Jacquie Found Joy at City Mission

Jacquie Found Joy at City Mission
"City Mission is the Lord's house. If this place can help me, think about all the good things it can do. I am forever attached to this place now," said Jacquie, a current City Mission resident. "Here, I finally began to understand that life isn't totally about me and my needs. When I began to put other people first, I attained peace and joy that I never really had before."
Jacquie went into foster care when she was 11, had her first drink at 14,and a year later, ran away from home and started living on the street. She struggled with alcoholism and homelessness for decades.
Jacquie drank to numb the pain of her traumatic childhood. “Alcohol was my magic elixir,” she explained. “It seemed to solve all of my problems at first.” Over time, it created even bigger problems for her.
One day, during a 24-hour lock down in jail, she picked up the Bible and started reading. She got down on her knees, and she gave her life to Christ. But she couldn’t quite kick her alcoholism. Not at first. After her release from jail, she went right back to living on the street. She hopped a freight train into Pittsburgh with her friends.
“It just became clear to me,” she explained, “that -- because I had gotten saved, you know, I asked Jesus into my heart -- that the life I was living was not what I was supposed to be living. And it got painful. You know, it got spiritually painful to go on the way that I did.”
So she went to rehab and has been sober now for over a year!
After completing a six-month program at a halfway house, she decided to come to City Mission to continue to strengthen her relationship with Christ.
“City Mission provides me with shelter, you know, that needed sanctuary from the world,” she said. “And I just needed that. I can sit here and talk about the things I’ve gained materialistically in sobriety, but the things that mean the most to me are the things you can’t see. And that’s my relationship with God and the joy I have in my heart.”
Recently, Jacquie got the highest-paying job she has ever had, working at a distribution warehouse. She was able to save up money and purchase a car. Also, she recently started college to study social work. In the future, she hopes to become a social worker and work to heal those in need.
“I want to work in some capacity with alcoholics and addicts. But I would really, really like to help the homeless. Just get into the community and help.”