March 2017 Newsletter

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

Awakened To A New Life

As a child, Denise bounced from one family member’s household to another, because her mother died when she was just eight-years-old. Early in life she learned, “If I stirred something up, then I had to go live somewhere else.” So, she stopped communicating. She felt sad and lonely. At fourteen she discovered, “Pot made the feeling just numb.” By twenty-seven a family member made the meth introduction so, she reasoned, “You don’t have to feel the pain.”

Denise never married and hardly ever was employed. By the time she was forty, she had three children- ages ten, eleven and sixteen. Child Protective Services took custody of them when she failed to return to her unpaid motel room. She said, “I started living in the streets, in abandoned houses, by the river, parks. I was twelve years on the streets, too strung out on drugs. I would hold a sign, do whatever I had to do, steal. I never did get my kids back.” At fifty-two, she tried going back to school and living on financial aid. Then she got sick, lost her income and low budget motel room.

Samaritan Inn was suggested to her, but she had never been in a homeless shelter. She recalled, “I didn’t want to be there, or answer to anybody. I was very rebellious. When I got there (Samaritan Inn), I sat on a couch. Linda (our manager) said, ‘Can I pray for you?’ ‘No, you can’t, I said with an attitude of anger.’ Chapel started softening my heart. All these people would give me hugs.” For the first few months, her mind and body were learning to live free of chemical addiction. She continued, “I got a taste of life. When you are a drug addict all your life, there are a lot of things that you don’t get to experience – people, relationships. I had no clue what I was missing.” Denise joined our New Life Program as a cook. She said, “It was really amazing. It felt good to help people, to feed them. What a blessing!” She attended our addiction recovery classes, sharing, “You get to feel some more, opening up, going through the yucky mire, processing all that stuff.”

Denise’s faith grew, confessing, “Throughout my life, I always believed in God, but I never really thought that I was worthy of being loved. But when you sing those songs, you start believing you are a new creation, worthy. Salvation was slow, building a personal relationship, reading daily devotions in the morning, praying.” She quoted, “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7.

Denise has moved out of Samaritan Inn to a new life. She has been clean of drugs and sober of alcohol for two-and-a half years. For several months, she has been working the first full-time job that she has ever held in her life. She bought a car, is attending a local church, and restored relationships with her three children who are now adults. She concluded, “I am grateful for Samaritan Inn. It is awesome what the community does; they must love.”