Guiding Light was launching a residential recovery program for women, Kendra’s House. But it needed a place where clients could go during the day to day to attend class, meet with life coaches, therapists and spiritual directors.
As house manager at Guiding Light’s new recovery program for women, Kendra’s House, Heather is helping other women discover that same accountability.
Kendra’s own battle with alcoholism inspired her Aunt Melody to make the purchase of the home possible for Guiding Light. Kendra’s House opened this summer with room for 11 women.
Jon is a veteran of treatment programs. By his calculation, he has been through as many as 15. Starting with his first, after a car crash at age 25, each one has followed pretty much the same sequence. Stop drinking for a while. Relapse. Start drinking again. “I wasn’t doing anything to maintain my sobriety … Read more
“Being donor-funded is something I’ve never experienced before and it’s amazing. We get three meals a day, a place to stay, and there’s not just an end goal to where you reach a certain point and you’re out. You go to Iron House and there are guys who have been there for a year or longer. And I think it’s something to certainly be grateful for.”
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.
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.
The following is a speech by Guiding Light Recovery graduate Jeff S. at his one-year sobriety celebration.
Through the guiding light of God’s Spirit, Guiding Light partners with individuals to fulfill their God-given potential through rescue, recovery and re-engagement in the community.
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