Looking back on his teenage years, Robert wishes someone had been there to tell him, “It’s cool to admit that you don’t know everything. You’re going to make mistakes, and it’s okay to ask for help.” But he had no foundation, no direction and no wisdom to choose the right way and reject wrong.
From his earliest adult years, he was in and out of jail multiple times. The last time Robert was in jail, the court ordered him to go to drug and alcohol rehab. His family helped him find Memphis Union Mission … and Robert was ready to receive the direction that would have saved him from so much trouble.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Robert says of his first days at the Mission. “It was a big adjustment, but I was up to the task. I’d spent most of my life going my way. Now I was ready to go God’s way.”
Robert was a Christian before coming to the Mission, but now he has a firm foundation of faith.
“The Mission helped me learn more about Christ’s teachings. I joined my first church here and I was baptized. Now I’m a new person, a new creation. I trust in God’s Word to show me how to be responsible and do the right thing. I’m going on faith.”
That approach has served Robert well. He graduated from our Iron-on-Iron recovery program and now resides in our Wright Transitional House. He is working and saving money to buy a car and move into a place of his own.
He would like to open a business someday. “I have a plan and a network of people helping me. That’s something I never had before. This Mission is setting me up to be successful.”
You helped Robert on his road to success, and he is deeply grateful. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn how to live right,” he says. “I’m ready, I’m ambitious and I’m happy. The best is yet to come!”
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to live right … The best is yet to come!” —Robert
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