David knew about the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission long before he walked through its doors. He had visited for a meal before but still returned to the life he knew. It took years of addiction, incarceration, and painful consequences before he was ready to accept the help that had been available to him all along.
David began using drugs when he was around 13 or 14. Growing up without his father and with a mother who worked hard to support the family, he struggled to find guidance and a sense of direction. “I didn’t really have guidance, you know?” he explains. “I kind of pretty much was like rebellion, rebellion, rebellion, you know, despite the consequences.”
Looking to older friends for a way to survive, he became involved in a lifestyle he never imagined would consume so much of his life. When he began using methamphetamine, he says, “that’s when my life just started spiraling downhill, even though I didn’t notice at the time.”
Over time, substance use became less about pleasure and more about survival. David experienced incarceration, damaged relationships, and addiction that continued to escalate. Although he wanted to change, he repeatedly returned to the same patterns, convinced he could manage everything on his own.
Eventually, he reached a point where he could no longer ignore the consequences. After turning to stealing and falling deeper into addiction, an incident led to his arrest. David called people he believed would stand by him. Many didn’t answer. When he learned that even his mother didn’t want to get involved, he began to recognize just how far he had fallen. He described the experience as a point of abandonment, one that forced him to confront the direction his life had taken.
“That’s why I say below rock bottom,” he says, describing that time in his life.
Even after being released, David continued struggling with addiction. A near-fatal overdose and other frightening experiences deepened his belief that his life had a purpose, but he still needed to make a choice.
“I know it was either God or it was a guardian angel that he sent that took care of me because I feel like in my heart it is.”
He had known about the Mission for years, yet he had dismissed it and the people who sought help there. Now, he was ready to do something different.
David described his decision to walk to the Mission as the hardest decision he had ever made. “Just walking over here myself was the hardest thing I had to do in my life,” he explains. “And it was the best decision I made.”
When David arrived, he was overwhelmed by the feeling that he had finally reached a place of safety. He had come seeking help, but he also began finding a renewed sense of purpose through the Mission’s program and his faith. During his first days, he experienced difficult nights and nightmares. After participating in a baptism at the Mission, he said he finally slept peacefully. For David, the experience marked the beginning of a different way of approaching his life and his recovery.
In the program, David has found opportunities to learn through leadership, gratitude, and financial classes. He appreciates that the Mission provides structure while allowing residents the room to take responsibility for their own growth. He has also begun making amends with people he hurt and rebuilding relationships with family members. His transformation, he explains, isn’t about becoming someone entirely different. It’s about making better choices.
“I’m not a better person,” David says. “I’m a good person, you know, I’m just making better choices, making better decisions.”
After roughly 70 days at the Mission, David acknowledges that he didn’t yet have a car or a job. But he was happy, grateful, and looking toward a future he once struggled to imagine. He credited the Mission’s staff for their patience, the program’s classes, and the opportunity to grow without having someone else make every decision for him.
“I thank this place for being here for even still being here when I was ungrateful of it.”
David hopes his story can inspire others who are struggling to seek help and believe change is possible. His journey is still unfolding, but he no longer sees his past as the only thing that defines him. He has found a foundation on which to build a different future, one decision at a time.
As David puts it, “It really is a Rescue Mission because they rescued me.”