Miles Found Hope When He Had Given Up
After six years on the streets, your generosity helped Miles find hope, healing, and a future at Phoenix Rescue Mission.Miles spent six years living on...
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Miles Found Hope When He Had Given Up
After six years on the streets, your generosity helped Miles find hope, healing, and a future at Phoenix Rescue Mission.
Miles spent six years living on the streets. A painful divorce in 2017 cost him his home, his career, and eventually his will to keep going. To numb the pain, he turned to drugs.
“I just gave up on life,” Miles remembers. “I had no hope that I was ever going to get clean. I thought I was going to die on the street. That was my horrifying truth.”
For two years, Miles slept in his car, moving from parking lot to parking lot until the vehicle was repossessed. After that, he spent four years unsheltered in the East Valley before making his way to central Phoenix, where he slept behind a restaurant in an alleyway for nearly two years.
Through it all, God kept working on him. Street church services, where the Word was shared, planted seeds in Miles’ heart that he didn’t even realize were beginning to grow.
“It was literally an intervention from God,” Miles says. “One day I just knew He didn’t want me out there, even if I wanted to be out there.”
When someone Miles met in a detox program told him about Phoenix Rescue Mission, he decided to give it a try. His first time through the Transformations Recovery Program was difficult. He was battling undiagnosed bipolar disorder and severe depression, and he left before completing the program.
Two and a half months later, the conviction of the Holy Spirit brought him back.
“I knew I was messing up,” Miles says. “I had to get back.”
This time, everything was different. Miles leaned into the program, began taking medication that helped stabilize him, and let God soften his heart. He shed the anger and pride that had kept him isolated on the streets and opened himself to the community around him.
Today, Miles serves in ministry training at Phoenix Rescue Mission. He mentors men in the program, helps prepare meals as a trained executive chef, and plays guitar and bass on the worship team. In his role, he draws on everything he lived through to connect with men who are fighting the same battles he once fought.
“I love building people up,” Miles says. “I love telling them that there’s a better way through life than what the world wants for you.”
Miles anchors his recovery in Philippians 4:6–7, a passage about trusting God with every anxiety. He says that verse inspires him to lean on God rather than returning to the patterns that nearly destroyed his life.
Your generosity made Miles’ transformation possible. He came to Phoenix Rescue Mission believing he would die on the street. Because of you, he is thriving.
“I would probably be dead right now if it wasn’t for this place,” Miles says. “Every dollar you put in here comes back tenfold.”
“I don’t feel like I’m just surviving now. I feel like I’m thriving.” – Miles
Together, We Meet Our Neighbors Where They Are
Easter reminds us that new life is possible. The Resurrection proves that no one is beyond redemption, and no situation is too broken for God to restore.
Miles spent six years on the streets before he walked through the doors of Phoenix Rescue Mission. He found something unexpected here: people who refused to give up on him and a community always ready to help a neighbor in need. Today, Miles serves in ministry training, mentors other men in recovery, and plays guitar on the worship team. His life is proof of what your generosity makes possible.
We come alongside our neighbors, meet them where they are, and walk with them toward transformation. Your partnership makes this possible for men, women, and families across the Valley who are experiencing new life this season.
Thank you for walking this road with us.
God Bless,
Ken Brissa
Chief Executive Officer
56 Graduates Celebrate New Life at February Graduation
Thirty-nine men and seventeen women step into new chapters.
On February 17, Phoenix Rescue Mission celebrated one of its largest graduation ceremonies ever. Thirty-nine men and seventeen women graduated at New City Church, completing the Transformations Recovery Program and stepping into new chapters of their lives.
The theme for the evening was Follow Me, drawn from John 10:27: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Nearly 300 people filled the room to cheer on the graduates. The worship band was made up of residents from the Transforming Lives Center, and two of the recent graduates served as speakers.
Each graduate represents a life your generosity helped transform.
Thank you for making moments like this possible. Every graduate who crossed that stage did so because people like you refused to give up on them.
Your Tax Credit Deadline is Days Away
Give by April 15 and get every dollar back.
The deadline is almost here. Your gift to Phoenix Rescue Mission qualifies for the Arizona Charitable Tax Credit – a dollar-for-dollar credit of up to $495 for single filers or $987 for married couples filing jointly. Unlike a deduction, a credit directly reduces what you owe or increases your refund. That means you can give up to those amounts and get every penny back.
Your gift provides life-transforming meals, housing, and care programs for men, women, and families across the Valley. You help your neighbors find lasting hope, and the tax credit puts money right back in your pocket.
The deadline to donate and claim the 2025 credit is Wednesday, April 15.
Visit phoenixrescuemission.org/taxcredit or call 602-233-3000, option 3 for details.
Join Us in Praying for Reconciliation This Season
The Easter season celebrates the ultimate story of restoration. Through the Resurrection, broken relationships are made whole and new life emerges where death once reigned.
This season, Phoenix Rescue Mission invites you to pray for the neighbors in our care who are seeking reconciliation with family members and loved ones. Many carry deep wounds alongside deep hope. They are working to rebuild trust with children, parents, spouses, and siblings who watched them struggle for years.
Pray for softened hearts on both sides of these fractured relationships. Pray for wisdom as our counselors guide them through difficult conversations. Pray for patience as families learn to trust again. Pray for God to move powerfully in the lives of men, women, and families throughout the Valley who have not yet found their way to recovery.
If you have a prayer request of your own, we would be honored to lift it up. Please send your requests to prayer@phxmission.org and our staff will pray over each one.