Couple arrived hopeless and left with new life
Red Door Newsletter - May 2011
His story
For more than 30 years, drugs controlled Daniel’s life.
“I did many things I’m not proud of,” he admits. “I hurt my family, my children — and even caused my wife to fall along with me.
“I was in such bondage,” he continues. “I needed help.”
Daniel knew he was powerless against such evil. But now God is using The Bowery Mission — and friends like you! — to bring new life to both Daniel and his wife, Cindy.
Ironically, it was Cindy who got Daniel to come to the Mission. She first heard about The Bowery Mission from a pastor friend, began to seek help for herself and then convinced her husband to join her.
They say it’s been one of the best decisions they’ve ever made as a couple.
“God has taken me apart and put me back together,” Daniel explains. “I’ve changed so many areas of my life. Today, I’m no longer the person that depends on drugs to live,” he says. “I depend on God.”
And that, he says, has resulted in so many good things. “On our 24th anniversary, we renewed our wedding vows at The Bowery Mission Women’s Center,” Daniel notes. “And soon I’ll start at a new job.”
Now, the two of them have moved out of the Mission and into their own apartment, and Cindy has found a new job, too, as a cashier at a local supermarket.
“I owe it all to God and the dedication of the Mission to help us,” Daniel says. The staff, volunteers and especially the donors “offer hope to so many people when they give.”
Her story
Like Daniel’s story, Cindy’s life was filled with drugs and uncertainty during her early years of adulthood.
When the two met, Cindy had just gone through rehab. For the first 18 years of their marriage, she remained drug free. Then in 2002, she relapsed and her heroin addiction led her back to crack cocaine.
At one point, hopeless, Cindy tried to commit suicide. But she cried out for help and wound up at The Bowery Mission Women’s Center.
“I was so sick and fragile when I came to the Mission,” Cindy recalls. “Now my life has been totally restored — physically, spiritually and with my family.”
She says one of the “sweetest things” that has happened to her since coming here was renewing her wedding vows with Daniel.
“It was like the beginning of a new life,” she says, looking back. “I feel so excited to share the hope I have found in God. I can’t wait to have family gatherings again.”
Cindy continues, “I used to wonder if I would still be a junkie when I turned 60. But today it’s all different. I’m a wife, mother, grandmother and soon-to-be greatgrandmother.
“God has done more than I could ask for or imagine.”
Life-changing moments like this happen every day at The Bowery Mission, and now they could be happening even more since the Mission has received a $100,000 matching grant.
What that means to you is that any gift you send this month automatically doubles. What that means to the Mission is that for a short time, there will be twice as much funding available to feed, shelter and provide lifechanging opportunities for people like Daniel and Cindy.
If you are able, please send a generous gift today — and watch your generosity do twice as much good for homeless, hungry people all across New York City!