After 40 years of drinking, Bob decided enough was enough. His brother had graduated from the mission’s program a decade earlier and encouraged Bob to give it a try. “When the bed opened up, I went, and at first, I was like a fish out of water,” Bob said.

“But after the first month, I really started getting into the word, and I realized there was really something to this program,” Bob added. “I got deep into the word. I went there for sobriety, but sobriety is just a byproduct of what I got. I found the Lord there; I found a true relationship with God.”

Bob started drinking and using drugs in his teens. “I was basically running amuck as a young man,” he said. “I continued with drug use until I was in my late 20s and then I just stopped. I have no explanation for that—I’d just had enough. But I continued with the alcohol.”

Bob had two children young, but the relationship with their mother didn’t work out. “Then I married an absolutely wonderful woman in my 30s, and had a child, but I destroyed that with my addiction.”

Bob had a lucrative career in machining and manufacturing. “I was able to hold my jobs for the most part until the end there. I was working and my employer called me in to discuss my alcohol use, which was obvious. He basically told me I needed some help and was no longer employed.”

With his brother’s and sister’s urging, Bob entered the program last year. He was drinking so much that he’d become physically ill without alcohol. “I was to the point where I had to drink to stop shaking or vomiting,” Bob said. Miraculously though, he didn’t fall ill after entering the mission. “It was remarkable really. That’s God working right there.”

A few months into the program, Bob was in his room, studying the bible. “I was really trying to get it,” he said. “I was fighting for my life. I knew I was dying. I was sitting on my bunk, I’ve got my bible open, and a book and a notepad, and I’m eating Nutter Butter cookies. And all at once the spirit came on me, like a freight train, and took over. And ever since then I knew everything was going to be alright. I’ve been following the Holy Spirit, and he’s been leading me.

“Once my relationship with God was established, everything started falling right into place,” Bob added. “The program is amazing. At first, I thought, ‘I don’t have nine months to spare. I’m in my 50s.’ But wow, to anybody who needs it, I’ll take them there right now. It’s totally life changing and life rebuilding.”

Bob graduated the Life Recovery Program in February. “To my surprise, my employer was at my graduation,” he said. “They agreed to give me another chance. Work is awesome. And I’ve gotten plugged into a church down here, and am still deep into the word. The Holy Spirit is still moving in my life.

“I really didn’t like myself when I got to the program. Now, I don’t think I’m so bad,” Bob added with a laugh. “God saved my life. He has other plans for me.”