Finding Peace of Mind - JODI'S STORY

Caring friends like you helped give Jodi a new lease on life, and it shows.

Some kids hardly have a chance. Jodi was one of them. He lost his father to alcoholism. His family was shattered by abuse. Introduced to drugs by an older brother while he was still very young, he found it all too easy to follow the crowd when he got to high school. “I was just a stupid teenager,” he says, “trying to be cool with my friends.”

For a while, he says, he kept the drugs “under control.” After high school, he joined the Navy, and it seemed like the worst of his past was behind him. But it wasn’t — when Jodi got out of the military, the old family conflicts surfaced, and so did the old habits. Before he knew it, his life was heading downhill fast.

He started using drugs again. He got caught and landed in jail. Out after 30 days, Jodi discovered he’d lost his job — now he had no way to support himself. Home was a tent, pitched on a makeshift Florida campsite at a homeless encampment in the woods.

It was the most dangerous year of his life. “If I had stayed in the situation I was in, I’d probably have been murdered,” Jodi recalls. “It was a community with high drug usage and very violent.” But thanks to friends like you, Jodi found a safe home at the Springfield Rescue Mission. And because you believed he could be somebody, he also has new hope.

“I had no hope at all,” Jodi remembers. “I had God in my life, but after all the hurt that I had been through, I thought that He didn’t love me.”

But since coming to the Mission, he adds, “My whole attitude has changed.”

“I have found peace of mind,” Jodi says. “The Mission opened my eyes to see.” With your help, he’s found the help he needs to heal the memories that haunted him. With counseling, he’s mastering the skills that will make him a productive member of society. Thank you for making it possible!