Stu

I was retired after working over thirty years, and my back hurt – that’s how I got hooked on pain pills. In retirement, there wasn’t really anything else to do except to do pain pills. It made me feel good. Next thing I know, I wanted it all the time. 

I first found out about the Bridge through my daughter – who met Pastor Rob at a conference. Even though I was trying to hide my addiction, my family knew I was struggling. They told me that I had a place to go, but it took me about a year to go through the process of getting into the program. 

The thing with the Bridge, it gives people time out from life, from addiction, from their environment. It allows them to go somewhere else, get fed food and the Word of God, get a bed, and get built up. If they’re sick and tired of that lifestyle – to get away and get sober – the Bridge is a great place to go. It takes you out. I know it took me out of my life situation. I chose to spend my time to get back into the Word. I want to emphasize, you really have to trust the process. I know that’s what people always say, but it’s true here. Even if I didn’t like the work, I trusted it and brought me to a place where I am in recovery and proud of where I am. 

I probably had the best laughs for decades at the Bridge. There’s a love that’s divine – it’s a beautiful thing to see these brothers when they’re sober, to see the ones move forward. You feel as though you’d do everything for them. To be able to cultivate these relationships where two brothers, both in recovery from addictions, talking about the word of God, it was a very healing process for me. I’m a people-person, and to create this strong brotherhood was really important for me to be able to have that. 

I used to be a chaplain. Before the Bridge, I was going to church, going out into the community with the service department, but to be on this side was to be blessed with the Holy Spirit. This time-out gave me the ability to get closer to God. I didn’t understand the love of God, I was afraid of it, but God put His love on me. He gave me gifts that I was able to give to others. He worked on my life tremendously and spiritually. I was able to build that relationship back to Christ, see how He works, and how He affects people’s lives. I can say with conviction that God is real.