Kyle knows and loves Nashville. “I grew up around the Hermitage area,” he says with a smile. But after his parents divorced, he found himself 15 years old in a small town—and in “the wrong situations with the wrong people.” As he recalls, most of them were deeply involved with life-threatening drugs like meth.

Yet, despite his personal struggles with addiction and the company he kept, he found jobs and “always tried to keep a difference between my work life”—and the rest of his life.

“That didn’t really work out,” he recalls, unable or unwilling to get help. “For a lot of years, I just got miserable.”

At his lowest point, he knew there was a refuge somehow, somewhere, by God’s grace.

“Even in my mess I would pray, ‘Lord, I want out of this,’” he says. “But I couldn’t get away: this was just a revolving door in my life.” Until finally, “I lost my house. I lost everything”—even his beloved mother, who died not knowing if Kyle could ever turn his life around.

“It was a humbling experience,” still disbelieving how he felt. “I’d never actually been in that situation”—isolated, homeless, and almost out of hope.

Still, Kyle prayed. And looking back on that moment, he can’t help but say, “Sometimes, you have to be careful about how you pray, and what you pray for, because God will answer your prayers sometimes—and it might not be the way you want it or the way you expect it.”

Finding himself facing jail time, he was offered the choice of getting into a recovery program here or somewhere else. “I chose here,” he says. And thanks to hearts like yours that make Nashville Rescue Mission possible, he’s never been the same!

Kyle says, “That was really an eye-opener for me. He’s shown me a lot of things I talk about with others here: being responsible for my own actions. Being a man and standing up to do what’s right—having a relationship with Him above all else. With that, everything else falls in line, because it’s not our will. It’s His will.”

Kyle is eager to give back in any way he can as a staff member at the Mission. “This place is a joy. It’s not like a job!” he says with a smile. “This is where I was meant to be, 100%” from his very first day to today . . .

And Nashville Rescue Mission is where Kyle met his wife, Krystle, also a graduate of the Life Recovery program. “My recovery is going great with more than 6 and a half years clean. It’s trusting in Jesus to guide me daily in God’s will for my life, having a praying wife that keeps me grounded, and my work family and friends who have been a staple of accountability and inspiration to me to stay in the faith of Jesus. My wife and I now have hope through Christ by way of the Mission’s Life Recovery Programs.”

Thank you for being the most important part of this ministry, and may His grace continue to shine through your compassion in action!