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Success Stories

Mark

Mark I recently graduated from the Phase I part of the Open Door Mission Christian Life Program. I am now in the Phase II Aftercare Program. I came to the Mission in 2006 after many years of drinking, drugs and depression. Over the years I had tried to quit the drinking and drugs through the A.A. and other programs, but even when I could stop using I was still depressed. I didn't really think I had a purpose in life and the depression would lead me back to the drugs again and again. The problem wasn't just the drinking and the drugs, it was that my whole life was a mess. I was trying to do everything on my own! Well, that changed last summer.

I had been coming to the Mission for a couple of months for the evening meal and I started to realize that I always felt better after the chapel service that took place before the meal. In fact I would start looking forward to the service during the day and would even come to the Mission when I had food at home. I know now it was God reaching out to me. Well, finally on September 26, 2006 I responded to an alter call at a Mission chapel service. I asked God for forgiveness for all the wrong things that I've done throughout my life and especially all the heartache that I caused my loved ones for so many years. I then asked the Lord to come into my heart. Since that day my life has completely changed. A week later, I was accepted into the Christian Life Program and my walk with the Lord really took off! Over the course of the last year, I've learned so much about God's love for us all.

The people at the Mission have all been great to me and have taught me so much. I can really see and feel God's love working through everyone. I will forever be grateful for what Jesus Christ my Lord has done for me by coming into my life and leading me to the Open Door Mission. Without God in my heart, my life was a complete mess. Now with God in my heart, my life has been full of joy and peace! I want to thank everyone at the Open Door Mission who has helped me in too many ways to count. I want to especially thank the donors and the volunteers, for without them the Mission would not and could not exist. You are all truly doing what the Lord would want! God bless you all.

Alvin

AlvinI am a graduate of the Mission's Christian Life Recovery Program. I would like to tell you about myself and my testimony. I am 27 years old, single, and without children. My grandparents, who strongly believed and lived for the Lord Jesus Christ, raised me in Williamson, NY. At a young age I gave my life to Jesus Christ, but didn't make him the Lord of my life. As I grew older I became very prideful, rebellious, stiff-necked, wild and curious about the wrong things in life. My mother and father have always engaged in some type of drug and alcohol use. Consequently, I followed after the same passions and patterns. I followed after bad company, made very bad life -threatening choices and decisions. I quit everything positive and good. I neglected and forsook God's Word, my grandparents' guidance, direction, and discipline, my teachers' influence, my counselors, recruiters from Xerox who tried to work with me and my Christian foster parents who tried really hard to help me succeed. All these people were placed in my life by God to warn me about a path in life ordained to misery, anguish, pain, devastation, and destruction.

Being stiff-necked and self-righteous got me on a path that nearly destroyed me. I followed drug dealers down to Scranton, PA and sold their drugs, which landed me in prison. It was my first criminal conviction and I received a two year sentence. I was released only to try another drug, crack cocaine and it tore my life apart for eight years. I stole, sold whatever I could get my hands on, and became suicidal. I was a complete mess. I realized that everything people had so desperately warned me to stay away from had come true. I was broken and all done.

It was at that time God planted a seed in a dear brother in Christ and through him I came to the Open Door Mission in September of 2001. While going through their Christian Life Recovery Program, I began seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and He rescued me. I didn't successfully complete the program the first time around, but God's mercy and grace brought me safely back six months later. Thanks to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prayers and support of many , on July 20th of 2003 I graduated from the Mission 's Christian Life Recovery Program.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. One particular passage of scripture that comes to mind in all my gratitude is found in the book of St. Matthew 25:31-46. If you have time to read it, please do. Here at the Mission we usually have milk with our dinner. It makes me think to myself that your love, aid and support as a donor of the Mission is the "milk" that has nourished me and my fellow brothers to make a better way of life. You've provided us with not just a handout, but a hand up. Although I may never meet most of you personally, you'll always have a place in my life and heart.