July 12, 2010
Your gift this August will not only give a meal to someone in need, it could also be the catalyst that changes their life, like it did Paul’s.
Two years ago, Paul was sleeping in the very park where UGM hosts its annual BBQ. Today he’s clean and sober, married and living a completely different life, thanks to your gifts.
In the summer of 2007, Paul had been homeless for six months. Most nights, he made his bed in the Downtown Eastside’s Oppenheimer Park.
Paul was hopelessly addicted to cocaine, and though he had tried everything he knew to quit, he’d never been successful. He’d lost his job and his home to his addiction, and if he knew that if something didn’t change, he’d lose his life to drugs.
One morning, he awoke in his makeshift outdoor bed to see the Oppenheimer Park being transformed for an event. When he asked a UGM Outreach Worker what was going on, he found it that it was the annual Summer BBQ.
So that day, Paul received a delicious meal, right in the park where he was sleeping, and more importantly, through conversations with Outreach Workers and current residents of the recovery programs who were volunteering their time that day, he found out about UGM’s Alcohol & Drug Recovery Program. He knew he needed to make the most of this opportunity and that week he entered recovery at UGM and moved into the residential program.
At UGM, Paul was overcome by the love and support he received from fellow residents and staff. “It was amazing. I thought to myself: I can’t believe I just moved into a house full of drug addicts, but I’ve never felt so loved and it feels like home.”
Paul committed himself to the recovery program, and began a relationship with God that just kept growing. He graduated in January of 2008.
At UGM’s 2008 Summer BBQ, Paul volunteered his time serving the hungry, hurting and homeless at Oppenheimer Park. Now a graduate of the Alcohol & Drug Recovery Program, Paul was giving back and helping the next man in need.
Today, Paul is married and living with his wife and family in Guatemala.
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