Brad's Story

Your Love Saved Brad’s Life

After three failed marriages and a 30-year addiction, Brad needed to know someone still cared

I thought I knew what love was,” Brad says. “But I guess, after three failed marriages, I was wrong.”

After Brad’s parents divorced when he was 10, he remembers how much his mother’s love meant to him. In high school, he fell in with the “wrong crowd,” and his dream of playing professional baseball faded as he pursued marijuana instead.

After graduating from high school, he worked as a glazier for 30 years, but alcohol, cocaine and meth slowly took over his life.

“I ended up getting married three times,” Brad says. “But they were all based more on drugs and alcohol than love. Still, I thought my last marriage would last forever. I mean, I thought we loved each other. We were married for 17 years. But when I finally decided to quit meth, my wife divorced me.”

That was the lowest point of Brad’s life. “It broke my heart,” he explains. “It got to where I hated myself. I guess I had some kind of mental breakdown because I tried to kill myself twice.”

After his second attempt, homeless and unemployed, Brad came to the Chattanooga Rescue Mission.

“When I got here, there was no love in my life,” Brad says. “But going through the program and reading the Bible, I started to understand. My favorite verse is Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ That’s love right there. And every day, the people here showed me so much love. That was several years ago, but I still come back a couple of times a month for Bible study and the love I experience here.”

Today, Brad lives independently and continues to live his life free from drugs and alcohol.

Thank you for being a part of God’s lifesaving work.