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| Our
Mission |
Goodwill
Rescue Mission offers help and hope to North Jersey’s urban
poor and dispirited.
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For mind and body:
food, clothing, shelter, training and teaching. |
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For soul and spirit: the life-changing
message of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. |
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Special Project |
Hope Totes
Can
you join us in this front-line ministry by collecting items to fill
the totes?
Click here for more
info. |
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When Kevin Woodley woke up in an abandoned house where
he’d found shelter the night before, the reality of
his situation slapped him hard in the face. Here he was,
squatting in a run-down building – homeless and strung
out on drugs – when just a few months before he’d
owned his own house, had a great job and a promising future.
“ When the kindness
and love of God
our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of
righteous things we had done, but because of His
mercy."
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“Unfortunately, I was so messed up that basic things
like working and paying the mortgage weren’t important
to me. I just wanted to get high,” Kevin recalls.
“That shows you the depth of the disease, when you
are caught in an addiction. A roof over your head isn’t
important
– drugs take priority.”
Kevin started using drugs and drinking at a young age.
but it wasn’t until he was a working professional,
selling insurance and pension plans, that he tried cocaine
and was instantly addicted.
“I never saw it coming,” he says. “Before
I knew it, my work was suffering. I would disappear for
days on using binges. I became irresponsible and unreliable.
Eventually, all I wanted to do was smoke coke.”
He entered rehab, but relapsed with a vengeance. Before
long, he lost his job. When his home and car were repossessed,
he was on the streets. One day, as he squatted in an abandoned
building, the horror of his situation finally hit him. He
knew he needed the help of Goodwill rescue Mission, where
he’d come a few times for a hot meal, if he was ever
going to get his life back together.
 “The
guys in the Project Emmanuel recovery Program were telling
me to come and get on the program, that it would save my
life. They had a glow about them,” Kevin recalls.
He listened to their advice.
“Goodwill is like a bright light,” he shares.
“The people here show you a better way, and you can
see how their lives have changed for the better.”
Kevin has thrived in our program, and when he graduates
this month, he hopes to go back to college. “Now I
can face myself in a mirror and see a new creation,”
he says. “Through Jesus Christ, I have a new lease
on life.”
 Read
other Stories of Hope
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© 2008 Goodwill Rescue Mission | This site was contributed
by The SPI
Group.
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