God Found Me Here
Before Matthew ever set foot at Wheeler Mission, his life was unraveling faster than he could keep up. He grew up surrounded by instability, watching both parents battle meth addiction. By fifteen, he was already using and manufacturing drugs himself—just a kid trying to survive the only world he knew.
The years that followed were marked by homelessness, addiction, and time in prison. Matthew moved place to place, relationship to relationship, always searching for belonging but never quite finding it. He says he didn’t know how to love people… because deep down, he didn’t know how to love himself.
“I’ve learned to love people unconditionally, and that’s something I never could’ve done before. God is working in me.”
“I was lost,” he says. “I was afraid. I was going down a bad path.”
Still, even in the darkest moments, there was a spark inside him—a quiet desire to change. But he didn’t yet know how, or where to begin.
A Jail Cell Became the Doorway to Hope
After yet another arrest, Matthew found himself in the Jackson County Jail—tired, broken, and out of options. But that’s where God stepped in.
A jail staff member, Miss Wendy, saw something in him. She believed his story didn’t have to end here.
“She told me she had a place for me to go,” Matthew remembers. “A place where I could start over.”
That night, he sat awake wondering if he should take the chance. Unsure. Nervous.
So he prayed.
And the next morning, he came to Wheeler Mission.
Seven months later, his life looks nothing like the one he left behind.
Where a Program Became a New Way of Living
“When I first got here, it felt like a program,” Matthew admits. “But now, it’s a lifestyle.”
Here at Camp Hunt, Matthew found the first safe, stable place he’d known in years—maybe ever. With the noise of the world quieted, he finally had the space to breathe… to heal… and to hear God’s voice.
“I didn’t really know God before,” he says. “But now, He’s my Lord and Savior.”
Every day, Matthew digs into Scripture. Every day, he discovers something new. And every day, he feels chains—shame, fear, anger—breaking off his life.
But the transformation isn’t just internal.
Matthew has learned to love people again. To trust.
To be part of a community.
To mend relationships he once thought were lost forever.
Finding Purpose, Work, and a Future
Through Wheeler’s Work Therapy, Matthew discovered a surprising passion: pallet‑building. What started as a daily assignment has turned into a dream for the future—he hopes to one day own his own business.
He has also learned leadership, communication, and how to help younger men walking the same road he once walked.
“It’s a brotherhood here,” he says. “I’ve learned people skills. I’ve learned I have a purpose.”
And for the first time in a long time, he feels ready to be the father his two boys—Connor and Cyrus—need.
“I Feel Like I Belong Here.”
When asked what Wheeler Mission has given him, Matthew doesn’t hesitate.
“It’s given me the chance to turn my life around,” he says. “A chance to be a father. A chance to live. A place where I finally feel at home.”
But his transformation didn’t happen by accident.
It happened because people—people like you—cared enough to make room for him.
“I hope people support Wheeler Mission,” Matthew says, “because this place gives people a chance to build a relationship with God. Out there, it’s hard. But here… here, it changes your life.”
Watch Matthew’s story here: Watch Video
