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 The Emblem of
Sufffering and Shame
Tim Graff masked the shame stemming from his alcohol and drug addiction with selfishness and apathy. “When I was drinking and drugging, I couldn’t have cared less about how anybody — my family included — felt about what I was doing,” he says, looking back.
Then last fall, Tim’s cousin attended Hope Ministries’ Mission of Hope benefit banquet and learned about the STEP and STAR recovery programs. “I was in a drug treatment center at the time,” Tim recalls. “When my cousin suggested Hope Ministries might be a next step in recovery, I took a leap of faith — he’s never steered me wrong.”
Tim spent 30 days at Bethel Mission where he completed the STEP Program, then moved to The Door, December 14. Within hours, he learned something that changed his life: “I went from thinking I was going to be an alcoholic all my life to understanding that I was a slave to sin. It was a whole change of perspective!”
Two days later, Tim gave Christ his heart and life. “The cross is most definitely important to me. Knowing that someone so long ago died for my sins, I wake up daily and thank Him. I have to … He cared so much that He gave His life for mine.”
Tim says he’s “taken to the Bible keenly” and at Hope Ministries, he has plenty of opportunities to study and practice what it says. Five days each week, he works at the intake desk at Bethel Mission where he appreciates the insight and knowledge he gains from work training, a component of the STAR Program.
“Spending time around people still suffering [from addiction] is a reminder of where life could have taken me if I’d chosen the way I was living before. Now I feel confident knowing it’s possible not to use and to feel for other people and accomplish things in my life. That’s what Hope Ministries has done for me.”
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