Adam's Story
"As far back as I could remember, I’d always been confident I had everything figured out. I was the Lewis and Clark of my own experience...”
"I jumped in feet-first, more unafraid than ever before to leave my comfort zone. I embraced this new paradigm and began to enjoy living once again."
“As far back as I could remember, I’d always been confidence I had everything figured out. I was the Lewis and Clark of my own experience…” says Adam, a graduate of Union Gospel Mission of Salem’s New Life Fellowship program.
Throughout life, self-centeredness drove his decisions while his identity wrapped itself around people and relationships.
“Claiming to have respect for another, however, meant next to nothing when I respected myself the most,” says Adam. “How could it have been my fault?” Adam would say, even after the dissolution of multiple relationships.
The price he paid for drugs was costly, het he still concluded others must be to blame.
“Relationships with friends and family, my three beautiful children, employment, housing, health, safety, and security all became lonely, distant specks in the rear-view mirror. At least, they would have been, except I’d sold the rear-view mirror early onto finance the party,” he explains.
Then the day came when Adam experienced crushing tragedy after losing someone he loved. His life was already a house of cards, it didn’t take much to crumble him.
“Crime became justifiable, and incarceration became warranted,” Adam relents.
But crime and incarceration gave way to homelessness and his job became his fight for survival. Making money was fed by his pursuit of drugs, and his pursuit of drugs was used to motivate him to work.
Adam finally resolved that he was deceiving himself — he had nothing figured out.
When Adam caught wind of UGM, his interest was piqued, especially at the prospect of overcoming his addiction. Although hesitant when he heard the NLF program was faith-based, he moved forward.
“I jumped in feet-first, more unafraid than ever before to leave my comfort zone. I embraced this new paradigm and began to enjoy living once again.”
His life soon was filled with church, community, and friends.
Life-change didn’t stop there. The transformation continued through his work therapy and he now has a new mirror, one that focuses more on others and less on himself.
“Never had I so enjoyed my job, and I wasn’t even receiving a paycheck for it,” Adam admits. “I was only receiving the satisfaction of truly helping a stranger in need. A friend I hadn’t met yet.”
Today Adam works in maintenance at UGM, playing a critical role in the upkeep of our six facilities.
“UGM showed me how accountability and connection are vital components to good relationships in the outside world,” Adam says.
When you give to UGM, you’re partnering with us to change lives beyond immediate needs. Give today to change the face of homelessness for people like Adam. Go to ugmsalem.org/donate.