Tyrone's story
I was drifting along a dead-end road of alcoholism, homelessness and loneliness-
but God has opened doors that will never close!
My name is Tyrone. Growing up in the projects in Chicago, I learned early on that to fit in, to be cool, you needed to be in a gang, steal, fight, and drink. I started in that lifestyle at the age of fifteen. Some other pivotal things happened to me during that fifteenth year; my own father passed away and I became a teenage dad myself. So I really didn’t have a childhood, as I had to grow up fast - taking care of my daughter and helping my mother out with bills.
At the age of seventeen, I got a full-time job and worked for ten years on and off. I didn’t realize that my drinking was becoming a nightmare. What started out as fun ended up as madness. I began to lose jobs and apartments because of my drinking problem. I would quit just long enough to get another job and get back on my feet, only to start drinking again and lose that job and apartment as well. It got so bad that I had to drink in order to focus at work, because otherwise I would get the shakes badly. This cycle went on for several years.
Finally, I would just drink and live wherever I could. My relationships with my loved ones all ran out because of my “I don’t care” attitude and broken promises to them to get my life pulled together. There was no more fun for me out there: all I could see was me drifting along with no one to love me or care for me. I lived that way for years.
I knew I had to make a change in my life or I would just die, homeless and alone. I had tried programs before to help me with my problems, but they just didn’t work. I ended up eventually at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, drunk, tired, and feeling that my life had no purpose. I realized that I had to choose life, by choosing God and laying all my problems on Him. I learned about the Mission’s New Life program and knew right away that it was for me. Because of God working through the staff and counselors there, I have a new start on life and have been able to put the broken pieces back together again.
No one can tell me that there isn’t a God!
I experienced a miracle one recent Saturday! After being in New Life for several months and ending the madness that was my daily life, I was on a bus one day with my sister. We were discussing a son I had fathered eight years ago; due to his mother’s and my alcoholism problems, we had lost custody of him when he was a toddler, and he had been adopted by a local pastor and his wife. I wondered aloud if I would ever be able to have a relationship with him.
A short time later I got off the bus and went to a nearby McDonald’s for a bite to eat. As I entered the restaurant, there was the pastor, with an eight-year-old boy who looked just like me. He beckoned to me to come over, and I slowly walked what seemed like a mile to me to meet the son I had just been discussing! The pastor and his wife have graciously welcomed the new Tyrone into this child’s life. I have been able to spend time with him and am building a relationship I thought was gone forever. God has opened doors for me that will never close!
