A Path of Hope

When Thomas was a boy, he never imagined he’d one day be walking such a dark road. “I had a pretty normal life growing up. I didn’t really have any issues,” he says. “I had everything I could possibly want.”

Then he started smoking pot in high school – his first step on a path that would lead to an opiate addiction. “It crept up on me slowly and, as time passed, I needed more and more,” he says.

Thomas graduated from college and worked steadily, but before long, he began stealing and selling drugs to support his habit, alienating his family and friends and landing in trouble with the law. Eventually, he found himself homeless. It was then when he had a moment of clarity. “Not having a place to go home to was pretty drastic for me,” he says. “I was willing to do whatever it took to change.”

He checked into a detox, and it was there where he learned about our Life Change Program. “I just knew I needed to go,” he says.

Through our chapels, Bible studies and spiritual counsel, Thomas found his way to freedom. “I listened to what people were saying and realized that no human power could take away my addiction. The power comes from God,” he says. “I asked Him to help me.”

Thomas has been clean ever since, graduated from the program and is interning here. “We try to give the guys who come in strength and hope,” he says.

With help from our education fund for interns, Thomas will start school in the fall to earn a Master’s of Social Work. He plans to help others who are walking that dark road find the path to freedom.

Because of your support, Thomas, and others like him, find help and hope when they walk through the doors of the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission – at Easter and always. “The people here really care and that’s what helped me the most.”

To read this issue of The Lifeline, click here.