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Cary |
The New Life program was Cary's last resort as he lost ground in his downward spiral of self-destruction. He had been unable to keep a regular job for years, in and out of many rehabilitation programs, and plagued by surfacing repressed memories of an abusive childhood. His depression and binge drinking led him to thoughts of suicide. Concerned for his life, Cary's sister put him in contact with Joey, a New Life graduate* who urged him to enroll in the Mission's unique program. "Joey didn't really have to talk too hard," says Cary. "If I could absolutely turn my life around and come out of here with a new life-I have to try it. I was just tired of running. I've never been in one place for more than a year-and-a-half. I had three jobs in over a year and a half. In my whole life I must've had 40 or 50 jobs since I was sixteen. I hopped around from city to city to city to city." "I feel I can come out of here with a new life, a closer relationship with God." Although he had been in another rehabilitation program several years before, he discovered that the New Life program was radically different from his expectations. When he thinks of how he found his way to Harvest Farm, he concludes, "I just got tired of not being able to quit drinking." The New Life program has helped him to sort out his mistakes. "All my life, it's just like I was going through a funnel," he reflects. "I try to do things my way and I hit the side here and the side there, and I'm finally narrowing down to where God put me on this Earth to be." "I don't believe God just waves His magic wand and it's all over with. I thought He would, but I had to quit drinking. He had to get me here." Cary was intrigued by the notion that he could emerge from the program with a "new life." He explains, "The reason I actually came to the program was because I was told you could come out with a completely new life. To me a completely new life is not having anything from before. It's like starting all over again-a clean slate. Not having to look at the past in a bad way." To him, it meant changing everything-including his career. The idea of a healthcare profession came to him after gall-bladder surgery, when his New Life work-therapy was changed to a shift in the clinic-a "light duty" assignment while he recovered. He decided he liked the clinic, especially in contrast to his work at a printing press, the most recent of his former jobs, and he asked to stay on. Like some New Life participants before him, he plans to pursue certification as a dispensing optician at Emily Griffith Opportunity School. "I want to get into an area where I can help people." He appreciates the variety of people served at the clinic, "A lot of them are right off the street-ones that sleep here at night. And low income families." Impressed by the attitude of the volunteer professionals who treat clients at the clinic, he reports, "A lot of them say they do it because they like helping people who can't afford [healthcare]." Cary himself received dental care at the clinic, and he reflects on his own experience, "Drinking and car accidents and everything else knocked out a lot of my teeth. It's kind of embarrassing. The [volunteer] dentist who fixed my teeth said, 'Everybody out there has teeth, everybody out there needs dental work. Nobody is a nobody. If we can help somebody, we want to help anybody.' And I think that's very unselfish. We try to help anybody who needs it." "It's just a giving program." Without the New Life program, Cary might not be with us today, full of optimism and hope for his future. Even early on in his stay at the Lawrence Street facility, he has begun to taste what his new life will be like. "I have been getting closer to God, reading the Bible more often, and praying a lot." *Joey's story appears in the January 2003 issue of the Chronicle. Click to donate and start "Changing Lives in the Name of Christ" |
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