After losing his father at the age of six, Lawrence turned to drugs to help cope with his losses. He started smoking pot and drinking alcohol in the 2nd grade, by the 8th grade he turned to meth. Fighting loneliness with his mom away at work, Lawrence and his brother turned to the local gangs to fill the role of family.

By 18 he had already spent time in prison. After his release he tried pulling his life together and was trying to do the right thing, but soon he fell right back into the same crowd and back into addiction. “I had no sense of direction, nothing to look forward to except getting that next fix…getting high,” said Lawrence.

In the spring of 2020, Lawrence’s mother was in the first wave of mortalities of COVID-19. “When my mother died in my arms, my whole world crumbled,” explains Lawrence. Soon after his mother’s death, Lawrence relapsed. After three months back in addiction Lawrence decided it was time for a change. He talked with his best friend from Hermiston who was in UGM’s LifeChange for Women and Their Children and decided to give the program a try.

“I now have the main thing that I’ve been missing all those years…Jesus!”

Now, after being in the LifeChange program for men for over a year, things are looking up for Lawrence. “Things are good now, I’m healing, I have good men in my life, I’ve been baptized, I now have the main thing that I’ve been missing all those years…Jesus!”

As part of LifeChange work therapy, Lawrence has been going out several nights a week serving our neighbors in need in the metro area through UGM’s Search + Rescue outreach. “While in LifeChange I found something that I’m very very good at, that’s working with the homeless,” smiles Lawrence. “In my addiction, I was a selfish man, now I’m a giver.”

“To our donors, I can say, that not a bit of your money is wasted. I’ve seen people broken, hurt, and scared, go on to having purpose and not being afraid.”

UGM’s LifeChange is a Christ-centered recovery program where residents live and work in a community of people committed to transforming their lives and breaking the grip of addiction. LifeChange consists of counseling, work therapy, discipleship, and transitional after-care, at no cost to the resident.

If you know of someone battling addiction or homelessness and they have had enough and are interested in a LifeChange, then contact our Intake Coordinator at mensintake@ugmportland.org or 503-274-4483.