This wasn’t anything new. Rob had been drinking or smoking pot on a daily basis since he was 18. For 30 years, he’d had great jobs and lost them. Been married, had children and divorced. He even earned a college degree. But through it all were the drugs and alcohol that eventually became the most important part of his life.

Compared to others he met here at the Mission, Rob says he was “blessed” as a child. Even though his parents divorced when he was 12, he had people who loved him and took care of him.

But after his parents’ divorce, there was a lot of economic insecurity, and that fear became a driving force in Rob’s life. “I know I wasn’t totally self-sufficient, everyone receives help, but for the most part, I felt like I could rely on myself; and that way, I wouldn’t have to owe anybody anything… I wasn’t obligated to anyone.”

“My life was a 30-year attempt to fill a spiritual hole.”

It was that “pride” and his drinking that eventually caught up with Rob.

By 2004, his drinking was “out of control.” For the next five years, his life was “unmanageable.” “I drank all the time,” he says sadly. Rob knew there was a God, but had no relationship with the Lord. “My life was empty. Time and again, I disappointed the people who loved me. It was a living hell.”

Rob came to the Mission for the first time in February of 2009. After three months, he got a job and a car…and started to drink again. This pattern repeated itself three times: come to the Mission, get sober, get a job and drink again…until August of last year, when some of the things he learned finally began to sink in.

“I learned that God will always reach out to me,” says Rob quietly. “There’s nothing I can do that’s ever going to separate me from the love of God. When I’m in a relationship with Him, my life will be full; I’ll have meaning and purpose.”

“They taught me God loves me.”

Today, Rob has a very different definition of hell – “final, complete separation from God.”

Not being able to turn to Him, pray to Him or seek comfort from Him… to have no hope.

Through your support, the Mission has provided the tangible help Rob so desperately needed ? food, shelter, medical care and clothing. But the key to Rob’s sobriety has been his relationship with God…a relationship he works on every day!

To read the rest of this issue of Rescue Alert, click here.