Atlanta Mission
Work Phone: 404-367-2493 x230054
Home Phone: 678-230-0547
Cell Phone: 678-230-0547
Fax: 6782300547
Heidi on January 05, 2016
July 28, 2015
“How Did I End Up Like This?”
Because of your generosity and compassion, Heidi and her daughter were given a chance to start anew.
Heidi doesn’t look homeless. She’s all things bright and beautiful, and if you met her, you’d think, This young lady could do anything.
But it’s also true that anything could happen to this young lady . . . or to any one of us. Including losing our job and our home, and having no place to turn.
Heidi once had it all. She was a high school basketball star and was a dean’s list student in college. She received a scholarship to study in London. And she was a rising star with the FDIC.
Even when Heidi learned, right after college graduation, that she was pregnant, she still had a promising future. Her boyfriend didn’t stick around and others urged her to get an abortion. But Heidi believed her baby was a gift from God, and she was determined to make it.
She gave birth to her daughter while working with the FDIC in New York, but soon realized she couldn’t keep up with the cost of living. She’d heard the Atlanta job market was strong, and a local friend had agreed to host Heidi and her daughter for a while. She quit her NYC job and drove to Georgia . . . but her friend was nowhere to be found. Heidi and her daughter stayed in hotels for a while, but soon ran out of money. She had no place to go.
“I started crying,” she says, “What did I do wrong? How did I end up like this?”
She tried a couple of area shelters, but never felt safe. Then she heard about My Sister’s House — Atlanta Mission’s facility for women and children. By God’s grace, they had one bunk bed that was open.
“I’ll never forget our first night at Atlanta Mission,” Heidi says. “I finally felt at peace. It was a place for us to be safe at night, where I wouldn’t have to worry about how we will eat or sleep. It felt like family.”
Heidi prayed every night for God’s protection and provision. Soon, a prominent insurance company offered her a good job, and soon she and her baby girl moved to their own apartment.
Heidi says it was hard to leave Atlanta Mission. She could’ve stayed a little longer, “but I wanted to give back, and staying there would’ve denied someone else a bed. So I gave up my spot to the next person.” That was two years ago. Today, life is looking up for this young mother and her child: “It’s like the storms have cleared and the sun is finally shining again.
“I’m so thankful that Atlanta Mission was there, because I don’t know what would’ve happened to us. Those thoughts scare me. So I’m very, very happy the shelter was there for us. And now my prayer is that I’ll never have to experience homelessness again.”
Dennis on January 05, 2016
May 18, 2015
Now I’m Ready to Live
“I surrendered my whole life to God that day. I surrendered everything.”
Dennis was just 16 when he learned how brutal life on the streets can be.
He was hanging out with some hardcore drug dealers who had found an addict who owed them money. When the guy couldn’t pay, they secretly put battery acid into his syringe. When he shot up, he died a gruesome death, eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth. Dennis, horrified, ran away.
“I’m 52 now, and I’ve never forgotten that man’s face,” he says.
But it wasn’t enough of a deterrent for Dennis, who would become an addict himself — to crack cocaine and alcohol — for the next 35 years. He started using drugs because he thought it was cool. “I just wanted to be apart of that crowd,” he says. And then he couldn’t quit.He would crash wherever he could, with friends and family members. But sometimes, he wound up living
on the streets.
“You get dirty out there,” Dennis says. “Your personal hygiene changes, and you stink. Your eating habits change. You eat whatever’s available, even if you have to eat out of the garbage bin. I used to hang out behind a restaurant and wait for them to throw food away at the end of the night. Now I’m Ready to Live”
“I’d sleep wherever I could. Abandoned cars, the park, hospital waiting rooms. But you’re never safe when you’re sleeping. You can get beat up or even killed. I can’t imagine living on the streets anymore . . .” Fortunately, he doesn’t have to. About a year ago, Dennis decided he couldn’t live like that anymore. “I cried out to God,” he says. “I just hollered, ‘Help me, Jesus!’” Dennis found Atlanta Mission online, and thought it sounded like the best place for him to turn things around. When he arrived, he was told he would have to give up his pack of cigarettes . . . or come back in 30 days.
Dennis had a decision to make. He gave up his smokes. “When I surrendered my cigarettes, I also surrendered my whole life to God. I surrendered everything.” Dennis has been clean and sober since that day, and is taking great strides toward re-entering life outside Atlanta Mission. Or, as he sees it, experiencing life — real, vibrant life — for the first time. “God is preparing me to live the rest of my life,” he says. “For 52 years, the only thing I’ve done is exist. Now I’m ready to live.”