Jason entered the party scene at 17. After years in a cycle of addiction and homelessness, he was introduced to our Search + Rescue team. Today, Jason has been clean more than 10 years, is married, and is the father of four, and is in a church community that has “blessed [his] socks off”.
Party scene
After his mother suffered a stroke when he was six, Jason’s parents divorced. Years later, she married again, and Jason enjoyed what he describes as a “pretty spoiled and chill home life.” He did well in school and graduated with excellent grades.
Jason began smoking pot at 16, which he says, “quickly led into the party scene, like going to raves, going to the clubs at 17.” The partying escalated during his college years. “I was taking ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms, cocaine,” he recalls. He then turned to Oxycontin, to which he soon found himself addicted. His addiction led him to sell the drug, too.
After graduation, “I didn’t have a free habit anymore from selling,” Jason explains. A friend told him he could get heroin cheaper. Though he’d never wanted to do heroin, he says, “I was so dope sick that I just needed something … and so … I got hooked on heroin.” His heroin use led to more drugs, including methamphetamines and Xanax.
Jason went to rehab and remained clean for about six months, before relapsing. He then entered another program but left early when he relapsed again.
One night, after working his shift as a waiter, Jason was robbed and beaten up. “I got four broken ribs, 10 staples in the back of my head. Praise God that I’m not dead,” he says. After recovering, he discovered he’d been fired from his job. He wound up homeless.
Search + Rescue
While homeless, Jason heard about Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission’s Search + Rescue vans. That evening, a couple climbed out of the van and immediately approached him. After hearing his story, the husband (Mike) asked Jason if he could pray for him. “And 10 seconds into prayer, I just lost it,” Jason remembers. “I started bawling like a baby. And everything that I thought I knew, I realized I didn’t in that moment.”
Metamorphosis
Jason and Mike stayed in touch. Together, they went to AA meetings. Mike kept telling him about the Mission’s recovery program. One day, while at church with Mike, Jason decided he was ready to go to the Mission. He recalls being scared at first. “I was very vulnerable, crying a lot, probably going through withdrawals,” he says.
While at the Mission, Jason “soaked up” all that he could, and developed a relationship with Jesus for the first time in his life. Accountability with others was crucial to his recovery.
Today, Jason has been clean more than 10 years, is married, and is the father of four, and is in a church community that has “blessed [his] socks off”. If he could encourage newcomers at the Mission, he says he would tell them, “Stay focused. I looked at my time in the (Mission), the year there as a cocoon to metamorphosize into a butterfly … and then blossom out. Use the time wisely … God is so good.”
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission has been serving the homeless population and helping the lost become found for over 90 years. Their vision is to see every homeless neighbor — beloved, redeemed, restored. Find out more here.
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