Tom was sober for ten years — one of the best times in his life. He had a family, a good job and
a nice house near Madison. But when an important relationship broke up, everything else crumbled
as well. He went back to his old ways: selling marijuana and dabbling in Oxycontin and other drugs.
Then a friend offered him heroin.
“One day I was really depressed, so I got high on heroin. That’s when I really spiraled down,” Tom
recalls. He went to work high, crashed a vehicle and lost his job and his home. He stayed with a friend
in Eau Claire and switched from heroin to meth. Before long, Tom was in jail. It was the best thing that
could have happened to him because that’s where he learned about Hope Gospel Mission.
“I turned in my application from jail,” Tom says. “All I had to do was show up when I was released, and
I got in right away.” Tom had been to rehab before, and he immediately saw what makes Hope Gospel
Mission’s program special. “God is always number one here!”
Tom says he had always believed in God and had prayed to Him as a child, but lost touch with Him over
the years. Now, thanks to the Mission, he has a personal relationship with Christ and attends church
regularly. “I always put God first. If I don’t, I know how I’m going to end up.”
In just a few months, Tom will graduate from the program and start working again. “I want to do better
for myself,” he says. “The Mission is helping me do that.” Tom is already making plans for a new career
in car sales, arranging visitation with his son and daughter in Madison and working on gaining custody
of another son, born recently and abandoned by his mother.
Tom knows now that his ten years of sobriety were just a taste of what God has in store. “Lives change
in a short amount of time at the Mission,” Tom says. “Even if someone doesn’t stay and complete the
program, their life is already changed for the better.”
