Simon - July 2015

Simon, former guest in bed #16

“My family life was no family life at all,” said Simon. “Before I was taken away at the age of four, dad would make me steal food from a church. He would hold me up to crawl through a window. If I didn’t, he would beat me and he beat my mom, too. When I was taken away, I lived in 15 or 16 different foster care homes and then started trying to cover my pain with alcohol and drugs. Nothing was working out for me.”

After four years in prison and more broken relationships, Simon ended up at the mission needing shelter. For the first time in his life, he surrendered to Christ and was baptized into his new faith. He now has a job and is dealing with the pain of his past without drugs or alcohol.

“I never knew who I was, but now I’m excited to see who I am through God.”

It’s too often true that children are born seeming an impossibility to the parents. One foster family after another may also feel a child is impossible to contend with. Those children end up young adults on our streets where many drive by seeing them as problems impossible to solve. Simon is one of those. He’s not a problem, though. He’s a young man with a new future and he’s learning that nothing is impossible with God.