August 2013 Newsletter

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Starting Over Again

Dennis used to have a good job with a local boat manufacturer until they shut down. He moved to another state for a while to be near family and to have employment. There, he found a job and fell in love. But before they were to be married, she suddenly became ill, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. He had left his job the last few months of her life to care for her at home. Dennis had a very hard time overcoming his loss. He tried going back to his old job for a time, but life was just not the same.

He bought a train ticket back home to Oregon. Dennis had a job prospect lined up at a sawmill; but upon arriving here, it did not pan out. Before long, he was out of money. He had been living in a family member’s garage. From there, he moved in with a friend in a rather small, remote town from Roseburg. Each day as his friend would drive into Roseburg to work, he dropped Dennis off in town to look for work. Then at the end of his friend’s work day, he would pick Dennis up again to drive home. All day, he walked the streets picking up applications. At night, he filled them out at home. Before long, phone calls started coming back to him. After two weeks of looking, his third interview and an estimated 150 applications, Dennis got hired. Its a part-time job in a fast food restaurant, and he is delighted for the opportunity.

He had to move into Roseburg for his job schedule. He had never been to a Mission before. Dennis said, “Thank God for you guys. This place is very important to me. You cannot live in the bushes and work with the public. I had no other options and you guys were here for me. I was looking for a hand up, not a handout. This was a good place to come to get my life started again. Its very hard; it takes a lot of effort and diligence to find a job, but you can. Fast food is not the greatest job in the world, but work is work. I have worked my way up to management before. You get out of it, what you put into it.”

When asked his thoughts on the Mission chapel services, Dennis continued to articulate his experience so well. He said, “Faith is big part of reconstructing my life. If you let the Lord guide you, you can accomplish a lot. He brought me here. I didn’t think that I needed the spirituality; but since I’ve been here, I realize that I do.” He explained that he had gone to private Christian school through ninth grade and accepted the Lord at thirteen. When he was a child, both parents died. He said, “Something just got lost. The Mission reconnected me with my spiritual side, and made me feel close to God, which I hadn’t been in a long time.” Then he quoted John 3:16-17 very well from memory and added that he especially likes verse 17, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Dennis has been reassured of his salvation. He concluded by saying, “I like happy endings. I want to get back to life as I used to know it.”