Gerard grew up in Orange County to a good family. They moved to Victorville when he was a kid. He finished school, started working, and all was well. “Everything was really good,” Gerard said. “It wasn’t until I was about 28 that I started partying. I started messing with meth a little bit and I went to jail over it.”

Gerard spent a few months in jail for possession. That was all the wakeup call he needed. For the next couple years, Gerard was back and forth between Victorville and Los Angeles. He worked for a landscaping business and also with a friend who built sets for television and movie studios. “I was good for years,” he said. “And then all of the sudden, I crashed again, so I came here.”

Last summer, Gerard was in Victorville staying with his parents for a bit. “I was drinking, and I got into a drunken fight with my mom,” he said. “I left their house. I went to a motel and ran into somebody (from my past).”

That’s all it took for Gerard to get hooked again. His dad told him about the mission, encouraging him to get help. “I called and they told me that the program was nine months, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a long time to commit.’ But then a few weeks after that, I realized, ‘I’m messing up again. What am I doing? I can’t be doing this, going down this path again.’ I knew from my previous time doing (drugs), that it was going to lead to bad things. Nobody in my family is like that. I knew better. I called (the mission), and luckily enough, I was able to get in.”

By November, Gerard, now 33, was in the mission’s life recovery program. “It was tough at first,” he said. “You’re used to doing whatever you want to sleeping with four guys in the same room. Everyone was very helpful though and it’s going good now.”
Gerard appreciates the work they do at the mission, the thrift store, and at outreach events. “It’s good to stay busy, and you’re helping people. The food pantry stuff we do, and all the fellowship, it has been good.”

Gerard didn’t grow up with Christianity. “I was an atheist until I went to jail,” he said. “Then I started reading the word. But I didn’t have a close relationship with God. The pastor here—Pastor John—and Kenne, they’ve been so helpful. I’m closer to God, and I’m growing in that walk.”