Joe F. grew up with parents who struggled with alcoholism, and he started drinking heavily at the age of 15. Joe said he used partying to mask the pain of his dysfunctional family. At his lowest point, he was arrested multiple times for DUI and came close to death three times as a result of his drinking. One night after partying, Joe lost consciousness. He remembered hitchhiking, but when he came to, he was in a different city over an hour away from where he started.
After that night, Joe stayed clean and sober for five years. He got married and was about to become a father. Sadly, his first child was stillborn, and he and his wife struggled with the pain of the loss. Joe turned to smoking pot and she isolated herself and the marriage ended in divorce.
For the next 18 years, Joe got by, but he started drinking again and his life was held together by a thread. Joe admitted, “I wasted a lot of years of my life building a foundation that was never firm.” He then lost his job and his most recent relationship and found himself in need of the Allentown Rescue Mission.
The Transformation Program taught the good news of Jesus that Joe needed in his life. He is learning to accept his past and is trying to change the way he reacts to the world. He is also working on the Clean Team Workforce while looking for a full-time job. Joe doesn’t know how his future will work out, but he is learning to trust God in the unknowns of life.
