People ask all the time about men, women, and families who turn their lives around at the Rescue Mission: “Where are they now?”

Deborah is just one of many neighbors who has experienced lasting transformation in her life because of your giving. When people hear her story, they’re often surprised. The woman in front of them doesn’t look like someone who would’ve struggled through years of addiction.

“I always tell them it’s because of Jesus and His love for me,” says Deborah.

Before Deborah graduated from Village of Hope in 2012, she was living in the aftermath of addiction and abuse. Daily life for Deborah looked like living in a hotel room with her grandchildren while her daughter left for days to go party.

NOWHERE LEFT TO GO

One day, when Deborah’s daughter returned high to the hotel room, Deborah knew she couldn’t let her grandkids stay with their mother anymore.

“Since I wasn’t working and had no way to pay for a hotel room, child services took my grandkids.” Deborah was at a loss. She was watching addiction take a toll on her life, her daughter’s life, and her grandkids’ lives. Where could she go from here?

The same day child services came on the scene, a friend who lived at the hotel called down to Deborah from the third floor. “I want you to talk to my friend!”

Deborah didn’t feel like talking to anybody. But she got on the phone with this friend of a friend — an employee at the Rescue Mission. “I came to the Rescue Mission just so I could get custody of my grandchildren,” Deborah says. “But God had more in store.”

ACCOMPLISHING DREAMS

The journey to healing and stability was not easy. Loss and disappointment along the road to restoration often made addiction seem like the only relief. But God was transforming Deborah’s heart and old ways of coping.

“Here, my relationship with God grew stronger and my life changed,” she says. “I have no craving for drugs. Even 11 years later, I don’t know where I’d be right now if I hadn’t gone to Village of Hope.”

Deborah is accomplishing dreams she never thought possible — including a trip to Israel that she funded entirely on her own. “I never saved money when I was in my addiction. I didn’t think I’d be alive at my age, let alone paying for a trip to Israel by myself,” says Deborah.

Deborah is living proof of the long-term impact you make in people’s lives. Your generosity shows men and women who don’t think they’ll live to see tomorrow that there is hope and restoration in Jesus Christ.

“I look at things differently now,” says Deborah. “It’s not all about me, it’s about others. God has changed me from the inside out. Thank you.”