Goodwill Rescue Mission

Our Mission

Goodwill Rescue Mission offers help and hope to North Jersey’s urban poor and dispirited.

•	For mind and body: food, clothing, shelter, training and teaching.
•	For soul and spirit: the life-changing message of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.

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.

Journey to New Life – Gilbert Werneiwskey

As he huddled under a bridge, trying to keep warm, Gilbert Werneiwskey no longer cared if he lived or died. Homeless and addicted to heroin, he had hit rock bottom. But in his lowest moment, Gilbert felt God lift him up and lead him to Goodwill Rescue Mission.

“ I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven."

— Philippians 3:14

When 35-year-old Gilbert Werneiwskey takes stock of his life these days, he’s happy with what he sees. He’s the personnel manager for a labor leasing company, in charge of hiring, firing and payroll for four locations in New Jersey. He has his own apartment and spends lots of time with his family.

His life now is a far cry from the desperate existence he led before coming to Goodwill Rescue Mission for help in 2004. "I had a real bad heroin addiction, and I was living on the streets," Gilbert recounts. During the frigid winter months, he found shelter under a bridge in Harrison, N.J. "I watched the other homeless people who lived down there try to kill each other – they were fighting over who would sleep on a dirty mattress. That’s how insane it was," he describes.

Gilbert had spent his entire adult life caught in the vise-like grip of drugs. His hunger for heroin cost him countless jobs and the respect of his family, and earned him a prison record.

As he huddled under that bridge, Gilbert no longer cared if he lived or died. "There comes a point when you’re tired of living on the streets, tired of sticking a needle in your arm," he explains.

But in his lowest moment, Gilbert felt God lift him up. "In my mind, I knew God was talking to me," Gilbert shares. "He said, 'Get up and start walking.' I ended up at Goodwill Rescue Mission."

A short time later, Gilbert joined our project Emmanuel recovery program, where he overcame his addiction, got his GED and landed the job he has today.

"Goodwill played a very large role in showing me the direction I should be going in my life," Gilbert states. "The Mission offered me the tools I needed in my life, and I use those tools every single day."

Read other Stories of Hope

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