June 2015 Newsletter

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Accountability And Relationships

Jeremy was in the Oregon National Guard for six years in the military police. He helped with Hurricane Katrina relief. He tried to transition to civilian police, but there were too few openings for everyone looking at that time. So, he searched for contentment playing music in a band, but ended up seeking it in a bottle. He said that alcohol was never a problem for him in high school or in the service. But within just a couple of years after receiving his liberty from military life, drinking had consumed him. He lost his marriage, family and job.

Jeremy said that for him, “Drinking alcohol was like medication. It gave me confidence to play in the band, numbed the mundane living stresses of bills to pay, commitments, responsibilities. I used alcohol to avoid dealing with things, then alcohol keeps you from dealing with problems, relieves problems and continues then to excess and then unable to escape. I avoided years of obligation and the weight of it grows. Wife leaves you. Hey, it doesn’t work anymore. You wake up and realize you have to take care of it. But you have been left with abandonment and need God in your life.”

Recovery groups, whether Christian or not, did not seem to have the solution he needed. He relapsed time and again. He had an awakening to the presence of the Lord in his life. Still, he would return to his addiction. He said that for him, the primary missing elements were accountability and relationships. Even so, Jeremy said, “I had to reach a place of total brokenness. The best thing that ever happened to me was alcohol taking me to the very bottom. I would not be walking with God today.”

Of the Mission he said, “The Mission is a foundation for me, a solid place for me to lay my life upon, safe atmosphere. Women are not allowed (except in Dining Room), and no alcohol. I’m fed. It’s a community. I make myself available to minister to other men and pray with them. I don’t see this as a homeless shelter. I see this as a campus. I have men around me that are real, faced with reality, not hiding. This is my home, a home for anyone here. We are all homeless, those of us that recognize that this world is not our home. We are of a different kingdom. Regarding our evening chapel services he said, “I can see (volunteer) people’s hearts are trying to minister the Gospel to (homeless) people, relate, to show the men something about Who Jesus is. I’m noticing minds opening up.”

Through his ups and downs, Jeremy has now had the stability of holding the same full-time job for three years. He came to the Mission directly into our Transitional Housing Program, having been referred by a local church. He has the independence of renting his own room here, yet the accountability of sobriety and curfew. He has developed relationships, comradery, even reminiscent of a more stable time in his military service.