For most of his life, Justin was fighting a losing battle. “I spent the better part of 30 years in active addiction.” From an upper middle-class life, he eventually wound up living on the streets. 

“I moved here to get off heroin,” he recalls, “which I’d been on for 15 years.” While he was able to break that addiction, another quickly took its place. “I picked up drinking, and that led me down a pretty dark path.” 

It cost him everything that mattered in his life. “I lost it all. My family, my car, my house… everything.” Eventually, his choices led him to incarceration, where he received a profound second chance and heard God calling him to a new life. 

“I was an atheist prior—I didn’t believe at all,” Justin says. But at that lowest point of his life, his eyes were opened and something shifted. “It’s kind of hard to look back on everything and say there is no God.” 

“I got humbled when everything was taken away from me.” 

While in prison, Justin was given the option of entering a recovery program at a camp. “My faith grew there, I sat by still waters, and I got to know Jesus.” That transformation led him to an open staff position at Wheeler Mission. 

Today, Justin serves on staff helping others who are walking the same road he once traveled. “I have a chance to bring guys in that same direction, to Christ, who delivered me.” 

He is living a life he once couldn’t imagine. “I’d never had a year of sobriety, and I do now.” His relationships with his family are being restored, and hope has replaced despair. 

Because of you, Justin is experiencing Thanksgiving in a whole new way this year… with a renewed faith and a heart full of gratitude. “I have a relationship with my Lord and Creator, and I’m thankful for a place where I can help lead other men to Christ.”

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