Inspirations and Triumphs

Brian came to the Mission is October of 2001. Before he came to the Mission, he was almost at the end of his life. The glory of his old life was drinking, drugging, and running crack houses. Without close family contact, Brian was out on his own, going from job to job, and wasting away his days to the heavy oppression of drugs. He remembers being on a drug binge and waking up and looking around at the trash covering the floor of what was once his house and now a community crack house. As he got up to make his way through the filth, something inside him triggered an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. He reached under his mattress for his gun to end the life he no longer wanted. At his final moment he cried out to God as one last attempt to reconsider dying. Brian vividly recalls the words he heard from the Lord, “Brian, I can take your pain away.” This was the turning point of his life.

Moving forward from the life of despair, Brian needed a place to not only recover from his addictions, but to remit him back into the community as a self-sufficient individual, rebuilt on the love and truth of his newfound hope, Jesus Christ. During his stay at the Frederick Rescue Mission, he was able acquire his GED, driver’s license, and employment skills. But aside from these outer accomplishments, deeper changes were occurring in the most precious areas of his life. After years of a broken relationship with his mother, he called her on the phone and made a step towards reconciliation. He started up prayer meetings at 5:30am and was considered a spiritual “leader” of the house. He began to walk out of darkness and into the life the Father wanted for him.

Thanks to the grace of God, Brian got his life back in the matter of a year. But the success didn’t stop there. Today, Brian is employed with Enviro-Tech, attends church where he is being asked to lead a Bible study, has a safe place to live, and has been happily married for three years. He will have been clean for six years this October. Today, he is not the same person as he was his entire life. Today, instead of walking in darkness, he walks with Jesus.