People like you have turned Leon’s life around. Really.

“When I came to the Mission I was homeless, penniless, and depressed,” he explains. “I only had two sets of clothes and my health was failing.”

Thanks to you, all this is behind him!

“This place loved me back to life!”

Leon’s troubles began when his dad passed away. He was just 15 years old, but soon joined up with troublemakers. He’d take risks, even jumping moving trains to get across town and fight groups of teens.

Then when his buddies started drinking and using drugs, he joined them. Wanting to prove himself, Leon “drank twice the alcohol and took three times the drugs,” he says.

Young and strong, everyone feared him, he says. But on the inside–

“I was a walking time bomb, scared to death every moment,” he explains. “I had depression and other mental health issues. I took my rage out on people and God.”

But the Lord was always there for him. “With all the trouble I experienced, I knew God never turned His back on me,” Leon says.

So when health problems ended his career and he became homeless again, he knew only the Lord could get him out of it. A family member paid his way to come to the Mission. It’s here that he’s reconnected with God and found a new family—his brothers in the Discipleship program.

Because of you, Leon feels happier. He’s working on his education and has even opened a bank account from his earnings in the Mission’s work therapy program. He needed help—and you provided exactly what he required!Without you, Leon knows he’d be in a darker place. “My former friends are either dead or in jail,” he continues. “If I had stayed on the road I was on, where would I be now? Instead, I’m around the best people who love me no matter what!”

“My turnaround started right here at the Mission,” Leon concludes. “This place is Beth-El, the house of God. I’ve been close to death, but this place loved me back to life!”