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The Messenger Newsletter

Given the “test of Job”… Kirk failed “miserably.”

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He moved to another state for a new job that fell through at the last minute. His brother died unexpectedly of leukemia. Then, Kirk was called home to care for his mother who was diagnosed with cancer.

Loss piled on top of stress, and soon, Kirk was drinking close to two liters of vodka each day.

“I prayed to God for help and looked to my church. They gave me what support they could. I tried AA meetings, but being on my own [outside of the meetings] wasn’t working for me,” he says.

After his mother died, Kirk became homeless and even contemplated ending his life. It was in this moment of deepest despair that God inspired a thought in Kirk: “Is this really what you want, to not exist anymore?”

Kirk turned again to the members of his church, United Methodist Church here in Morristown. They brought him to the Mission where he spent a month as a temporary shelter guest before a spot opened in our Life Change Program.

“From the moment I came here, it felt like the right place to be,” Kirk says. “There’s a remarkable energy to this place. There is immediate love, concern and the joy of chapel every morning.”

“They gave me hope to keep going!”

Daily worship, prayer and Bible studies strengthened Kirk spiritually while the fellowship of our staff and other men in the program kept him accountable.

The Mission also helped Kirk with the more practical aspects of returning to life in the community. Being homeless, he’d lost all his identification: birth certificate, social security card, driver’s license. “The Mission has ways of cutting through the red tape,” says Kirk. “And having counseling to deal with my grief and other emotional issues was such a blessing.”

Having lived through his trials, Kirk has found a new direction for his life – he’s looking forward to becoming a chaplain and helping others bear their burdens.

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Printed copies of back issues may be available. Please contact Phil Parsels via e-mail: pparsels@marketstreet.org or at 973-993-2871.