August 2014 Newsletter

Download a PDF to read the full newsletter. Or read our featured article below.

---

A Veteran Rescued

There are no jobs for gunners on tanks in civilian life. After nine years in the Army and a tour of duty in Iraq, this sergeant became a private citizen again. David was not physically injured, but there are other forms and degrees of casualties that never make the statistics books. Symptoms can go undetected. Victims can self-medicate with alcohol or other substances, not fully realizing or understanding the source of their problem. Then, like David, alcohol becomes an added issue, for both the psychology of addiction and the physical injury to internal body organs. Personal and employment relationships get stressed and broken. Some wandering and searching is common. And homelessness is more prevalent for the veteran.

After his honorable discharge, David returned to the Oregon coast, where he had spent a portion of his childhood. He worked in lumber mills. He said, “I was chasing around work on the coast, until the work dried up.” He arrived in Roseburg last November on a bus. After spending that Thursday in a motel, he entered the Mission the next day. By Monday, he was at the Employment Department updating his resume. On the same day at the Mission, he was getting slacks, a shirt and tie. With a military type determination David said, “I wasn’t going to give up until somebody hired me.” On Thursday, just a week after arriving here, he had a job. After working that job a few months, he applied for a more substantial position with another company. But he was turned down by their medical insurance provider because of the bodily harm done by alcohol. There was another unrecorded veteran casualty.

Of the Mission, David said, “This place is a sanctuary. When you have a problem in life, you don’t have to worry about drugs or alcohol here. You leave the world out there. This place is home. This has become like my family. The Mission provided structure; without it, I just fall apart. I wake up and there is something to do, people to talk to, work, a set bed time. I needed it, craved it. Its a safe place.” The Mission’s organization does resemble a barracks, chow hall and work details, similar to military life. He is pictured here in our Furniture Store, a place he enjoys working. And of our chapel services, they were a welcomed blessing. David had a revelation of the presence of the Lord while standing on the beach one night in prayer. So chapel messages were more than just words of hope in troubled times; they were personal. He said, “Chapel services are good, refreshing to hear the Word from different people, different dynamics. I enjoy the music; a guy brings drums and a guitar. Its really nice to be in a Christ center place that hasn’t folded from the government pressure to stop preaching for money.” David’s favorite Scripture verse is, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13. He said that at the Mission, he has known love from God and from the people that are here. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”