Gordon wanted to be just like his father. “He only had a third-grade education, but he owned his own successful business. He was a strong man who believed in himself and taught me to be manly and self-reliant. I looked up to him.” But his father also drank heavily, and when Gordon went to work for his dad after high school he started drinking, too. “That’s when my life spiraled out of control,” Gordon says.
Over the years, he tried to get sober, but relapsed again and again. Feeling like a failure, not the strong self-reliant man he was taught to be and falling into depression, Gordon quit his job and retreated to his apartment, alone and drinking himself to death. Gordon’s sister told him he needed to get help, and as Gordon shares “that night in a dream, God told me to come here.” So, he did what the Lord said and came to City Union Mission. He found what he’d been searching for all his life. “I’ve been reborn. I’m a child of God.”
Through one-on-one counseling, faith-based classes and membership in a local church, Gordon has found the emotional healing, support and strategies he needs to live his life in a new way. In Gordon’s own words, “Now, when I have struggles, I put them in the Father’s hands and I have peace of mind….“The Mission has given me the opportunity to succeed. Now, my future looks bright.”
