“I was very insecure. I couldn’t stand who I was,” says Dave, a 42-year-old guest at Springs Rescue Mission.Dave grew up the oldest of three boys in rural Kentucky, where he says he suffered severe whippings and beatings from an alcoholic father, which left him struggling with rage and low self-esteem.“I was a heavyset farm kid and never felt like I fit in anywhere. I got in a lot of fights,” he recalls, “The fighting just got more and more out of control. So I tried to medicate the anger with alcohol and cocaine.”By 2004, however, his life seemed fairly stable, working as a long-haul trucker to support his wife, three sons, and a nice home. Late that year, he also reconciled with his father. “We made up,” he says. But the healing was just starting when, two weeks later, one of Dave’s brothers accidently killed his father.“I knew I was going to start drinking really heavy again,” he says. “So I took my money and my truck and left everything behind. I went off the deep end, drinking two and a half gallons of vodka or bourbon a day. I felt like a really bad person, and that I deserved the life of hell I was living. I just wanted to die.”

“I Found My Life Here”

In 2014, however, Dave ended up in the Colorado Springs jail, where he “found the Lord.” After his release, he was directed to Springs Rescue Mission.

“God surrounded me with really good people who taught me that I’m worth something, that I’m a good person and they just want me to succeed,” Dave says. “The best thing is, they taught me I’m really a Servant Warrior. It fills my heart with joy to serve and help people, and I’ll do whatever it takes to see things through.“I found my life here and I found out who God intended me to be. I feel like my life was cursed, but it’s all blessings now. I love my life today. And it’s just started!”