John is deeply thankful for the new beginning he found at LifePath through the prayers and partnership of friends like you . . .
John was just a little boy when he saw the note his mother left, saying she was leaving. “She didn’t want us anymore, and she couldn’t take care of us,” he says, remembering the grip alcohol had on his mother.
As an adult, addiction took hold of John, too. He held it together for a long time, hiding his drug use—until the day it almost killed him. As a chef, “I was making really good money,” he says. “No one knew that I was doing heroin secretly. Then, one day, I woke up and felt really sick, like I had a terrible flu.
“I ended up having emergency heart surgery and prosthetic valves put in my heart,” John says, remembering the many months he fought for his life. “I went to a recovery house straight out of the hospital. I had nothing,” John says.
But nothing became everything when John was offered the chance to be a chef, a job he truly loves, in the busy kitchen right here at LifePath.
“If it wasn’t for my brother and LifePath, I don’t know where I’d be. They’ve helped me so much. LifePath has helped me more than anyone in this world.”
John loves every minute he spends providing nourishing meals for people turning to the Mission for help and hope. “It’s life-changing to see families and others who are struggling, but then to see them succeed in getting a place and a job. It gives you a belief in a higher power, that there’s purpose in the world.”
And when you ask John about his purpose in this life, he will swiftly produce a photo of two little girls who clearly rule his world. “My kids are so precious to me. I loved them before, but now, they’re everything I could ever wish for.
“I’m very happy to be alive. I could’ve died in the hospital or become homeless, living in a tent. But thank God, I had people who love me and care about me. There’s nothing you can do to repay that . . . LifePath literally saved me.
“So, I appreciate every second of every day now. I pray for another 20 years so I can see my kids grow up. That’s why we’re here: to raise our kids and make them better than we are.”
Thank you for helping save and change lives like John’s through your support of LifePath today and all summer long!
