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Life Stories
Journies From Near Death to Recovery
Your gift today can be the beginning of a transformed life. Help provide a needy man in San Francisco with food, shelter, counseling, life skills and other essential care.
Carlos' Story
I’ve lived in San Francisco all my life. It’s a wonderful place rich in different cultures that shape and influence individual communities. My family is very close. I even graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Italian literature in order to understand even more of my family culture.
In my first job out of school, I worked in the financial district at Charles Swab. I worked in an administrative support role in their advanced learning center. This job gave me the ability to get my own place and start living a busy social life. However, I began to hang out with the wrong friends who had very different values than I learned growing up, and began doing things I knew were wrong. Slowly but surely, my life began to spiral downward. I eventually ended up unemployed, with a full addiction to crystal meth. I just couldn’t stop.
When I returned home to live with my family, they were so hurt by my addiction. Nothing like this had ever happen to them or their friends. I knew they were ashamed of me. I would leave for days when I was high so they wouldn’t see my face. They couldn’t live every day not knowing if I was alive or dead, so they all piled in the car and drove me to CityTeam International.
I don’t know how they found CityTeam International but it saved my life. By attending one-on-one counseling and group classes, I could tell that the transformation process had started. It took me through a serious time of grief about my addiction regarding the hurt I had caused my family. The Bible studies were a source of comfort and healing for me. God transformed me.
I have since graduated and started an internship with CityTeam International to help other people in need. I am going to school part time as well as tutoring in the Italian language. I am so grateful to have purpose, vision and passion in my life.
Cary's Story
In a crowd of people, you would probably classify me as just another normal guy. I grew up in West Marine in a fairly normal family but my father was a serious alcoholic. I even started drinking at the age of fourteen. I went to college and received a business degree and worked as a government contractor for 15 years. I never married or had kids. But what I do have is twenty years of a serious drinking problem.
I lost my job because of budget cuts. This didn’t help my situation because now I had more time on my hands to drink and drink and drink every day. Drinking ruled my life and it was uncontrollable. At the time, I had money saved and checked myself into a recovery program. It helped me stay sober for four years. Then I got my old job back when they received funding. My sole purpose was to make money. I stopped going to AA meetings and hanging out with my counselors. I spent every dime I had.
My addiction got so bad that I wanted to drink myself to death. That’s exactly what happen but I ended up in a hospital near death. This time I didn’t have anywhere to go. But a social worker was at the foot of my bed telling me about a place called CityTeam International on 6th Street. That was a part of town that I never traveled in because of the drugs and homelessness issue.
The next day I walked through those doors at CityTeam International and found a small group of caring staff and other guys in the program who would help me with my addiction. This was different life experience than my other program because it was based on Christian values. It was between me and God – a true relationship that I never thought was possible.
Today, I have graduated from the program. I can actually say that CityTeam International and God gave me a second chance at life. I never thought I would love the homeless that walk through the doors of CityTeam International but I honestly do. I will continue to be a volunteer at CityTeam International to help the new the men in the program. I would like to thank the donors for investing in this great program. Also I would like to thank that social worker at the hospital – I don’t know her name but I always ask God to bless her.
