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Touched by a Loving Heart
Jack Lamont began wandering Chicago’s inner-city streets when he was 12. As an adult, he married, had children, worked as a carpenter, divorced — and drank when he was looking for a good time. Soon, he was drinking all the time.
In November 1994, Jack accepted Christ as His Savior. Days later, he was jumped by a gang and beaten. Hospitalized and in a coma for two weeks, he recalls, “I had to learn to walk and talk again. When I got out I went right back to church.”
For seven years, Jack walked close to his Lord. In 1999, he hopped on a bus headed for California where he hoped to marry his pastor’s niece. But when the bus hit Central Iowa, he says, “Something didn’t feel right, so I stayed in Des Moines.” He’s been here ever since.
Something snapped in Jack a couple years ago and he says, “I went on a year and a half backslide.” The binge left him economically and spiritually wrecked. “I’d sold my tools and had nothing else to sell. All I could think about was getting more money to buy a drink.” When he was pulled over for driving drunk, Jack knew he’d had enough.
Last June, Jack came to Hope Ministries for help. “I had to humble myself,” he says. “I’m back in church, reading my Bible and the Lord’s pulling me in different directions, like doing a Bible study at Fort Des Moines.”
As a member of our Spiritual Training and Recovery program (STAR), Jack is in a win-win situation. “I can’t throw in the towel,” he smiles, “because God will throw it right back in my face and say get back in the fight!”
In STAR, Jack attends classes that help him change damaging lifetime habits. “I had built walls around me. If someone invaded them, I wouldn’t let them go without a fight and I’d get locked up.
In Chicago, if a cop pulled me over, I’d tell them to take off their badge and gun, and fight. These classes are showing me areas I need to completely take out of my life. I’m learning again to submit and surrender.”
Soon, Jack will graduate and move into one of Hope Ministries’ Buchanan Transitional Homes. He’ll begin a new job and start saving to attend Bible College in North Dakota. His favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11, promises that God plans a hopeful future for us. “He’s met my needs,” Jack agrees. “He’s blessed me big time.”
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