Hector married young, and after three years, when the marriage ended, Hector started drinking and going out more. “Sure enough, drugs showed up,” he said. “It was a quick, easy masking device.”

Hector kept using, even after remarrying and having a son. He worked in the oil industry, and drug use was especially prevalent during his time offshore. “I kept using without my wife knowing, which led to whole other set of problems,” Hector said. When the couple separated, and his wife started moving on, Hector moved into one of the loneliest times of his life. His jealousy became a problem. “I wasn’t ready yet. It was hard, knowing this guy was around my son and my stepdaughter.” Hector was jailed after threatening his wife’s new boyfriend. “It changed everything. I went from a clean record to having a strikable offense and a prison number. When I got out, I had nowhere to go.”

Hector found himself in the Fresh Start program at the Mission. “It gave me a place to recuperate and save money,” Hector said. “But when I got back out there, I wasn’t sticking close to what they taught me. I relapsed.”

“When you’re in the midst of these drugs, you aren’t rational with yourself. Things aren’t as clear. Things that seem like common sense to me now, just weren’t then.”

After more trouble with the law, Hector thought of the Mission. “I knew I needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere stable. What did I think of? The place I had been at way back when.” This time around, Hector entered the Life Recovery Program. “It was so natural coming back here, where it’s safe,” he said. “I was just remembering what they did for me back then, and it was almost like coming home—that sense of comfort just comes back.”

The staff at the Mission is compassionate and full of God’s love, Hector said. “Things would be a lot better in our country if there were more people around like the ones who run this place, if there were people like this in every city,” he said.

“I wish everyone had a rescue mission in their life, so when they found themselves in a strange environment, they had a place to turn,” Hector added. “It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old—this isn’t some only-certain-people-can-join club. It’s for anybody who finds themselves in a predicament—you have a home here.”