Kevin walked into Guiding Light and was met with structure – and some tough love – that he hadn’t had since he was a teen living at home. “I think I knew I had a problem. I just didn’t want to admit it. I always just joked about it,” says Kevin. “For me not to know is kind of silly, because I’ve had two DUIs, I’ve had multiple seizures at work – but I didn’t want to be like, ‘Yeah, I got a problem. This is bad.’”
“Tonight is a culmination of a full year of work, a year of investment, of surrender, of transformation of the men sitting up here in front of you. I want to acknowledge each of you for your accomplishment of living life in a new way. This milestone of reaching your first year of abstinence-based sobriety is a monumental accomplishment.”
Now that I have a relationship with God and with the men from this program, my life is amazing now.
Elisha Ash is all too familiar with women in addiction, Now she is helping to write the next chapter of Guiding Light as our new women’s program manager.
Living on the street is awful. Just ask Mike.
“It gets real rough, especially in the winter. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. No sleep. You are always up, watching your back. You’re always trying to figure out where your next meal coming from.”
That was his life for years. Today he is sober, healthy and employed, with a clear-eyed understanding of how the path to homelessness and hopelessness started with his drinking at a young age.
When Brian discovered Guiding Light, he found a program committed to him for the long haul. A staff that truly cared about helping him.
The following is a speech by Guiding Light Recovery graduate Jeff S. at his one-year sobriety celebration.
When Garrick first heard about Guiding Light Recovery as an option to stay out of jail, it sounded like a great idea — until he heard about the long-term commitment. “I was like, ‘Four months? Forget that.’ I hung up and started calling everywhere else,” he said. “But nobody else could get me out of … Read more
New results demand new ways of acting and new ways of being — and discomfort is inherent in growth and sanctification.
Our beginning in 1929 on West Fulton Street in Grand Rapids provided our first name: the West Fulton Mission. At the time, we were a traditional mission, providing gospel services, youth programs, family visits. In a sign of what was to become, we helped form an “Alcohol Victories” committee to help those suffering from alcohol abuse.
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