For Gabe, Easter used to mean attending church and enjoying dinner and an Easter egg hunt with his family. Today, the day means embracing a new life because of the cross.

That’s important to Gabe, who spent years trying to get out of a vicious cycle of alcohol abuse.

“I went to treatment in my home state,” Gabe explains. “When I got out, I searched the internet for the best cities for someone in recovery. The Twin Cities came up! So, my cousin drove me 1,100 miles just after Easter last year so I could live in a sober house in Minneapolis.”

“Jesus would have gone to the cross even if it was just for me.”

An unfortunate choice sent Gabe back to the streets, but not after someone recommended that he come to Union Gospel Mission.  “I didn’t have fare for metro transit, so I walked to the Mission all the way from Minneapolis,” Gabe says. “There I was, a former law student with a solid work history, but foggy-headed from drinking.”

Chaplain Kim brought Gabe over to the Christ Recovery Center for help. With her encouragement, Gabe began his journey back to hope—and a newfound faith in Jesus.

“I used to believe that God was distant,” Gabe says. “Here, my belief in God has totally changed. I can’t explain how I can have access to clothing, meals, mental health support, medical care, education, and alcohol recovery without believing that God led me here and provided all these things for my benefit. There’s no other explanation other than that God provided these resources for me.”

Your gifts have given Gabe a new outlook on life. He has learned that whatever he goes through, in good times or bad, he needs to take everything to the Çross, embrace the Resurrection, and let God change him.

“That’s what I’ve clung to,” Gabe says. “The impersonal God I believed in before would not have come down to earth, become a man, and died on a Cross. Am I going to believe Jesus really did that, or believe in the God I made up in my head?

“Jesus would have gone to the Cross even it was just for me. Because of Jesus and his sacrifice for me, I have purpose and encouragement now.”