City Mission Gave Me Hope When I Had No Hope Left
The City Mission Saved Pete's Life - Now He Gives It All Back
Pete was only six years old when he developed a taste for beer . As an only child he spent a lot of time at his grandparents home while his dad worked as a Painting Contractor and his mother worked as a waitress. Pete was a highly intelligent child and was always looking for something to do. His curiosity led him into trouble and he started sneaking beer from his grandfather and father. He liked the way beer tasted and especially how it made him feel. Eventually Pete’s grandparents discovered what he was doing and scolded him fiercely for stealing and drinking. He remembers telling them that a person can’t become an alcoholic from drinking beer.
Unfortunately for Pete that was not the case. Pete’s parents divorced when he was eight years old and he and his mother moved in with his grandparents. Weekends were spent at his father’s house and week days were spent with his grandfather. Pete was his grandfather’s namesake and they had a close relationship. They became even closer when Pate and his mother moved in with him. When his grandfather became very ill and passed away Pete was heartbroken and didn’t know how to deal with the pain. Together with the breakup of his parent’s marriage and the death of his grandfather Pete became very anxious and depressed. He remembered the feeling he got when he drank beer and started using alcohol to take away his pain.
Pete continued sneaking beer when visiting his friends house and started experimenting with harder liquor by the time he was thirteen. Pete drank all through his high school years. He drank wine, beer and hard liquor but it was the beer he needed the most. His mother and father warned him that he had a problem but he didn’t see it that way. He was an above average student and made decent grades in High School.
He graduated in 1991 and went to Duquesne University to study marketing. Pete’s drinking really picked up in college. He commuted from home but would frequent the bars and drink at school parties. He was hung over a lot and started experiencing blackouts. Pete says, “I definitely had all the symptoms of alcoholism back then. ”Pete met his wife in 1993 and they were married a year later. Marriage was good for him and his drinking slowed down - for a while. He and his wife had three children, had a nice home and a good family life.
In time Pete went back to his old patterns of getting drunk and blacking out. His wife and kids tried to help Pete and went as far as videotaping him when they found him passed out, drunk on the floor and showed it to him, hoping he would stop. They tried very hard to help him. By 2008 he stopped working and started living with friends, using food stamps and money from the government. He lost all interaction with his wife and children. Alcohol was destroying his life. Pete recalls, ”At that time I was drinking a 5th of whiskey every night along with beer.” He calculates that he consumed 1200 5th’s of Johnny Walker over a twelve year period. He was trying to drink himself to death.
By 2009 it looked like he was going to get his wish. At the age of 41 he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and was in the last stages of liver disease. In 2010 he weighed over 300 pounds, was yellow with jaundice and had ascites disease. He was in so much pain that he couldn’t lie down on his back. Even with these serious alcohol related illnesses Pete continued to drink up to a case of beer a day.
In 2010 Pete says that God delivered him, He remembers, “I had developed a hematoma in my right knee and thought I was going to lose my leg.” Pete was admitted to Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, West Virginia t to be detoxed from alcohol. Miraculously the doctors were able to save his leg and Pete stayed alcohol free for the next three years.
Pete went on to share, “The City Mission saved my life. I knew I had nowhere else to go when I came here. The City Mission gave me hope when I had no hope left. ”Pete recalls some of the lessons he learned while staying at the City Mission, ”I learned to forgive, to be teachable, and to have true compassion. I’m not the center of attention. It’s about helping others.
In 2013 Pete started drinking again. Within 40 days he had received four DUI’s and spent 11 days in jail. His girlfriend threw him out of the house and a friend in took him in. It wasn’t long until his friend had had enough and kicked him out too. Pete went to Mercy Hospital Detox Center and from there was taken to a homeless shelter in Pittsburgh. Pete recalls standing in the middle of a downtown street when the realization that he was homeless hit him. He said, “Lord, I’m homeless. Then talking to himself he said, “Pete, you’ve finally done it.” It was then that he cried out to the Lord for the first time. He wanted to stop drinking. He wanted to recover.
Pete found his way to the Greenbriar Treatment Center - the Lighthouse for Men where he began to learn about recovery. He also learned that he had no-one to count on and nowhere else to go. The staff at Greenbriar referred him to the Washington City Mission. Pete recalls, ‘I came to the City Mission in June of 2014. The first couple of weeks were rocky for me. I was running on self-will. After a few weeks I broke down to the Lord. I needed his help.”
Pete talked his counselor, Leroy Harris, and began to work through some of the issues he was having. He realized even though he wasn’t drinking, he was still behaving like an addict. Pete says, “I started to view things differently. The Lord stuck with me and brought me along slowly”. He started to attend other classes at the mission and grew in his faith and in recovery. He shares,” Pastor Leroy helped to light a fire in me to read the Bible. Another counselor, Paul Smith, led a discipleship class that taught him he should always make time for God in his schedule.
Pete went on to share, “The City Mission saved my life. I knew I had nowhere else to go when I came here. The City Mission gave me hope when I had no hope left. ”Pete recalls some of the lessons he learned while staying at the City Mission, ”I learned to forgive, to be teachable, and to have true compassion. I’m not the center of attention. It’s about helping others. ”Pete helps the other men at the mission every chance he gets. He was recently hired by City Mission as a Resident Support Specialist in the men’s shelter. There he’s able to lead daily devotions and provide encouragement and a listening ear.
He says sharing his faith keeps him in the twelfth step of AA – which says,“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principals in all our affairs”. He goes on to say, “Everyday is a new day to experience strength and hope. He continues, “I’m responsible for my recovery today. I know I have another relapse in me, but I doubt if I have another recovery in me. Pete ends by saying, “I’ve been restored to independent living. I love my job. My gratitude goes beyond recognition for the Washington City Mission."