The Streets of Santa Barbara
The News-Press reports on Robert Raseta’s recovery from a lifelong alcohol addiction in this article:
A Different Kind of Christmas
Last week I was chatting with Molly*, one of the residents in our Bethel House recovery program. As you might imagine, our conversation touched on the upcoming holidays and how she was looking forward to a markedly different Christmas than last year.
She had a hard time reconstructing the series of events, but the tale involved drinking, living in a tent under an avocado tree, arguments with family, drinking, hitch-hiking, angry phone calls and more drinking. What was clear is she woke up behind a dumpster at Denny’s. The relative emptiness of a parking lot usually packed with breakfast customers gave way to the realization that it was Christmas morning.
Her Christmas breakfast consisted of coffee and food in a takeout container handed to her by an irritated manager with the expectation that she would go away. She thought of her daughter waking up that morning and receiving Christmas presents from family members who had made the gut-wrenching decision to keep Molly away lest she do any more damage.
A painful, lonely memory like this is something Molly may only be able to share because of the hope that this Christmas might be different. Life got more difficult before it got better, but in the three months that she has been with us, a process of hope has begun. Through our Family Day program, residents begin the process of reconciliation with their families and Molly is hopeful that this will happen for her. As Christmas holds the prospect for a long-awaited visit with her daughter, we are praying not only for this, but that God would do a larger work of restoration as she goes through the recovery process.
Molly and her family are one of many who are working to restore what has been lost through addiction. Please join me in praying that the simple Christmas wish of being with family would be realized for them and that this would only be a small part of the reconciliation that is to come.
Rolf Geyling
President
*name changed for privacy.
Dinner in the Dark
The power went out recently. We responded to it like one usually would when it’s a mid-afternoon interruption—wandering into the lobby and wondering aloud a bit over what might have caused us to suddenly loose our electronic lifelines. Assuming that it would probably come on any minute, I returned to my office and started to venture into some tasks and housekeeping I could do without the computer.
But it didn’t come back on.
It was getting dark as we closed up the office and our guests for the evening were gathering on the sidewalk outside. A walk into the kitchen showed me that not everyone in the building was as hamstrung as I was in not having any electricity. The gas appliances were still working and the residents on kitchen duty had flashlights in hand as they went about preparing dinner—after all, the power would probably come back on any minute.
But it didn’t. The utility guys down the street told us they were waiting for a major part to get flown in. It would be that way until morning.
Once or twice, I’ve wondered what we would do if something like this ever happened—and now I know.
Without awaiting any executive conferences and decision, the staff and residents got ready for the 200 community members in need who join us for dinner every evening. The generator someone found in maintenance didn’t start up right away so there was a brief experiment with opening up all the window shades to light the dining room with headlights of cars parked outside. They finally got it running (phew) and were able to light the room (albeit dimly) with a few temporary lights. Any and all residents were on hand and they used every flashlight, glow stick, and even the occasional cell phone screen to help our guests through dinner, showers and to bed.
It was peaceful. It was remarkable. No chaos or stumbling about—people working together and guests enjoying the novelty of the evening. It so clearly demonstrated the heart of our work and the passion this team has to extend God’s love and grace to people in need. Nothing comes in the way of that; it doesn’t get put on hold because of little thing like not having electricity in the building.
It leaves me so proud of our team (thanks, Kevin and Rick) and so moved to be a part of it. Thanks for being a part of making this possible.
Rolf Geyling
President
THANKS for all that was GIVEN!
Rolf Geyling and a new volunteer, Billy Baldwin.
I love the way we kick off the holidays here at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission. For as long as anyone can remember, we hold our annual Thanksgiving Feast on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. For our family, it serves as a memorable start of the holiday season.
On the one hand, it’s not very different from what we do here every other day of the year—providing food and care for those who are hungry. But thanks to many who give their time and resources, there are special touches which we trust communicates the incredible love God has for the lost, hungry and broken.
As the date approached, more and more people dropped by with turkeys and food for the feast. While most people only get one day to savor the aroma of their dinner in the oven, we enjoyed the aroma for the better part of a week as our residents got everything ready and even found time to decorate the dining room. On the day of the feast, we were joined by a dear group of volunteers—many of them regulars who’ve been coming for years—who helped us welcome and serve the hundreds who came for our feast.
I pray that those who came got more than just a plate of delicious food. I hope they felt the love and concern of our team as they interacted with them. I hope they sensed the extra time and effort that went into making the day special. I pray that each guest was able to experience God’s great love for them and that this brings hope.
I am so proud of our staff and the work they do each day, but something as big as the Thanksgiving Feast lies beyond our capabilities. We can only do it because people GIVE—their time, their resources and their prayer. All of this giving is a moving thing to see firsthand and I can’t think of a better way to start off my holiday celebration.
Thanks and God’s blessings!
Cox Communications and SBRM
Cox partners with SBRM to raise funds by promoting Holiday Meals for $1.50 in this 30 second PSA. COX_SBRM_answerthecry
Winter Newsletter
In this issue of Milestones, you will discover how Felipe and Deborah were restored by love. Winter 2010/2011 Newsletter
Turkey Drive
The S
anta Barbara Rescue Mission is accepting turkeys, canned food, and monetary donations in preparation for its annual Thanksgiving Feast on Wednesday, November 24 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. The Mission, along with the help of 45 volunteers, is planning to serve over 300 meals to community members in need. This festive celebration will be held in the Mission’s dining hall located at 535 E. Yanonali St.
Approximately 900 turkeys are needed for all of the meals that will be served during the holiday season. The birds are prepared and cooked in advance. The Thanksgiving dinner will include turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, pie…and all the trimmings.
Rolf Geyling, president of the Rescue Mission, stated “On November 24, more than 300 homeless and poor people will come ‘home’ to our dining hall for the Thanksgiving Feast this year. Isolated from their families…some struggling to cover emotional scars with drugs and alcohol…these lonely people are just searching for someone who cares.”
Donations may be dropped off Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. at the Yanonali St. office.
Kathy Ireland Bayou PSA
Kathy Ireland, our ambassador, produced this 30 second PSA to promote our upcoming annual benefit “Take Me Out to the Bayou.”
“I’m not going to let your donations go to waste.”-Tony
Tony readily admits he’s been in and out of trouble—and in and out of jail—for most of his 52 years of life. But until last year, when he came to the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, he didn’t know why.
A Santa Barbara native, Tony had come home to live with his mother, a few years earlier. His addictions were completely out of control, and then, “I was the cause of her almost getting thrown out of where she was living. I’d never taken any responsibility until then, but I had to straighten that problem out. As a result of that, I had to leave the home, and I became instantly homeless.”
Out on the streets and in the grip of drugs and alcohol, Tony was helpless to protect himself from the violence that threatens the whole homeless community. “I’d have blackouts and wake up cut up or beat up,” he remembers. Every year, some of our homeless die from exposure, violence, and other dangers of the streets. It looked like Tony would be next.
Then Tony got arrested, and seeing that jail had never helped him before, the courts sent him to us. Here, for the first time, Tony explored the feelings he used to cover up with the drugs—the abuse he suffered from his mother as a child. “She did crazy things,” he says sadly, but at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission he’s learned the skills to work through those memories to healing.
If you met Tony today, you’d never believe he was the same man! He’s an avid student at our Learning Center, and his family is amazed at his new life. One brother, struggling with addiction himself, is even following in his footsteps! “Not only do I want to be a productive citizen out there,” he says now, “I want to give back the way they gave to me.”
Meri finds mercy at Bethel House
Meri’s father was a “functioning” alcoholic who couldn’t seem to show his children any love. So Meri went looking for other ways to fill that hole in her life. “All my life I’ve struggled with drug addiction and abusive relationships,” she says sadly. “They kind of went hand in hand for me.”
Things went from bad to worse when the end of another bad relationship left her homeless. Now, she faced the nightly danger of violence on the streets—even rape. Thank God, Meri was spared, but her life was chaos. Her three children were living in three different states. She no longer felt she had any reason to live . . . until she was granted a year at our Bethel House women’s program after a drug-related crime.
Now, if she could sit across a table from you, she’d say: “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the donors who support the Rescue Mission. There was a time I was literally crying by myself under a bush, thinking I was going to die and there was no hope for me to ever recover. I had given up all hope for life. Because of the Bethel House, it’s like somebody came along, held me in their arms and said, ‘It’s OK.’ Without Bethel House I would not have had the opportunity to heal and be the person I always thought I could be, a servant of God who wants to help restore other lives.”
Meri’s making the most of her second chance, restoring her relationship with her parents and her children. “I never felt like I could raise these children and give them a better life,” she says, “Now I do.” And for the first time in her life, she looks forward to the future!
“Without the Mission, I know I would be dead.”
Alana is the proud mother of an amazing 19-year-old boy named Nicholas. Although they have an incredible relationship today, it was not always the case. Alana comes from a long line of alcoholics, and her family worked hard at presenting a normal appearance to the outside world but on the inside it was far from the truth. She said, “In my family you were taught that big girls don’t cry. I was supposed to do everything on my own because it was weak to need anybody. I was angry and hurt and I learned quickly that drugs were an escape from painful thoughts and feelings. Using drugs made me feel powerful and for ten years I was under their spell.” When Alana became pregnant with her son Nick, she was able to stay clean for three years, but she began to use, sell, and make drugs, which led to trouble with the law.
When she was released and out on bail, she realized that she could be locked up for 12 years. Alana said, “I began to look at this hole I’d dug for myself. I swallowed a bunch of Methamphetamine (speed) and had a loaded gun in my lap. I prayed ‘God forgive me for what I’m about to do.’” Thankfully, she woke up to a friend pounding on her door and asked for help. He told her about the Mission and she filled out an application and was accepted. Alana is the Mission’s Outpatient Treatment Coordinator and celebrated eleven years clean and sober this year. Alana said, “I am so thankful that I did not pull that trigger. Without the Mission, I know I would be dead.”
The 2010 Summer Newsletter
The stories and photos in this issue of Milestones are our way of saying, “Thank you for all you’ve done, and all you continue to do.”
Download the newsletter PDF to read more…2010 Summer Newsletter
Amanda found recovery at Bethel House
Amanda and her cousin, Danny
Amanda was addicted to meth, prescription drugs, and alcohol. She was stealing, lying, and cheating—anything she had to in order to get her next fix. Before she graduated from our donor-funded residential treatment center. Today she says, “I allowed God to enter my heart and I began to have a desire to be more like the woman God created me to be, to be a woman of integrity. He gave me something I never had–HOPE.”
Amanda is attending Santa Barbara City College, studying to become a Drug and Alcohol Counselor—just like her cousin Danny, a 2006 graduate who currently serves as a residential treatment specialist here at the Mission. Your gifts made such an impact in her life, through the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, that she wants to counsel other recovering addicts and alcoholics–just like the counseling she received from our Bethel House.
Before her graduation, Amanda’s new-found faith and transformation were tested. Amanda’s grandmother—who meant more to Amanda than life itself—passed away a loss Amanda had been dreading for a long time. “I always thought that I could never stay clean if I lost [my grandmother]. She was my everything…”
But Amanda has come a long way. In fact, everything about her has been so radically transformed that she’s a completely different person. “It is because of my relationship with God that I made it through clean and sober. I feel like God told me, ‘It’s okay,’ and he will take care of her and she won’t hurt anymore.”
Stan came here for his kids
Stan grew up in a poor neighborhood in our very own community, where peer pressure forced him into a gang and its lifestyle of drug abuse. But even in the midst of his supposedly tight-knit gang, Stan was lonely. He hated his life. “Prior to coming to the Rescue Mission, my lifestyle was an unbalanced death sentence. Willing to pay the cost for my actions, I wasn’t sent to prison again, but I was given the opportunity to go to the Rescue Mission and change my life.” Stan then said, “Over the past year, miracles have been a big part of my daily life, and on September 30, I was granted sole custody of my three oldest children. A year ago, I was not allowed to see my kids. People like me don’t stay clean and sober for over a year. People like me don’t get custody of their kids. People like me don’t check in with parole or probation. People like me die in their alcoholism, die in their addiction, die in prison. I was welcomed at the Rescue Mission when I wasn’t welcome anywhere. One last great idea to try and get sober, and here I am today.”
The 2009 Fall/Winter Newsletter
All the traditions that make the season bright for most people are absent for the men and women alone on the streets. Cal and Nancy, whose stories are in this issue, know what it’s like to be lonely and in despair.
Download the newsletter PDF to read more…2009 Fall/Winter Newsletter
Sherry’s success story
Sherry was adopted as a child and felt a rejection and abandonment that would plague her for most of her life. During her teenage years growing up in Los Angeles, friends introduced her to alcohol and marijuana. “I used to go out of my way to prove I was something,” she remembers, “but I didn’t even know who I was.” It was not until she was into her 30’s that Sherry realized she had a problem with substance abuse. By this time, she was a wife and mother of four children. Sherry went in and out of jail and lost job after job as a result of her destructive lifestyle.
Sherry writes, “I have contentment and confidence in God; there used to be such a strong need for anything else to fill that void. Now its like, ‘Okay, God, what are you trying to show me; what should I be moving forward in?’”
Although she attempted to get treatment for her addiction more than once, permanent recovery remained elusive. A referral from a counselor led Sherry to the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission. “I had heard about the Rescue Mission in passing,” she explains, “but I never thought much about it. But once I got to Bethel House, I knew I was home.”
During her year in the residential program, Sherry went through a process of facing the deep hurt that she had been running from since her childhood. One day at a time, Sherry began to explore the root issues fueling her addictions. She asked a lot of questions, applied herself diligently to her counseling workbook, and learned to be truly honest with herself and other for the first time. Simple lessons like learning discipline, setting boundaries and receiving forgiveness had significant results. Sherry’s relationships with her children, now grown, were transformed. “So much has happened in my heart…” she reflects, “in my entire life.” One of the Bethel House volunteers, Shirley, became Sherry’s mentor. The women developed a wonderful relationship that is a source of encouragement and friendship and still continues to this day.
Today, Sherry is excited to be working full-time at the Rescue Mission’s main facility on Yanonali Street. She encounters many women who call in seeking help and she tells them “If you really want what is offered here, your recovery will happen.” Sherry’s life is living proof.
Cambi’s success story
I grew up in Santa Barbara County and started using marijuana as a teenager. My parents were going through a divorce and I began to distance myself from life at home. At 17 I began using methamphetamines, all the while trying to keep my lifestyle a secret from my mother. After years of sneaking around, I was caught by the police and sent to jail. At that point, my mom was through with me. I was at a point where I needed to get clean. I was exhausted. Everything else I’d done didn’t work—it was time to change. I went through the Rescue Mission’s Bethel House program and graduated in 2006. Not only did I overcome methamphetamines, but the staff even helped me to stop smoking! Bethel House saved my life. The staff cared about my life when I didn’t care at all.
Kim, Cambi’s mother, shares her experience “I remember going to Family Day with Cambi one Saturday towards the middle of her treatment. We came to one of the more emotional points in the session and Cambi knelt down in front of me. She held my hand and looked into my eyes as she shared her heart. She was being honest and open for the first time in a long time. It was a touching moment—kind of a rebirth for us. I don’t think people know where to send the people that they love. Today, it’s like a whole new world—now I know there is help out there. Without the Rescue Mission I don’t think that Cambi would have gotten sober.”
Cambi adds, “I look back and I think ‘Wow—I’m so different.’ When I was in my addiction, I couldn’t spend more than 10 minutes with my mom; now, I hunger for her time. To me, that’s a big change. She’s amazing. Today I care about my life and I care about the young lady that I see in the mirror. I am no longer a victim of my past. I work full-time, I am responsible, and when I give my word I follow through on it. Best of all, I have a great relationship with my mother.”
Austin’s success story
“FIVE YEARS”
A poem written by Austin’s daughter
Kelly McIntosh 2002
I missed you today. That genuine miss, where you can truly feel your heart ache. And you would drop everything just to see someone for a moment. It isn’t just the miss of a title anymore. I think it was… I missed a dad. I missed you, Dad. Because in my innocent eyes and confused heart you did not leave because you had to, you left because you wanted to. The drink was more important. But that was then. We’re done with the broken promises, lonely holidays, unseen soccer games, and the loss of what I knew to be a family. I stopped getting my hopes up just to be let down as you floated in and out of recovery. Because my heart was not that strong. But now, I truly believe it does not have to be. I trust you. Five years of never touching a drink. Five years to rebuild your life. Five years to rebuild mine. And when I look back now, I only see the old, good times. Only a few grains of sorrow left in my heart to remind me to keep my feet on the ground. And now, there are those days, I think about how much I want to wake up in the morning and see your face. How the only place I think I may be truly happy, is laughing by your side. I’m so proud of you, Dad. I wish you could see yourself from my eyes. See how selfless, and amazing you are. Understand how many lives you inspire… when you are sober. And although the past had its heartbreaks and times when even breathing seemed hard, I know I would not be the same person I am without them. And if you had not recovered I may not have realized how much I love you. Thank you Daddy, for giving me that chance.
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