Travis hadn’t prayed in years. But sitting in a jail cell in Athens, Tennessee, he prayed fervently to God for help.

He was about to face a judge who would determine the length of his prison sentence. Travis knew that without divine intervention, he wouldn’t get the help he needed to get sober.

Years before, a divorce and losing custody of his two sons had hurt him deeply, and Travis had struggled with depression. “A friend of mine wanted to help me feel better and introduced me to meth,” he says. “It didn’t take long for me to lose my job or my home.”

Numbing the pain of being away from his boys kept Travis using. “I didn’t care about anything at that time,” he says. He’d even turned his back on the Lord after being saved as a teenager.

That day in his cell, with no one else to turn to, Travis turned to God and prayed that he’d be allowed to enter our Iron-on-Iron program. And to his surprise, God answered his prayer.

“I told the judge that I needed help getting off drugs,” Travis says. “And he allowed me to go to the Mission instead of prison.”

For the first few weeks, Travis felt like the Mission was anything but an answer to prayer. He resented the structure and rules. But through our program’s classes, counseling and work-skills training, and renewing his relationship with the Lord, he started healing the pain that had fueled his addiction.

Today, Travis is a graduate of our program and staying at our Wright Transitional House while he saves money to live independently again.

Above all, he plans to continue walking with the Lord. “My relationship with my children is back. I’ve been sober for over two years. I couldn’t feel better about my life, and I owe the Mission for that.”

He’s a man with a heart of gratitude for friends like you who have made his journey possible. Thank you for your continued generosity.