February 2024 - Gabe Ware

We just passed through that holiday when the word “love” is used more than any other. In fact, more than 250 million roses are produced each year just for Valentine’s Day. Roses symbolize love, and when they are gifted with no thought of receiving anything in return, they become the truest expression of love. The Bible instructs us that love “does not seek its own.” (1 Cor 13:5) Love gives even when the recipient is empty of anything to give in return.

Gabe knows this love well. In juvenile detention for narcotic possession in 7th grade, expelled in 8th grade, a drop-out at age 16, a needle drug addict before he was 20 and then overdosed requiring resuscitation twice, he was empty hope, and by his own admission, a slave to drugs. Here was a man with seemingly nothing to offer, yet God loved him. And according to Gabe, God used our Forge program to save his life.

“Forge…saved my life. I was homeless on the street with a hole in my chest. I’d never done anything but do and sell drugs. I used to wake up and have to put a needle in my arm first thing…Now I wake up and talk with God. And I have so many people I could call on, too. Forge introduced me to a faith community that’s taught me lessons I’ll hang onto for the rest of my life.”

Gabe has undergone a transformation. He’s clean, in transitional housing, and employed. He was once a man empty of anything good with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Though Gabe had nothing to offer, God still loved him, and then saved him, and has put him in a family where he’s thriving. Thank you for your support. I hope you’re blessed to be a part of this amazing story of God’s redemption and love.