Fort Collins Rescue Mission July 2013

FortCollinsRescueMission.org

July 2013

Fi nd i n g Fa m i ly Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household...

Ephesians 2:19 (NIV)

Fi nd i n g Fa m i ly

“All my life I’ve been alone, and for the first time, it feels like I have family. I’m not scared of being alone anymore,” says Dallas.

Dallas never believed in himself. At age 4, he unraveled as rapidly as it started, and his wife left. endured traumatic abuse from his grandmother.

He reverted to his old ways and one morning, he At age 13, his mother left him to fend for himself. was found unconscious in the parking lot of his work.

At age 17, he dropped out of high school when his He lost everything and again thought about suicide. grandfather fell ill. His grandfather was his only Gradually, Dallas found that self-confidence was family, and Dallas desperately needed him. After a key factor in his sobriety. In the fall of 2012, he two years of caring for one another, his grandfather found a job working at a hotel. passed away. Dallas turned Gradually, Dallas found He felt worthy of living his life to drugs and alcohol to that self-confidence was a escape. “I wanted to end my key factor in his sobriety. and got sober. But due to many years of drug use, his body was own life. I didn’t care if I got deteriorating. He suffered from two ruptured disks hurt or died. I was very heavily addicted to in his back. One day on his way home from work, he meth and alcohol,” he says. He lived this way for took a hard step and immediately knew something years, eventually going to prison for various crimes wasn’t right. The next morning, he couldn’t walk. he had committed. He was in prison for 10 years.

When Dallas got out, he met a woman and they quickly married. He found a job working with computers in Fort Collins. He was in love and happy for the first time in his life. But the marriage

He couldn’t keep his job because of the pain, which caused him to lose another apartment. Terrified of relapsing again, Dallas came to Fort Collins Rescue Mission in November 2012. continued...

Fr om t he C EO Dear Friends, If you are like me, you have some great memories of your family and of growing up.

If you are fortunate enough to get together with your family from time to time, the discussion inevitably turns to telling stories that you all remember, and they usually end in laughter!

cares. People do not just get their basic needs met at FCRM, but our volunteers and staff “love up” on our guests as they develop relationships with them, encouraging them to enter our programs and move to a life of productivity and selfsufficiency. We believe that a critical first step in this change is to know that God loves them and has a plan for their life.

Sadly, for many of the people who come to us for help at Fort Collins Rescue Mission, we are the only real family they have experienced in quite a while. Real, from the standpoint that we try to make people feel loved, encouraged and appreciated. Our staff and volunteers provide simple pleasures like a great dinner, a hot shower, a warm bed, friendly conversation, and laughter. The kinds of things a family might do for one another. Most of us can only imagine how lonely it is for homeless folks living on the street, but we know how good it feels to know that someone

Thanks for coming alongside of the people we serve with your generous gifts.

God Bless,

Brad Meuli, President/CEO Denver Rescue Mission/Fort Collins Rescue Mission

Finding Family continued

Dallas had four surgeries. He's recovering at the Mission, physically and emotionally. “If it wasn’t for the Mission, I would probably be dead. I wouldn’t have had surgery, and I wouldn’t be walking. I would have given up and used meth until it killed me. It would have been better than suffering with the pain,” he explains.

He is in job training in the Mission's Steps to Success program, doing housekeeping work and nightly registration, going to classes each night, and church each Sunday. “The classes are really strengthening my walk with the Lord. Instead of turning to drugs, I’m turning to Him, and I’ve never done that before,” Dallas says softly. “It’s a new way to deal with my life instead of using.”

In 2007, when Dallas went to school and received an associate’s degree in Computer Technology, he was setting himself up for a bright future. He has never lost a passion for computer technology, and now, with the support of his Mission family, he’s ready to pursue his career again.

“What’s cool is, having someone believe in you makes you believe in yourself.” Dallas grins from ear to ear.

“I actually have hope!”

To post a note of encouragement for Dallas on the Mission's Facebook page, visit Facebook.com/FortCollinsRescue.

Statistics: How You Help Change Lives May

When he arrived, Dave Collins, the Mission’s facility assistant, welcomed him with open arms.

“The kindness they showed and how they supported me—I felt like I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t going to end up on the streets and die,” says Dallas. But he was still in extreme pain, and the staff referred him to a free clinic, where he met a gracious neurosurgeon.

After one MRI, the doctor told him his disks were pinching his sciatic nerve, which could eventually lead to paralysis.

Meals Served

Beds

Chapel Attendance

Churches Involved

4,679

2,169

741

23

Changing Lives is a news publication of Fort Collins Rescue Mission.

Director: Jim Carmack Director of Communications: Christine Gallamore Designer: Rachel Vigil Writer: Rachel Greiman | 316 Jefferson Street • Fort Collins, Colorado 80524 • 970.224.4302

facebook.com/FortCollinsRescue

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Fort Collins Rescue Mission 316 Jefferson Street Fort Collins, Colorado 80524

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Fi nd i ng Fa m i ly

FortCollinsRescueMission.org

It often takes someone else believing in us in order to move forward in life. We can only get so far on our own. But with the loving support of a community in a time of need, we are able to accomplish great things.

See Dallas’s story inside about a life changed because of support from you, his community!