“Without the Mission, I’d be homeless or dead” Michael thought he had a plan. As a single father, he lost his job after needing to take time off to care for his son, which led to their eviction. With nowhere else to turn, he imagined living under a bridge by the river, even planning to…
“I feel myself getting back to the person I really am” All that Sharda wanted for her kids was hope. But hope’s hard to find when you’re sleeping in a car as a family of four. “Mom,” her young daughters would ask, “when are we getting a house?” With the holidays on the horizon —…
On Thanksgiving Day a year ago, Nicole wasn’t feeling very grateful. It was 9:30 p.m., and she and her three young children had just been kicked out of her mom’s house. Nicole and her kids — ages 7, 5 and 3 — were walking down the road in the dark, in the cold, with no…
“Without You, I Wouldn’t Be Here” Ask J.R. how he’s doing these days, and he gets right to the point: “A lot better now than I was before.” A 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, J.R. has seen more than enough tragedy through the years. While serving in the Army in Vietnam, he experienced the horror of war…
Safe At Last Anna* is tired of running. But she couldn’t escape her abusers … until now. A single mother of young children, Anna fled domestic violence and moved in with a family member, only to face more abuse. She’s fled to at least three different states, trying to get away from her abusers, even…
Janice was halfway through her senior year of high school, looking forward to prom, graduation and moving on to cosmetology school where she’d build on her already impressive talents as a stylist. “I can do hair,” she says. “That’s a skill I have.” But trouble at school and home resulted in a difficult decision to…
“I felt love and a sense of hope right away.” I was living in another state with my 6-year-old son, when we had to get away from a domestic abuse situation. We left in a hurry, literally leaving everything behind. We came to OKC, where I had some friends and thought I had a place…
“I Knew the Mission Had Something Special for Me” Robert had already hung the sheet in his prison cell, ready to wrap it around his neck and end it all. He was 18 years old. He had survived a childhood of neglect and abuse and was in and out of juvenile detention as a teen….
“I feel like God brought me here.” It had been decades since Wanda celebrated Christmas with her family, mostly because she had pushed everyone away. “I was hurting,” Wanda says. For 18 years, Wanda had been dealing with unfathomable pain — the overwhelming grief of losing a child. When her daughter died of cancer, Wanda…
“The longer I was at the Mission, the better I felt about myself.” Amy grew up in an abusive home. Without the love all children need, she ended up hating herself. “I didn’t think anybody liked me,” she remembers. That insecurity profoundly affected her life, leading her to endure the pain of an abusive relationship…