Stories of Transformation: Tim

Tim was raised with his three sisters by loving parents in a perfect home in Buckeye. So how did he get from there to an alcoholic living in a ditch near the Mission?

Being the only boy, Tim often ended up having everything done for him growing up. In high school, Tim was popular, but lacked self-confidence and worried about what others thought all the time. He started drinking to remain popular with his peers and liked the feeling of confidence that alcohol gave him.

From high school, Tim went straight into the Marines where he kept drinking and started using marijuana. Both helped him feel in control of his life, even though he was really losing control. He was discharged from the Marines two years later for his marijuana use.

Tim then married his high school sweetheart in 1989 and they had two children. He had a hard time keeping jobs for more than six months at a time due to his drinking, and his wife divorced him in 1993.

He went from job to job and in and out of prison for charges related to his drug and alcohol addictions. It wasn’t until he woke up facedown in a ditch in south Phoenix, hung over with no idea how he got there, that he knew his life had to change or he would be dead soon. He whispered a prayer to God for help and found the Phoenix Rescue Mission only a few hundred yards away.

“In the Mission program, I took responsibility for my life for the very first time in 41 years,” Tim said. “The Mission has given me the tools I need to deal with life and I now have choices on how to act and feel. When obstacles come now, I face them with God’s help. I’m still paying for the consequences of my past sins and actions, but that’s OK.”

Tim graduated from our Addiction Recovery Program in April and has a job at the Manheim Auto Auction. He wants you to know that your gifts are making blessings available to many people you may never see, but you are still helping to change lives every day. Thanks to you for making it possible!