One after the other, Bryan* lost his father, his mom, and his stepdad, leaving him lost, alone, and deep in addiction. But God can bring every lost sheep home again through a family of friends like this one at Nashville Rescue Mission . . .

“I always had a home, always had family around me at all times,” Bryan recalls. “And just going from that to everybody going home”—to heaven!—“was a complete change,” he says.

A change that not only left him isolated as he slipped deeper into an addiction that started “when I was about 12,” he says. And like so many others, it started with pharmaceutical pills.

“One of my buddies said something about wanting to try to find some Xanax or something. I said my aunt’s got a drawerful, and he’s like, “Well, get some of them.” It went from there . . .”

Still, “I didn’t really get addicted to any drug until my dad died,” Bryan says. It was sudden, his dad walked across the street to Bryan’s grandmother’s house and tragically died.

“I didn’t really think it would bother me like that—but it did,” he recalls. “So, I just started doing methamphetamine . . . I just didn’t care about living anymore.”

That’s when a childhood friend finally convinced him to
come to Nashville Rescue Mission.

“[We] grew up together,” Bryan says. “His grandparents lived probably 15 yards down the road from my grandmother’s house. So, I’ve known [him] since I was little . . . and every time I would see him he would ask me, “Ready to go?”

Bryan’s friend knew all about the life transformation God makes possible here, because he’d gone through our proven Life Recovery Program himself.

Bryan says, “I’m really thankful, just knowing that I don’t have to worry about where I’m staying or where I’m going to eat. I enjoy being here. I didn’t really think I’d get this much joy out of it!”

Thank you for making life change like Bryan’s possible, with hope for today, hope for tomorrow, and hope for eternity!

*Name changed for privacy.