so broken or utterly alone. “There was no one left for me to turn to,” says Jonathan. As a young teen, Jonathan had once embraced a life of following Christ. Now weak and desperate, he cried out to God again.
“Show me a way out of this and I’ll take it. You win. If you open the door, I will walk through it.” Something inside him whispered, “Call your parents.” Jonathan was humbled as he approached his parents. He’d broken their trust so many times before. But now they gladly helped him join the New Life Ministry at Portland Rescue Mission.
RIPPED AWAY Jonathan’s Heartache Leads Him Home
(Continued from front cover) “We’re moving,” Jonathan’s parents told him. The thought of leaving everyone he knew and loved felt like a death sentence. The move to Oregon didn’t go well. Jonathan didn’t feel accepted by the “good” kids at school. “The kids who reached out to me also felt excluded,” he says. “The ones making their own rules, those are the people I gravitated toward.” His choice to follow their influence would wreck the next 16 years of Jonathan’s life. Alcohol at parties led to marijuana. Then heroin and cocaine. Jonathan managed to graduate from both high school and college. Yet he was anything but successful. “I lost a lot of jobs. I lost several girlfriends. I wrecked my car,” says Jonathan. “I sacrificed friends to my lifestyle. I lost credibility with my family. I really tuned God out of my life.” The drugs were no longer a habit, but a full-blown, life-consuming addiction. “I sold every single possession – they were commodities to be traded for drugs.”
“In all of the other programs I’ve tried, God was never a part of it,” Jonathan says. “Here, community is a big piece of your recovery, learning to live with people and share life with them. Everybody has a desire to grow… with each other and with God.” As God heals the pain in Jonathan’s life, the need for drugs has fallen away. Jonathan is emerging into a brand new life. “I’m at a place where I’m healthy. I have the trust of my family and friends – people like me and want me around,” he says. “I used to spend a lot of time living for today without thinking about tomorrow. Now I live for the future. God is the cornerstone of my life.”
Your gift today brings hurting people like Jonathan healing and hope for the future. Thank you.
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Watch Jonathan’s story to hear more about his path to hope. See more at www.PortlandRescueMission.org/JonathanStory
Tears Of Joy Gina Learns To Trust Again
“Things happen to you as a kid that spill over into your adulthood,” says Gina. “I was 11 when I was molested. From then on, I didn’t trust men.” One of six kids, Gina’s home life was rough. Emotional and physical abuse were just a part of life. She quickly learned to fend for herself and hold other people at a distance. She was filled with anger she didn’t understand – “I would just lash out,” she remembers. Within a year of being molested, at just 12 years old, Gina started sneaking beer at parties and smoking at school. “It just numbed all my pain. I didn’t have to think about all the stuff I’d gone through.” As a young teen, Gina moved on to marijuana. After breaking an ankle at 18, she began abusing Vicodin. As an adult, she got into meth. “My addiction went through the roof,” Gina recalls. “It was all so that I didn’t have to feel anything.” Gina had periods of sobriety, but her life was still filled with turmoil. “For several years while I was married and had my kids, I didn’t do drugs or alcohol. But I was filled with anger and rage. I abused my husband, then later left him for a relationship where I was abused.” Then Gina had an abortion, which weighed on her heavily. Not long after, her boyfriend committed suicide. The pain was too great. “I numbed my heartache with anything I could get.” Life became an empty existence from one day to the next. On a particularly bad day, she got incredibly drunk and tried to drown herself in the ocean. “My life was a hopeless feeling, like you’re trying to grasp on to something and you’re not grabbing on to anything.” Gina became homeless. “I couch-surfed for many years. I slept on floors, slept in my car because I didn’t have any place to go,” she recalls. “I burned bridges with everybody I knew because of my addiction.” It was Gina’s brother who helped her find Shepherd’s Door, the Mission’s ministry to women and children. Having grown up in the same painful family situation, he’d battled his own addiction. God restored his life. He knew God could heal Gina, too.
“I was crying the first couple weeks that I was here,” Gina remembers. “I still do, but it’s not from being sad, it’s from being happy.” Through recovery counseling, Bible study and prayer, God is restoring the broken places of Gina’s heart. “It has taken me this long to realize that the people here have only one motive – that they care about me and they love me,” she says. “I’ve noticed that I’ve changed. I feel positive, uplifted and happier. God has given me a stronger relationship with my kids, who I love dearly.” “Shepherd’s Door is exactly that – a door,” says Gina. She came through that door with shattered pieces of a broken life. And now she’s walking back into life, forever changed.
More women like Gina need your help to find healing from abuse. Thanks for your gift today.
Scan with RedLaser app or other QR code reader to watch video.
Watch Gina’s video to see her growth and joyful spirit. See more at www.PortlandRescueMission.org/GinaStory