Services and Programs - Changing Lives

A Life At Stake

Sarah is only 22 years old . . . and her life is at stake.

A student of our New Life Discipleship Program, Sarah has overcome the addiction to heroin that caused her to become estranged from her family, trade her body for drug money and try to end her own life.

Now she’s beginning the hard work—the heart work—of rebuilding her life.

When you first learn of Sarah’s past, you’ll imagine she’s the last person who would need our help. But often those whose lives seem rich and full have hearts that are barren and empty. “I was raised in a Christian home with parents who did everything to guide me in the right direction,” Sarah shares. “I was homeschooled until ninth grade and then attended a Christian high school. Although I was at church every Sunday—and prayed the sinner’s prayer many times—it was always for my parents . . . never for me. I never made a personal commitment to God.”

After graduation Sarah attended a Christian college and started using drugs. “I was on my own for the first time and making my own decisions. Bad ones.”

She moved back home to attend community college and got a place of her own where her heroin abuse raged on. “I tried nine different treatment programs, and none of them had any impact.” Her addiction escalated to theft, prostitution and finally attempted suicide. When she was released from the hospital, she came to Bridgeport Rescue Mission and entered our New Life Discipleship Program.

Centered around building a personal relationship with Christ, our year long in-residence program offers training in job skills, goal setting and financial management to help those who are battling substance abuse—or in other ways have chosen the wrong path—return to a purposeful place in society.

Today, as Sarah turns from her dependence on drugs to reliance on God, we’re helping her cast aside destructive behaviors, learn essential life skills and regain hope and dignity. And she believes the Mission—through your prayers and partnership—saved her life.

“If it weren’t for the Mission, I’d either be dead from an overdose or some disease I picked up from my lifestyle. It’s only by the grace of God that I’m alive—God is in this place, I know that!” she says.



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