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I Can Get Better only through Him

Heather and her husband, Kevin, both suffer from bipolar disorder and drug addiction.  While either condition brings challenges with it, in combination the results are disastrous.

“Drugs helped us get through the mood swings,” Heather admits.  “We would take our food stamps and sell them to buy drugs.  Our kids would go without food so we could get high. After a six-month binge, Kevin told my mom what we were doing and asked her to please help.  We gave up our girls to her for three months to get clean off crack cocaine.”

After kicking their addictions, Kevin and Heather were ready to move forward and be good parents to their daughters, now 4 and 2.  But with no money and no jobs, they moved in with friends—a situation that quickly turned tense and they had to move out.

So last fall, with little more than the clothes on their backs, this hurting family came through our doors at City Rescue Mission and soon joined our Bridge to Life recovery program.  As they move through each of the program’s three phases, the couple will complete Teen Challenge adult curriculum, attend occupational therapy, participate in weekly encounter and community groups, and address parenting, budgeting, anger management and health issues, all from a biblical perspective.

Our staff is also networking with other social service agencies to ensure Heather and Kevin have the medications necessary to manage their bipolar disorder and to help them find housing and other assistance so they can live independently once they graduate from Bridge to Life.

“I feel like a new person every day,” Heather shares.  “The Mission has strengthened my relationship with Christ.  I know I am not alone.  I can get better only through Him.”