A Father Restored: How Your Support Changed Dennis’s Life

When Dennis walked through the doors of Muskegon Rescue Mission on a cold October morning, he wasn’t just seeking warmth, he was seeking a way out of a life that had slowly unraveled around him.

For months, he had been living alone in the woods, hiding his homelessness from others and from himself. “For me, it was easier,” he says.

But isolation was no longer numbing the pain of a drinking problem, drug use, and broken relationships. Dennis knew that something had to change.

One Sunday, while attending a lunch hosted by a local church, he met a woman who offered to pray for him. While she prayed, Dennis experienced a peace he had not felt before. “I was, in that moment, washed over with warmth,” he remembers. “It felt like every cell in my body was completely content.”

That moment became the turning point of his life.

I REALIZED THE FAITH I HAD BEEN LOOKING FOR WAS GOD.”

Dennis came to MRM for the first time the next morning and saw a sign for our long-term discipleship program. He hesitated when he learned that the program takes 12 months to complete. But God gently removed every excuse, and even the vape pen Dennis had stashed outside disappeared. “It was like God said, ‘You don’t need that,” Dennis says.

He joined the program. And the changes in his life began almost immediately, starting with his sobriety.

“I hadn’t been sober for more than a week consistently since I was 19,” Dennis shares. “Now, I don’t think about it. It’s not even a want. It’s just gone.”

Relationships he thought were beyond repair, including with his parents, are being restored. “My mom goes to church with me now. My dad and I talk again. I hadn’t spoken to him in five years.”

But the greatest restoration has been Dennis’s relationship with his eight-year-old daughter. He had not been allowed to see her when he was drinking. But now, “My daughter sees me every Sunday for church,” he says, smiling. “She’s a daddy’s girl. She would love for us to have our own house where we could have our own dog,” he says. “God will provide. That is my goal.”

Dennis wants friends like you to know something:

“There’s a lot of care going on here. More than people ever realize. Every resource, every meal, every class, it’s given in charity. And it’s saving lives like mine.”

Because of your generosity, Dennis didn’t just find shelter at MRM. He found faith. He found sobriety. He found his family again. And he found the man God created him to be.

I’M EXACTLY WHERE GOD WANTS ME TO BE.”

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