Lost and Found…

Overcoming addiction through Christ.
How faith based addiction recovery centers and sober living programs at Wayside Cross’s Master’s Touch Ministry help individuals overcome addiction, depression, and homelessness.

How one effective prayer can change the whole trajectory of your life.

For Mike, experience was always the best teacher. Today, he really knows what it means to die to self. But it wasn’t always that way. He allowed depression and the traumatic experience of a broken past get the better of him. He needed a way to drown out a chorus of negativity surrounding his life.

Drinking became his drug of choice. Eventually, it destroyed his life and every relationship, including his wife and two children. It sent him packing.

 Into the streets he wandered, homeless for several years.

“I was living life on my terms and not thinking of others.”

But one prayer can make all the difference.  That’s where he first connected with Wayside and was reintroduced to the Father of us all. One day he made his way to our Elgin Wayside Center. Here, he met Pastor Phil Wood, the center’s former director. In time, Mike began to receive the support and encouragement he desperately needed to slowly regain control over his life.

 “That led me to make the next right step” as Pastor Phil would say. Mike eventually decided to enter our Master’s Touch Men’s Recovery Ministry. It’s a Bible-based long-term, residential recovery program that helps men overcome brokenness and addiction and get them back on their feet. Here in Aurora, he started to understand himself. He started to understand his relationship with Jesus.

Within a year, he graduated left the ministry early and with a newfound faith in life, he did really well for about three years. But then the dark issues that started him drinking in the first place, eventually caught up.

At first, he tried to hide his depression and the need for alcohol by working himself to death, 12-hour-a-day shifts, 38-days in a row. Then, he would go on weekend benders before doing it all over again. Month-after-month, eventually, the dark issues that sent him into the streets the first time had threatened to do it all over again.

“I knew it was time to address the real root of my problems.”

Fortunately, Mike remembered Wayside. He decided to check himself back in and get control over his life. To finish up where he left off. This time, though, he was different.

When he arrived Mike made a instant connection with Rodney and Matt. People he could trust and actually open up with. Both were in exactly the same place as he was. Through their encouragement, Mike was ready to confront his painful past and the demons that controlled his life for years.

 He also found more time to spend in God’s Word and in fellowship. More quiet time to get to know Jesus in a real and personal way.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 3:13-14

But was he really ready to share his darkest moments with these new Christian friends?

For many people that can be the turning point in moving past the hurt—past the painful memories. The hours he spent in class, chapel, and fellowship combined with his mentor, the close friendships he made while picking up and delivering donations, and goods from our Thrift Store gave him a deeper understanding of the true nature of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. It gave him a tangible picture of redemption. The truck deliveries also gave him the space to open up to people he knew he could trust. Matt and Rodney, two men who faced similar issues too.

It took him awhile to get there.

“For the longest time I didn’t know what that looked like. I never thought I could move past the pain and guilt. I didn’t really believe I was worthy of it.”

“But God’s grace is sufficient.”

That was a real turning point.

These days, Mike is at peace. He lives one day at a time in Christ. He has a great job working in fulfillment and quality control for a very well-known international technology and communications company. And, he finally found the peace that surpasses all understanding by recognizing only God is able to move between the past, present and future. He’ll get you where He created you to be, if you let Him.

Mike now has a new and real understanding of what selflessness or letting go and letting God actually mean through Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

“That’s life-transforming! It’s what Wayside Cross Ministries is all about,” he added.

Today, Mike is back to work, full-time, and has even helped recruit one of his friends. They both are now employed, saving their money and working to finishing out Phase Four in our Master’s Touch residential recovery program. In his spare time Mike is always willing to share his experience and a word of encouragement to anyone who asks. But first he likes to answer them with a question, “How well do you really know Jesus? Their reactions are always great.  I like to follow up their shocked responses with, “Have I got a story for you!”

Recently, Mike has begun to feel a stirring for ministry. Please keep him in your prayers as God continues to make His presence known in Mike’s heart.

Mike’s favorite bible verse is Psalm 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

He has all 16 verses memorized. The tattoo on his wrist is his daily reminder.

Help Mike and many others to recover and rebuild their lives in our faith-based addiction recovery programs

If you enjoyed this story and want to learn about other lives that were changed, click: Stories of Hope & Recovery

If you know someone in need of a safe place to recover and rebuild their lives call Wayside Cross Ministries’ Lifespring Center for Women or Master’s Touch for Men at (630) 892-4239.