“I’ve been a builder all my life. It’s what I do,” Mark Rosales says. A former subcontractor, his foundation crumbled after losing his fiancée, father and brother in a span of months.
Growing up in some of Los Angeles’ roughest neighborhoods, Mark was a witness to humanity’s disrepair. “I’ve seen the things man is capable of doing to one another,” he says. “I was one of them.”
He found his way to Oregon, searching for restoration after spending seven years in prison. He walked through the doors of the Mission, overwhelmed by the brokenness in and around him. “I just hated people. I was disgusted to be one.”
After joining UGM’s New Life Fellowship recovery program, Mark began working the front desk, interacting with people and learning about their lives. “It taught me everyone has a story. I’m more empathetic because I understand. There’s probably nothing I can’t understand that walks through that door.”
Now a maintenance intern, Mark repairs and maintains not only buildings, but his own faith and life, and those of the people around him – the fixtures of humanity he once despised. “Unconditional love is what God is about,” he says. “My mission is to show God’s love through my actions.”
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