Gary was happily married with three sons and a good job. “I thought I had a perfect life,” he says. “But after my kids grew up and moved out, my wife and I didn’t have things in common and we separated.”
Then Gary lost his job and couldn’t find another. “I was 60 and nobody wanted to hire me,” he says. “I lived on the streets for three months.”
It was then Gary happened upon the Allentown Rescue Mission. “I didn’t know this area and had never heard of the Mission, but I walked down here,” he says.
Gary stayed in our Gateway Center Emergency Shelter for 10 days and, when he learned of our Christian Living Program, decided it was for him.
Since then, his relationship with the Lord has grown dramatically. “I don’t think I ever picked up the Bible before I came here, but now I’m reading it every day,” he says. “I believed in God, but it wasn’t in my heart. Now He means everything to me.”
Though Gary is still separated, he visits his disabled wife frequently. “I see her on the weekends and help her during the week,” he says. “Now she’s also reading the Bible.”
Gary has now graduated from the program, has his own apartment, and works on the Clean Team, cleaning the Mission. “I’m retired and collecting social security so I don’t need the money, but I love this place and I want to do the best job I can because of what they did for me.”
“If it weren’t for the Mission, I don’t know what I would’ve done. They turned my life completely around,” he says. “I feel like I found myself – and I’ve never been happier.”
