I’d turned my back on God for 20 years.

Bradford spent the first years of his life on a farm, in a Christian home. He went to church and participated in youth groups and the choir. But his parents divorced when he was a teenager, and he moved with his mom to a new town. There, he felt like an outsider and, at 17, began drinking socially to fit in.

His drinking grew heavier when he graduated and went away to school—and he fell away from God, too. "I decided to live life my way," Bradford explains. He flunked out twice but met the girl of his dreams. They married and had two beautiful children. Still, "I kept going back to the bottle," he says.

That began a string of job losses, homelessness and arrests over the years, as well as a divorce from his wife and strained relationships with his children.

The final straw came when Bradford—walking down the highway, drunk and incoherent—was picked up by a good Samaritan. "When I finally reached my family, they said, 'This is your last chance. There's nothing else we can do unless you accept help from Hope Ministries.'"

Now in the Journey of Hope Recovery Program at our Door of Faith facility, Bradford is overcoming his addictive behaviors and learning to be like Jesus.

"Every day I try to live by Christian principles and avoid temptation," he shares. He takes part in life-skills and personal development classes and participates in Bible studies and community service projects. Bradford even humbled himself to approach his former employer and ask for his job back at a grocery store. The man recognized the positive changes in Bradford and gave him a warm welcome.

This Thanksgiving, Bradford says, he will be grateful for a lot of things—the food, shelter and guidance he's received at Hope Ministries . . . the answers he has found through his renewed trust in God . . . and especially for his family who, despite his mistakes and transgressions, never gave up on him.