April 29, 2025 • 26 mins
Mike's Dad was too often away at sea, and Mike's Mom let him get away with too much, but Mike's problems were of his own making, and he owns up to them as he shares his incredible story on today's podcast. There are so many powerful lessons to ponder as you listen to Mike's story, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I'd love to hear what you thought if you'd be willing to shoot me an email at Phil@safehouse-ministries.com!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I would drink, we would drink atwork, wow.
It was drinking was what we did,and smoking was what we did when
we all hung out, but yeah, itwas, it's crazy to think, I
don't remember nights sometimeshow I got home.
Waking up at random houses, atthe parties that we were at, or
it's crazy to think about that.
(00:21):
It's a little scary.
It's very scary.
Was it scary at the time, oryou're like, eh, who cares?
That's what it, at the time youwould laugh about it.
You'd get up with your boysafterwards and be like, man, I
don't even know where I woke upthis morning, man.
Wow.
Or how, or know what you did thenight before?
Absolutely.
Man, what did I do last night?
Or, man, what you did lastnight?
You talked to your otherfriends.
Wow.
But yeah, I think about it nowand it's almost wow, I'm ashamed
(00:45):
of how I was then, but I knowthe Lord ultimately had the path
for me to walk on to where I'mat today.
It just it sucks that I had tohurt so many people on that
path.
Yeah.
Burn so many bridges, I.
I repaired some of the bridgesthat I've burnt, but some
bridges are unrepairable.
Phil Shuler (01:03):
HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the
Safe House Ministries podcast,where we share stories of the
power of God to change livesthrough Safe House Ministries.
Safe House Ministries is basedout of Columbus, Georgia, and we
are a ministry that exists tolove and serve people who have
been affected by addiction,homelessness, and incarceration.
I'm your host, Phil Shuler, theDirector of Development for Safe
(01:26):
House Ministries here inColumbus, Georgia.
Safe House serves over 1, 100people each month as they
transition back into ourcommunity.
Safe House provides an abundanceof services including 213 beds
for homeless individuals andfamilies, case management for
obtaining job skills and longterm employment.
Over 300 hot meals every day,free clothing, and so much more.
(01:47):
One of the most incredibleservices that Safe House
provides is our free 9 12 monthintensive outpatient substance
abuse program, which is statelicensed, CARF accredited, and
has no wait list.
Almost 100 percent ofindividuals staying in our
shelters who follow our threephase program become fully
employed within a few months.
And 68 percent of individualswho stay at least one night with
(02:08):
us End up finding work andmoving into their own home.
Thank you for being with ustoday and listening to our
podcast.
We hope you enjoy this week'sepisode.
Good morning.
This morning on the podcast.
I have someone really special,and of course, I think all of my
podcast guests are amazing.
But I'm really excited abouthearing Mike's story.
And this morning I've got MikeBeach.
Mike, thank you for being here.
(02:29):
You're very welcome.
Very welcome.
It's been good just sitting herechatting, getting to know you a
little bit.
Quick question for you, if youhad to pick one word that would
best describe you, what wouldthat word be?
Humbled.
Very humbled.
That's a good word.
So what do you mean when you saythat?
Just for maybe just goingthrough my life, the way I have,
(02:49):
taking things for granted, notbeing humbled for my life, for
the things that have been putforth for me in my past.
Taking things for granted and,just where I'm at today.
I'm just truly humbled, whereI'm at in today, yeah.
Yeah.
It's, we're blessed, veryblessed.
We, we I know all of us, eventhe people that don't
acknowledge it.
(03:09):
God loves us and he does so muchfor us.
That's a good word.
Yeah.
So Mike, we'll just take it fromthe beginning.
Okay.
If you would share.
How your story begins, where yougrew up and what early home life
was like, and then just as yougot older into the teen years.
Yeah.
I was actually, I was born in asmall town on the eastern shore
of Virginia called in Nass,otics that fun word to say.
(03:33):
Yes, Nass.
Yeah.
Spelling is even funner, Iimagine.
My family then we soon after Iwas born, we moved to Baltimore.
My father was in the Navy.
We moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
My father was in Annapolis.
He's in the Navy yeah.
I grew up there to pa I was likearound eight or nine, and then
we moved to Virginia Beach,Virginia.
Yeah.
Was he an officer?
If your dad was an officer?
(03:54):
He he was an officer.
He ended up being a captain of asub.
Awesome.
Yeah okay.
And we moved to Virginia Beachwhere optimally grew up at.
I was born in Baltimore.
I say I was born in Baltimorejust because that's all I really
know.
Yeah.
But I ultimately grew up inVirginia Beach, Virginia.
Okay.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Good home life growing up.
Oh, absolutely.
My father was away a lot.
(04:14):
Being, he would go out to sea,two times a year.
So he was gone six months outthe year a lot of times.
Wow.
So it was just my mom around forme, me and my brother.
But we were, we always had agood home life.
My mom took care of us the bestthat she could.
Sports was a big thing in ourfamilies.
She sacrificed a lot by takingus here, there, around the world
(04:35):
it seemed and then, yeah.
You played a lot of sportsgrowing up.
Yes, sir.
I played football, basketball,baseball.
Okay.
Were you the younger brother orthe I'm the older.
Older two years, sir.
Okay.
Yep.
All right.
And then living on the beach,there was always something to do
when we weren't sports, yeah.
The beach life, quote unquote,just enjoying that, and I always
think back now, where, you knowthen how you take that for
granted.
(04:56):
Yeah.
Living on the beach, thatatmosphere, growing up in it, I
wish I would've just took thatin more, yeah.
Then as I got into my teenageyears probably about 12, 13,
boys will be boys, you startdrinking.
Yeah.
Start drinking.
My father wasn't around thatmuch, so it was easy to, it was
easier, I would say, to hidethings from mother.
(05:18):
Yeah.
Mother would she caught me a fewtimes, me and my brother a few
times, but it would never get,nothing ever got back to my
father.
She always kept things away frommy father.
So he wouldn't worry about uswhen he was away.
He was a captain on nuclear sub.
The USS Tennessee, so she didn'treally want him to worry about
home life.
Yeah.
And so we, mom did as much asshe could for us as far as
(05:42):
keeping us out of trouble,things of that nature.
And we never really got introuble.
We just did what we wanted.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We just did what we wanted and,we didn't have to be home at a
certain time.
We didn't have chores.
We didn't have to do certainthings that my friends had to
do.
So in my friends' eyes, I hadthe cool mom, I had the place to
(06:03):
go to when the life at home wasinfra hard, they would come to
my house.
Things of that nature, andlooking back at it now I wish we
did have a little morestructure.
Yeah.
That freedom gave you a littletoo much leeway and you started
to make some bad choices andAbsolutely.
100%, by the time I was 16, 17,I was alcoholic.
(06:24):
Wow.
A pothead.
And at that age you'd thinkthat's just what you do.
Going through the weekends,playing sports during the week,
and then hitting the houseparties on the weekend, on the
beach, that's just, we thoughtthat's what at that time it was
fun.
Yeah.
But then you're, you get caughtup in addiction without really
even knowing you were anaddiction, yeah.
(06:45):
Did you finish high school?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay.
I graduated from Princeton HighSchool in 1993.
Okay.
Not in a great place.
So what happened after highschool?
I had my daughter I had, I gotmy girlfriend pregnant when we
were seniors in high school.
She was actually a junior and Iwas a senior.
Her family was pretty hard onher for getting pregnant.
Of course my mom didn't seenothing wrong with it, the
(07:06):
enabling mom.
I'll help, I tried to join themilitary.
I tried to join the Marines, butthey didn't let me go in.
They didn't, they told me Icouldn't,'cause I had two
dependents.
I had my daughter and theyconsidered, I wasn't married at
the time, but my girlfriend,they considered a dependent
because she was the mother.
Yeah.
So because you were so young andyou had those they didn't let
you do it?
(07:26):
Nope, they just didn't let mejoin.
They said, okay.
I didn't know if I could wentinto another branch.
I definitely weren't gonna dothe Navy.
'cause I saw my father didn'tgone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I went out a few times withmy father for family weekends,
and I just didn't.
I know, I just didn't like thataspect.
Yeah.
I like they the marines, so Itried that, but it didn't work
out, so I just went to collegethen.
Okay.
I went to Johnson and Wales inWilliamsburg, Virginia.
(07:47):
And I did my four years there,two years business, two years
there.
Just stay where you guys, youand your girlfriend living
together trying to raise you.
Yeah, we had our own place bythat time.
We got married.
We were married.
We got married as soon as shegraduated high school.
My mother, I would say I kept mychild, her first year of life,
but that was actually my mother.
Yeah.
While, and what's her name?
Your daughter?
Leanna.
Leanna.
(08:08):
Okay.
Leanna.
And she's amazing.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yep, she's amazing.
And I was going to school, wegot married as soon as she
graduated because that's whatyou do, yeah.
Our, and at least we thoughtthat's what we should have done.
We weren't in love with eachother, we really shouldn't have
got married.
We should have, took her timewith it.
But our families really wantedus to get married.
We had a daughter, you'remarried, you're living together.
(08:29):
This is what you do.
Her family's Catholic.
Yeah.
Her family's Cuban.
So that's what we did.
We had this extravagant wedding,not really knowing that it was
really extravagant.
We were just going through themotions and then this whole time
I'm in my addiction.
I'm drinking.
At school.
I'm drinking on the way home.
I'm drinking at home.
Wow.
And then I was I played sportseven after high school.
(08:52):
I was a bowl twice a week, asoftball, twice a week, flag
football on Sundays.
Wow.
And I didn't So you were, that'sa lot of time away from home,
just even though you're not on aboat there, you or a sub.
That's right.
I didn't put forth effort intothe marriage because I wanted to
do what I wanted to do.
Ultimately after 12 years ofmarriage 12 years.
(09:12):
Yeah.
We went, we 12 years ofmarriage.
Yep.
And we got divorced.
She, she left me, she'd hadenough.
She had enough, we didn't, wedid it.
We, it wasn't a bad divorce.
After the divorce, it got badbecause fighting over the Yeah.
The kids, she moved.
How many total did Two.
Two, okay.
We have my son, we have my sonfour years later.
Michael, he's a junior.
(09:33):
Okay.
Yeah.
God bless him too.
Right now he's out at sea.
Oh.
He's in the Navy.
He's a sonar tech on a sub.
Oh yeah.
He's on a fast attack sub, so hegoes out six months at a time.
Yeah.
So we have, I hardly have anycontact with him at all.
Unless he comes above the wateror that's a touching subject
with me because we just don'thave contact with him that much
(09:53):
no more.
And he just had a baby.
So I have four grand babies.
Wow.
Yep.
Four.
Yep.
Yep.
Four girls.
Wow.
What a blessing.
Very much and my daughter, she'smarried to a he's a chief now in
the Navy.
Navy just stays in the family.
Yeah.
That's it, so yeah.
So I've never had to worry aboutmy children.
Yeah.
Like my mom had to worry aboutme.
(10:14):
I think the Lord, I'd never hadto worry about my, they both on
a good path.
Children, they were on a verygood path.
And I don't know what I would doif I would've done anything, if
they were, if my son was takingthe path that I was on, yeah.
Because after I was, after I gotdivorced, that just gave me more
time to go deeper into myaddiction.
Ah, feeling sorry for myself.
(10:35):
My kids lived thousands of milesaway, so your wife had gotten
full custody of the kids?
I gave her, yep.
Yep.
When we did that, when we gotdivorced, I gave her full
custody.
Is that because you recognizedthat you just weren't I could
not raise my kid.
I could not be a part of mykid's life.
I was not in the place.
I was drinking all the time.
I was smoking weed all the time.
(10:55):
I was doing the things that Iwanted to do, so I was being
very selfish at that time.
I gave my wife full custody andshe moved to Miami to be with
her family, and I'm in Virginia.
Wow.
So you were neglectful andabsent.
Were you ever violent oranything?
No.
Other than that, no.
No.
Never that I, I just, you justweren't there and you didn't, I
just weren't there, they justfelt they probably felt like
(11:15):
maybe you just didn't care.
Like you're Absolutely, Iwouldn't, I would've thought
that, I would've thought thatand repercussions from those
times.
I, I have to deal with it now,where my kids are older, my
daughter's 32, my son's 26.
I have four grand babies.
And the three repercussions ofme being absent, being selfish
(11:35):
when they were kids in theirteenage years I feel it now
because as much as I want to bea part of their lives, like how
my mother was a part of theirlives, they it is just not
there, and me and my daughterhad a talk actually just last
week about it, she's very proudof me where I'm at in life now.
She's she always known I couldbe where I'm at in life right
(11:57):
now.
Yeah.
But she said if I was to get aphone call that you robbed a
bank tomorrow, I wouldn't besurprised, and that hits hard
because, we talked.
They were growing up I wouldtalk to'em on the phone once a
month.
Yeah.
Things of that nature.
So it was just easier as theygot older to not talk to each
other, so then as they gotolder, it'd be months, not just
(12:21):
once a month, but months beforewe spoke.
And my daughter went a few yearswithout talking to me.
Wow.
Because of her issues with me.
Yeah.
We, we re we have reconciledwe've gone to therapy, but the
absent the abstinence from theirlives, like I was it's, it
doesn't, it's not an issue withthem Now if I don't call them or
(12:42):
if they don't call me.
Yeah.
It hurts me dearly.
It breaks my heart.
I cry all the time about it.
But who's to blame?
I'm the one to blame for it.
I can't be upset with thembecause my daughter won't pick
up the phone because my sonwon't pick up the phone.
I can't be mad at them for that.
That'd be very selfish of mestill if I was to be mad.
I understand it.
(13:03):
Yeah.
I get it now.
Yeah.
And no matter what I do now, allI can do is just pray that one
day that.
I will be accepted into theirlives.
My daughter is amazing.
She'll pick up my phone callevery time, no matter what.
I get to talk to my grandkidsevery day if I wanted to
FaceTime them.
And it's nice that they know myvoice, that they know, they,
(13:24):
they know me.
They think I'm funny.
They, they, it's amazing.
But I just miss'em becausethey're on the west coast.
Yeah.
So even if I wanted to be intheir everyday life I just,
it's, it is hard when it comesto my kids.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm dealing with therepercussions even as my kids
are, as adults, as far as notbeing a part of their everyday
(13:45):
life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you and your wife gotdivorced and they moved away you
started just dropping off thecliff?
Oh, yeah.
Into the darkness even more.
I was drinking probably a caseof beer day, if not more.
And, smoking weed just came withit.
I never got into the hard drugs,thank the lord, because, who
knows what would've happened,I'm not saying I never tried
hard drugs, but that just wasn'tmy forte.
(14:07):
Yeah.
So what, so during that time ofyour life what was it like?
Were you crime and just, orwhat, like what did that period
look like?
Party.
Yeah, party working, partying soyou were able to stay functional
and have a job and still Oh,absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I got to a point where I coulddrink and the hangovers were
gone.
The I would drink, we woulddrink at work, wow.
(14:29):
It was drinking was what we did,and smoking was what we did when
we all hung out, but yeah, itwas, it's crazy to think, I
don't remember nights sometimeshow I got home.
Waking up at random houses, atthe parties that we were at, or
it's crazy to think about that.
It's a little scary.
(14:49):
It's very scary.
Was it scary at the time, oryou're like, eh, who cares?
That's what it, at the time youwould laugh about it.
You'd get up with your boysafterwards and be like, man, I
don't even know where I woke upthis morning, man.
Wow.
Or how, or know what you did thenight before?
Absolutely.
Man, what did I do last night?
Or, man, what you did lastnight?
You talked to your otherfriends.
Wow.
But yeah, I think about it nowand it's almost wow, I'm ashamed
(15:12):
of how I was then, but I knowthe Lord ultimately had the path
for me to walk on to where I'mat today.
It just it sucks that I had tohurt so many people on that
path.
Yeah.
Burn so many bridges, I.
I repaired some of the bridgesthat I've burnt, but some
bridges are unrepairable.
Yeah.
Wow.
Is your mom still alive?
(15:32):
No, sir.
Actually, she let's see, in2019, 2015, I was diagnosed with
the Telar cancer stage three forcancer.
And I used that as an excuse to,to drink more.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just wow.
To do drugs.
And I ultimately my family hadenough on me.
A mother had enough on me theone person who had my back at
(15:55):
all times.
My father has been, he was waydone with me before then.
Wow.
So even when I got sick, Ididn't have really anybody in my
corner because of how I lived mylife.
And the friends that who I feltwere my friends, we committed a
burglary so I got sent to RA forthat.
Wow.
I should have been sent toprison, but the Lord had
(16:16):
different, was that your firstentry into some serious crime?
Yes.
Or had you done things Yes.
You just never had gotten caughtbefore?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it.
Okay.
I that was around that time,two, 2015.
That was, I committed my crimein 2019.
I actually signed a five 10 tofive the night before I went to
court.
And then when I went to court,the judge, it was like, I'm not
gonna send him to prison.
(16:37):
What's prison gonna do for him?
He's gonna come out the sameperson if not more addicted to
drugs.
He asked me if I wanted tochange my life, I told him,
absolutely I did.
I'm tired of it, therepetitiveness of Yeah.
Just the life I was living wassickening.
So he goes, all right.
He goes I'm gonna send you to ar sat, which I had no idea what
(16:58):
that was at the time.
What is that?
It's like a residential.
It's like your li you're inprison, but you're residential
treat treatment, substance abusetreatment.
Is that what it stands for?
Yeah.
It's something to that nature.
But you're in prison, it's runby the state.
You're, you've got cos aroundyou, you're in prison, but it's
not prison.
You're going through treatment.
Yeah.
And to get clean and break freeof the addictions to get Yeah,
(17:18):
absolutely.
Absolutely.
And my mother I realized thedamage I had done to my mom, at
that time, all I had was reallymy mom, and she was done with me
as far as helping me out andthey on me.
She couldn't do it no more.
I was a financial burden.
I was an emotional burden.
I was just, any kind of a burdenyou can come up with.
I, that's what I was to myfamily and it just took a toll.
(17:40):
So when I got to RA, my mom waslike, listen, this is it, this
is a chance to change your life,to do what you need to do to
come out a better person.
So I was sentenced to RA andthen I was sentenced after RAI
had to complete a year and ahalf way house.
Wow.
Question when your mom spokethat to you did you receive that
at the time or did you That timeI did.
Yeah, because she told me thatmany a times before, but that
(18:02):
time it hit hard because itfinally, you let it hit your
heart.
Absolutely.
Because my, my, they weregetting older, I was in my
forties, my mom was in hersixties.
My, my dad was in his seventies,want them to go on Yeah.
Worrying about me.
So was that the beginning of thechange then you left?
That was definitely thebeginning.
That, that was an end of myaddiction, but it was the
(18:23):
beginning of the end.
Yeah.
'cause you accepted that youneeded to make some changes.
Yeah.
I couldn't do it on my own.
Yeah.
I needed help.
I, I wasn't as tough as I mademyself out to be.
Okay.
The persona that I've done.
So how long was the AAP program?
Nine months.
And then after that, you saidyou went to a halfway house?
Yep.
I was, I came to the GraceHouse.
Okay.
So that's how you connected toSafe House Ministries?
(18:44):
Yep.
That's how I, yep.
And what, when was that, thatyou came to the chapter?
2000.
April of 2021.
Okay.
All right.
And I did great there.
I hit the ground running.
I got a job my first day there.
I was doing really good.
I was saving money up.
Man, it was, I was doing reallygood.
My family started to come backaround.
Awesome.
My, my kids were come backaround.
(19:06):
They allowed me and my grandkidslike, because pop's not drunk.
He's not, we don't know whathe's gonna say, but now they
trust, I was, Hey, I was one ofthem.
You don't know what I was gonnasay at any given time.
Oh, wow.
But then after I got there inApril, my mom I went to my mom's
house for her birthday, whichher birthday is July 2nd.
So we always had July 4thcookout.
And that week after that shecaught Covid and three weeks
(19:29):
later she was gone.
Wow.
Yeah, she was gone.
You were still staying at theGrace House at that time?
Yep.
Yep.
Wow.
And where were, where did shelive at the time?
Where was she lived?
In Camden County.
Okay.
It's Kingsland, Georgia.
Okay.
Probably about 20 minutes fromJacksonville, Florida.
We lived right on the state lineon the coast.
So you, that probably hit youhard'cause you felt like you're
in a better place.
(19:49):
You're building, rebuilding therelationships.
And now all of a sudden Iquestioned a lot of things and,
I had my little fight with theLord at that time, my mom never
really gotta see me sober.
She saw you though, at the, to,to make you were, she, I'm sure
she saw that you were reallymaking changes.
She, it was four months there,so she saw I was making an
attempt one heck of an attempt.
Yeah.
(20:09):
But she never got to see mebeing, she never got to see me
now.
Yeah.
So I went back to drinking and Iwas such a manipulator that I
could hide it from the GraceHouse, even though they gave you
random urine screens there.
I could, I manipulate the crapout of that.
I knew when they were givingthem, I knew when I couldn't
drink.
I knew when I could drink.
An addiction is powerful thatyou're able to do that.
(20:31):
But the Grace House was amazing,especially at that time when my
mom passed.
Chaplain, pastor Eric Chuck theydid everything in their power to
get me.
It's five hours away.
I had to go back home.
I went back home when my mompassed, it was Covid, so they
gave me a special viewing withher by myself.
I went home for that.
(20:52):
Then I came back.
I I had to go back two weekslater, three weeks later for my
mom's funeral because my, shegave my father Covid.
So we didn't know if he was evengonna make it.
Wow.
But he pulled through, so shepassed away the end of July.
And we didn't have her, our, shedidn't, we didn't bury her until
August 17th.
(21:13):
Wow.
So that was hard.
That was a hard time, and even,and afterwards I got, when I
came back from that I didn'tlike where I was working at, so
I quit there.
Didn't care.
But then I got the job at theBlack Cow, managing the
restaurant.
I was managing one of the mostpopular restaurants in Columbus.
Yeah.
(21:33):
And I'm thankful for Denise, butI was still in my addiction, I
was drinking, still hiding it.
I was hiding it from the, yeah.
I was hiding it.
I was drinking it.
I was and a leave.
I left there because I gotfired.
'cause I was stealing alcohol.
Oh.
I was getting off late at nightand I would take me a bottle of
liquor home at night.
Wow.
And know, and eventually thatcaught up with me and I got
fired for it.
(21:55):
I was doing really good then.
I, making good money.
Had a house downtown by the CoCola Museum.
So you were, you had graduatedor gotten out of the Freedom
House or the Grace House by thattime.
Yep.
And then, yep.
Living on your own.
Managing.
And then you just, addictionpulled you back into the
addiction.
I went down that rabbit holeagain, back smoking weed again.
I was, wow.
And I was mad at myself forgetting back, being, getting
(22:15):
back to where I was.
And it was just a rabbit hole Icouldn't pull myself out of.
And I was on probation.
And I ended up popping dirty ona urine screen for marijuana.
And they put me in a DRC programthat was a pop dirty in August,
beginning of August of lastyear.
And then then you still livingon your own, just going through
(22:35):
the DCI was my own, but my myprobation officer said, you
couldn't work.
You couldn't work.
So I didn't know what to do.
Then I was gonna be homelessbecause of my addiction.
Yeah.
My addiction was actually gonnamake me homeless because I have
nobody, all I had was myself.
So I knew only one thing to dois just try to reach out to the
Grace House, which I didn't knowwas the Freedom House.
Yeah.
It had changed at that point, bythat point.
(22:56):
Yes, sir.
And but towards my end of timeat Grace House, Jamie Lee had
come in over there and her, shewould come into my restaurant.
Sometimes I would, my casemanager Matt would come in, so
they all knew me.
Yeah.
Downtown, the restaurant, westill kept connections that way.
God bless'em.
So when I called 2 1 1 to getput on the waiting list, they
told me it was gonna be abouttwo and a half months, three
(23:18):
months before I could get inthere.
And.
I was like, man, this is realitynow.
This is, I'm gonna be on thestreet.
Yeah.
So I prayed and prayed, and Igot a phone call a couple days
later.
It was like two days later, andit was it was a female voice.
And she said Mike, I said, yesma'am.
And she was she goes, how youdoing?
By that time, I knew it wasJamie.
I said it was no, even for me,even lie to her, I'm not doing
(23:39):
very well.
She goes, are you okay?
I said, no.
And I remember her saying, shegoes, just come home.
Wow.
Yeah.
She said, just come home.
And I just sat there and cried.
I think she might even cried andOh wow.
She told me what I had to do toget to come, to get in there.
And I think I was there probablytwo days later, three days
later.
Wow.
So just welcomed with love andacceptance to the Freedom House
(24:01):
is, yeah.
Not even saying what, howThrough Freedom House took me in
and saved my life.
Wow.
There's no other way to put it.
No other way to put it.
What an incredible journey Mikehas described so far.
And next week we'll pick upwhere he begins to share how he.
(24:21):
It becomes truly transformed histime at the Grace House, which
then had become the FreedomHouse, the men's shelter for
Safe House, just how the Lordreally got ahold of his heart
and the amazing things that Goddid to get him on the path to
victory to where he is today.
So you're gonna want to comeback next week to hear that, but
(24:44):
I just think of how.
Amazing and incredible.
Mike's story was from thebeginning, I think, of the
lessons that are there, theenabling mother, the absent
father.
I think if you have listened tothis week's podcast and heard
the story of Mike and how heshared.
(25:04):
How he just got so off track atsuch a young age.
If you're a parent, I hope thatthis might make you really think
about the way that you parentyour children about being
present in their lives to beginwith, about creating a structure
and boundaries and.
Guardrails and just simply notletting them do certain things,
(25:28):
not letting them go certainplaces, not letting them have
certain friends.
Just really putting up thoseguardrails to protect them I
hope that you enjoyed thisweek's podcast.
I know I did, and I know forsure that if you come back next
week, you'll enjoy the rest ofMike's story and just the
amazing lessons that he sharesthat he has learned along the
(25:49):
path to victory.
God bless you this week and Ilook forward to being back with
you again next week.
We look forward to being with you again next week
as we share another testimonyabout the power and the goodness
of God to change lives throughSafe House Ministries.
if you are someone listening tothis podcast that loves to hear
these stories of the greatthings that God is doing in
(26:11):
changing people's lives for thebetter, and if you would like to
be a part of that work, pleasereach out to us You can reach us
at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus,Georgia, 31,904.
You can call us at seven oh sixthree two two.
3 7, 7 3, or you can email us atinfo@safehouse-ministries.com.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Mi (26:33):
Thank you so much for being with us
this week for the renew restoreand rejoice podcast of safe
house ministries, we pray thatGod will bless you this week.
And we look forward to havingyou back with us again next week
for a new episode.
I would drink, we would drink atwork, wow.
It was drinking was what we did,and smoking was what we did when
we all hung out, but yeah, itwas, it's crazy to think, I
don't remember nights sometimeshow I got home.
Waking up at random houses, atthe parties that we were at, or
it's crazy to think about that.
(00:21):
It's a little scary.
It's very scary.
Was it scary at the time, oryou're like, eh, who cares?
That's what it, at the time youwould laugh about it.
You'd get up with your boysafterwards and be like, man, I
don't even know where I woke upthis morning, man.
Wow.
Or how, or know what you did thenight before?
Absolutely.
Man, what did I do last night?
Or, man, what you did lastnight?
You talked to your otherfriends.
Wow.
But yeah, I think about it nowand it's almost wow, I'm ashamed
(00:45):
of how I was then, but I knowthe Lord ultimately had the path
for me to walk on to where I'mat today.
It just it sucks that I had tohurt so many people on that
path.
Yeah.
Burn so many bridges, I.
I repaired some of the bridgesthat I've burnt, but some
bridges are unrepairable.
Phil Shuler (01:03):
HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the
Safe House Ministries podcast,where we share stories of the
power of God to change livesthrough Safe House Ministries.
Safe House Ministries is basedout of Columbus, Georgia, and we
are a ministry that exists tolove and serve people who have
been affected by addiction,homelessness, and incarceration.
I'm your host, Phil Shuler, theDirector of Development for Safe
(01:26):
House Ministries here inColumbus, Georgia.
Safe House serves over 1, 100people each month as they
transition back into ourcommunity.
Safe House provides an abundanceof services including 213 beds
for homeless individuals andfamilies, case management for
obtaining job skills and longterm employment.
Over 300 hot meals every day,free clothing, and so much more.
(01:47):
One of the most incredibleservices that Safe House
provides is our free 9 12 monthintensive outpatient substance
abuse program, which is statelicensed, CARF accredited, and
has no wait list.
Almost 100 percent ofindividuals staying in our
shelters who follow our threephase program become fully
employed within a few months.
And 68 percent of individualswho stay at least one night with
(02:08):
us End up finding work andmoving into their own home.
Thank you for being with ustoday and listening to our
podcast.
We hope you enjoy this week'sepisode.
Good morning.
This morning on the podcast.
I have someone really special,and of course, I think all of my
podcast guests are amazing.
But I'm really excited abouthearing Mike's story.
And this morning I've got MikeBeach.
Mike, thank you for being here.
(02:29):
You're very welcome.
Very welcome.
It's been good just sitting herechatting, getting to know you a
little bit.
Quick question for you, if youhad to pick one word that would
best describe you, what wouldthat word be?
Humbled.
Very humbled.
That's a good word.
So what do you mean when you saythat?
Just for maybe just goingthrough my life, the way I have,
(02:49):
taking things for granted, notbeing humbled for my life, for
the things that have been putforth for me in my past.
Taking things for granted and,just where I'm at today.
I'm just truly humbled, whereI'm at in today, yeah.
Yeah.
It's, we're blessed, veryblessed.
We, we I know all of us, eventhe people that don't
acknowledge it.
(03:09):
God loves us and he does so muchfor us.
That's a good word.
Yeah.
So Mike, we'll just take it fromthe beginning.
Okay.
If you would share.
How your story begins, where yougrew up and what early home life
was like, and then just as yougot older into the teen years.
Yeah.
I was actually, I was born in asmall town on the eastern shore
of Virginia called in Nass,otics that fun word to say.
(03:33):
Yes, Nass.
Yeah.
Spelling is even funner, Iimagine.
My family then we soon after Iwas born, we moved to Baltimore.
My father was in the Navy.
We moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
My father was in Annapolis.
He's in the Navy yeah.
I grew up there to pa I was likearound eight or nine, and then
we moved to Virginia Beach,Virginia.
Yeah.
Was he an officer?
If your dad was an officer?
(03:54):
He he was an officer.
He ended up being a captain of asub.
Awesome.
Yeah okay.
And we moved to Virginia Beachwhere optimally grew up at.
I was born in Baltimore.
I say I was born in Baltimorejust because that's all I really
know.
Yeah.
But I ultimately grew up inVirginia Beach, Virginia.
Okay.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Good home life growing up.
Oh, absolutely.
My father was away a lot.
(04:14):
Being, he would go out to sea,two times a year.
So he was gone six months outthe year a lot of times.
Wow.
So it was just my mom around forme, me and my brother.
But we were, we always had agood home life.
My mom took care of us the bestthat she could.
Sports was a big thing in ourfamilies.
She sacrificed a lot by takingus here, there, around the world
(04:35):
it seemed and then, yeah.
You played a lot of sportsgrowing up.
Yes, sir.
I played football, basketball,baseball.
Okay.
Were you the younger brother orthe I'm the older.
Older two years, sir.
Okay.
Yep.
All right.
And then living on the beach,there was always something to do
when we weren't sports, yeah.
The beach life, quote unquote,just enjoying that, and I always
think back now, where, you knowthen how you take that for
granted.
(04:56):
Yeah.
Living on the beach, thatatmosphere, growing up in it, I
wish I would've just took thatin more, yeah.
Then as I got into my teenageyears probably about 12, 13,
boys will be boys, you startdrinking.
Yeah.
Start drinking.
My father wasn't around thatmuch, so it was easy to, it was
easier, I would say, to hidethings from mother.
(05:18):
Yeah.
Mother would she caught me a fewtimes, me and my brother a few
times, but it would never get,nothing ever got back to my
father.
She always kept things away frommy father.
So he wouldn't worry about uswhen he was away.
He was a captain on nuclear sub.
The USS Tennessee, so she didn'treally want him to worry about
home life.
Yeah.
And so we, mom did as much asshe could for us as far as
(05:42):
keeping us out of trouble,things of that nature.
And we never really got introuble.
We just did what we wanted.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We just did what we wanted and,we didn't have to be home at a
certain time.
We didn't have chores.
We didn't have to do certainthings that my friends had to
do.
So in my friends' eyes, I hadthe cool mom, I had the place to
(06:03):
go to when the life at home wasinfra hard, they would come to
my house.
Things of that nature, andlooking back at it now I wish we
did have a little morestructure.
Yeah.
That freedom gave you a littletoo much leeway and you started
to make some bad choices andAbsolutely.
100%, by the time I was 16, 17,I was alcoholic.
(06:24):
Wow.
A pothead.
And at that age you'd thinkthat's just what you do.
Going through the weekends,playing sports during the week,
and then hitting the houseparties on the weekend, on the
beach, that's just, we thoughtthat's what at that time it was
fun.
Yeah.
But then you're, you get caughtup in addiction without really
even knowing you were anaddiction, yeah.
(06:45):
Did you finish high school?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay.
I graduated from Princeton HighSchool in 1993.
Okay.
Not in a great place.
So what happened after highschool?
I had my daughter I had, I gotmy girlfriend pregnant when we
were seniors in high school.
She was actually a junior and Iwas a senior.
Her family was pretty hard onher for getting pregnant.
Of course my mom didn't seenothing wrong with it, the
(07:06):
enabling mom.
I'll help, I tried to join themilitary.
I tried to join the Marines, butthey didn't let me go in.
They didn't, they told me Icouldn't,'cause I had two
dependents.
I had my daughter and theyconsidered, I wasn't married at
the time, but my girlfriend,they considered a dependent
because she was the mother.
Yeah.
So because you were so young andyou had those they didn't let
you do it?
(07:26):
Nope, they just didn't let mejoin.
They said, okay.
I didn't know if I could wentinto another branch.
I definitely weren't gonna dothe Navy.
'cause I saw my father didn'tgone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I went out a few times withmy father for family weekends,
and I just didn't.
I know, I just didn't like thataspect.
Yeah.
I like they the marines, so Itried that, but it didn't work
out, so I just went to collegethen.
Okay.
I went to Johnson and Wales inWilliamsburg, Virginia.
(07:47):
And I did my four years there,two years business, two years
there.
Just stay where you guys, youand your girlfriend living
together trying to raise you.
Yeah, we had our own place bythat time.
We got married.
We were married.
We got married as soon as shegraduated high school.
My mother, I would say I kept mychild, her first year of life,
but that was actually my mother.
Yeah.
While, and what's her name?
Your daughter?
Leanna.
Leanna.
(08:08):
Okay.
Leanna.
And she's amazing.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Yep, she's amazing.
And I was going to school, wegot married as soon as she
graduated because that's whatyou do, yeah.
Our, and at least we thoughtthat's what we should have done.
We weren't in love with eachother, we really shouldn't have
got married.
We should have, took her timewith it.
But our families really wantedus to get married.
We had a daughter, you'remarried, you're living together.
(08:29):
This is what you do.
Her family's Catholic.
Yeah.
Her family's Cuban.
So that's what we did.
We had this extravagant wedding,not really knowing that it was
really extravagant.
We were just going through themotions and then this whole time
I'm in my addiction.
I'm drinking.
At school.
I'm drinking on the way home.
I'm drinking at home.
Wow.
And then I was I played sportseven after high school.
(08:52):
I was a bowl twice a week, asoftball, twice a week, flag
football on Sundays.
Wow.
And I didn't So you were, that'sa lot of time away from home,
just even though you're not on aboat there, you or a sub.
That's right.
I didn't put forth effort intothe marriage because I wanted to
do what I wanted to do.
Ultimately after 12 years ofmarriage 12 years.
(09:12):
Yeah.
We went, we 12 years ofmarriage.
Yep.
And we got divorced.
She, she left me, she'd hadenough.
She had enough, we didn't, wedid it.
We, it wasn't a bad divorce.
After the divorce, it got badbecause fighting over the Yeah.
The kids, she moved.
How many total did Two.
Two, okay.
We have my son, we have my sonfour years later.
Michael, he's a junior.
(09:33):
Okay.
Yeah.
God bless him too.
Right now he's out at sea.
Oh.
He's in the Navy.
He's a sonar tech on a sub.
Oh yeah.
He's on a fast attack sub, so hegoes out six months at a time.
Yeah.
So we have, I hardly have anycontact with him at all.
Unless he comes above the wateror that's a touching subject
with me because we just don'thave contact with him that much
(09:53):
no more.
And he just had a baby.
So I have four grand babies.
Wow.
Yep.
Four.
Yep.
Yep.
Four girls.
Wow.
What a blessing.
Very much and my daughter, she'smarried to a he's a chief now in
the Navy.
Navy just stays in the family.
Yeah.
That's it, so yeah.
So I've never had to worry aboutmy children.
Yeah.
Like my mom had to worry aboutme.
(10:14):
I think the Lord, I'd never hadto worry about my, they both on
a good path.
Children, they were on a verygood path.
And I don't know what I would doif I would've done anything, if
they were, if my son was takingthe path that I was on, yeah.
Because after I was, after I gotdivorced, that just gave me more
time to go deeper into myaddiction.
Ah, feeling sorry for myself.
(10:35):
My kids lived thousands of milesaway, so your wife had gotten
full custody of the kids?
I gave her, yep.
Yep.
When we did that, when we gotdivorced, I gave her full
custody.
Is that because you recognizedthat you just weren't I could
not raise my kid.
I could not be a part of mykid's life.
I was not in the place.
I was drinking all the time.
I was smoking weed all the time.
(10:55):
I was doing the things that Iwanted to do, so I was being
very selfish at that time.
I gave my wife full custody andshe moved to Miami to be with
her family, and I'm in Virginia.
Wow.
So you were neglectful andabsent.
Were you ever violent oranything?
No.
Other than that, no.
No.
Never that I, I just, you justweren't there and you didn't, I
just weren't there, they justfelt they probably felt like
(11:15):
maybe you just didn't care.
Like you're Absolutely, Iwouldn't, I would've thought
that, I would've thought thatand repercussions from those
times.
I, I have to deal with it now,where my kids are older, my
daughter's 32, my son's 26.
I have four grand babies.
And the three repercussions ofme being absent, being selfish
(11:35):
when they were kids in theirteenage years I feel it now
because as much as I want to bea part of their lives, like how
my mother was a part of theirlives, they it is just not
there, and me and my daughterhad a talk actually just last
week about it, she's very proudof me where I'm at in life now.
She's she always known I couldbe where I'm at in life right
(11:57):
now.
Yeah.
But she said if I was to get aphone call that you robbed a
bank tomorrow, I wouldn't besurprised, and that hits hard
because, we talked.
They were growing up I wouldtalk to'em on the phone once a
month.
Yeah.
Things of that nature.
So it was just easier as theygot older to not talk to each
other, so then as they gotolder, it'd be months, not just
(12:21):
once a month, but months beforewe spoke.
And my daughter went a few yearswithout talking to me.
Wow.
Because of her issues with me.
Yeah.
We, we re we have reconciledwe've gone to therapy, but the
absent the abstinence from theirlives, like I was it's, it
doesn't, it's not an issue withthem Now if I don't call them or
(12:42):
if they don't call me.
Yeah.
It hurts me dearly.
It breaks my heart.
I cry all the time about it.
But who's to blame?
I'm the one to blame for it.
I can't be upset with thembecause my daughter won't pick
up the phone because my sonwon't pick up the phone.
I can't be mad at them for that.
That'd be very selfish of mestill if I was to be mad.
I understand it.
(13:03):
Yeah.
I get it now.
Yeah.
And no matter what I do now, allI can do is just pray that one
day that.
I will be accepted into theirlives.
My daughter is amazing.
She'll pick up my phone callevery time, no matter what.
I get to talk to my grandkidsevery day if I wanted to
FaceTime them.
And it's nice that they know myvoice, that they know, they,
(13:24):
they know me.
They think I'm funny.
They, they, it's amazing.
But I just miss'em becausethey're on the west coast.
Yeah.
So even if I wanted to be intheir everyday life I just,
it's, it is hard when it comesto my kids.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm dealing with therepercussions even as my kids
are, as adults, as far as notbeing a part of their everyday
(13:45):
life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you and your wife gotdivorced and they moved away you
started just dropping off thecliff?
Oh, yeah.
Into the darkness even more.
I was drinking probably a caseof beer day, if not more.
And, smoking weed just came withit.
I never got into the hard drugs,thank the lord, because, who
knows what would've happened,I'm not saying I never tried
hard drugs, but that just wasn'tmy forte.
(14:07):
Yeah.
So what, so during that time ofyour life what was it like?
Were you crime and just, orwhat, like what did that period
look like?
Party.
Yeah, party working, partying soyou were able to stay functional
and have a job and still Oh,absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I got to a point where I coulddrink and the hangovers were
gone.
The I would drink, we woulddrink at work, wow.
(14:29):
It was drinking was what we did,and smoking was what we did when
we all hung out, but yeah, itwas, it's crazy to think, I
don't remember nights sometimeshow I got home.
Waking up at random houses, atthe parties that we were at, or
it's crazy to think about that.
It's a little scary.
(14:49):
It's very scary.
Was it scary at the time, oryou're like, eh, who cares?
That's what it, at the time youwould laugh about it.
You'd get up with your boysafterwards and be like, man, I
don't even know where I woke upthis morning, man.
Wow.
Or how, or know what you did thenight before?
Absolutely.
Man, what did I do last night?
Or, man, what you did lastnight?
You talked to your otherfriends.
Wow.
But yeah, I think about it nowand it's almost wow, I'm ashamed
(15:12):
of how I was then, but I knowthe Lord ultimately had the path
for me to walk on to where I'mat today.
It just it sucks that I had tohurt so many people on that
path.
Yeah.
Burn so many bridges, I.
I repaired some of the bridgesthat I've burnt, but some
bridges are unrepairable.
Yeah.
Wow.
Is your mom still alive?
(15:32):
No, sir.
Actually, she let's see, in2019, 2015, I was diagnosed with
the Telar cancer stage three forcancer.
And I used that as an excuse to,to drink more.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was just wow.
To do drugs.
And I ultimately my family hadenough on me.
A mother had enough on me theone person who had my back at
(15:55):
all times.
My father has been, he was waydone with me before then.
Wow.
So even when I got sick, Ididn't have really anybody in my
corner because of how I lived mylife.
And the friends that who I feltwere my friends, we committed a
burglary so I got sent to RA forthat.
Wow.
I should have been sent toprison, but the Lord had
(16:16):
different, was that your firstentry into some serious crime?
Yes.
Or had you done things Yes.
You just never had gotten caughtbefore?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it.
Okay.
I that was around that time,two, 2015.
That was, I committed my crimein 2019.
I actually signed a five 10 tofive the night before I went to
court.
And then when I went to court,the judge, it was like, I'm not
gonna send him to prison.
(16:37):
What's prison gonna do for him?
He's gonna come out the sameperson if not more addicted to
drugs.
He asked me if I wanted tochange my life, I told him,
absolutely I did.
I'm tired of it, therepetitiveness of Yeah.
Just the life I was living wassickening.
So he goes, all right.
He goes I'm gonna send you to ar sat, which I had no idea what
(16:58):
that was at the time.
What is that?
It's like a residential.
It's like your li you're inprison, but you're residential
treat treatment, substance abusetreatment.
Is that what it stands for?
Yeah.
It's something to that nature.
But you're in prison, it's runby the state.
You're, you've got cos aroundyou, you're in prison, but it's
not prison.
You're going through treatment.
Yeah.
And to get clean and break freeof the addictions to get Yeah,
(17:18):
absolutely.
Absolutely.
And my mother I realized thedamage I had done to my mom, at
that time, all I had was reallymy mom, and she was done with me
as far as helping me out andthey on me.
She couldn't do it no more.
I was a financial burden.
I was an emotional burden.
I was just, any kind of a burdenyou can come up with.
I, that's what I was to myfamily and it just took a toll.
(17:40):
So when I got to RA, my mom waslike, listen, this is it, this
is a chance to change your life,to do what you need to do to
come out a better person.
So I was sentenced to RA andthen I was sentenced after RAI
had to complete a year and ahalf way house.
Wow.
Question when your mom spokethat to you did you receive that
at the time or did you That timeI did.
Yeah, because she told me thatmany a times before, but that
(18:02):
time it hit hard because itfinally, you let it hit your
heart.
Absolutely.
Because my, my, they weregetting older, I was in my
forties, my mom was in hersixties.
My, my dad was in his seventies,want them to go on Yeah.
Worrying about me.
So was that the beginning of thechange then you left?
That was definitely thebeginning.
That, that was an end of myaddiction, but it was the
(18:23):
beginning of the end.
Yeah.
'cause you accepted that youneeded to make some changes.
Yeah.
I couldn't do it on my own.
Yeah.
I needed help.
I, I wasn't as tough as I mademyself out to be.
Okay.
The persona that I've done.
So how long was the AAP program?
Nine months.
And then after that, you saidyou went to a halfway house?
Yep.
I was, I came to the GraceHouse.
Okay.
So that's how you connected toSafe House Ministries?
(18:44):
Yep.
That's how I, yep.
And what, when was that, thatyou came to the chapter?
2000.
April of 2021.
Okay.
All right.
And I did great there.
I hit the ground running.
I got a job my first day there.
I was doing really good.
I was saving money up.
Man, it was, I was doing reallygood.
My family started to come backaround.
Awesome.
My, my kids were come backaround.
(19:06):
They allowed me and my grandkidslike, because pop's not drunk.
He's not, we don't know whathe's gonna say, but now they
trust, I was, Hey, I was one ofthem.
You don't know what I was gonnasay at any given time.
Oh, wow.
But then after I got there inApril, my mom I went to my mom's
house for her birthday, whichher birthday is July 2nd.
So we always had July 4thcookout.
And that week after that shecaught Covid and three weeks
(19:29):
later she was gone.
Wow.
Yeah, she was gone.
You were still staying at theGrace House at that time?
Yep.
Yep.
Wow.
And where were, where did shelive at the time?
Where was she lived?
In Camden County.
Okay.
It's Kingsland, Georgia.
Okay.
Probably about 20 minutes fromJacksonville, Florida.
We lived right on the state lineon the coast.
So you, that probably hit youhard'cause you felt like you're
in a better place.
(19:49):
You're building, rebuilding therelationships.
And now all of a sudden Iquestioned a lot of things and,
I had my little fight with theLord at that time, my mom never
really gotta see me sober.
She saw you though, at the, to,to make you were, she, I'm sure
she saw that you were reallymaking changes.
She, it was four months there,so she saw I was making an
attempt one heck of an attempt.
Yeah.
(20:09):
But she never got to see mebeing, she never got to see me
now.
Yeah.
So I went back to drinking and Iwas such a manipulator that I
could hide it from the GraceHouse, even though they gave you
random urine screens there.
I could, I manipulate the crapout of that.
I knew when they were givingthem, I knew when I couldn't
drink.
I knew when I could drink.
An addiction is powerful thatyou're able to do that.
(20:31):
But the Grace House was amazing,especially at that time when my
mom passed.
Chaplain, pastor Eric Chuck theydid everything in their power to
get me.
It's five hours away.
I had to go back home.
I went back home when my mompassed, it was Covid, so they
gave me a special viewing withher by myself.
I went home for that.
(20:52):
Then I came back.
I I had to go back two weekslater, three weeks later for my
mom's funeral because my, shegave my father Covid.
So we didn't know if he was evengonna make it.
Wow.
But he pulled through, so shepassed away the end of July.
And we didn't have her, our, shedidn't, we didn't bury her until
August 17th.
(21:13):
Wow.
So that was hard.
That was a hard time, and even,and afterwards I got, when I
came back from that I didn'tlike where I was working at, so
I quit there.
Didn't care.
But then I got the job at theBlack Cow, managing the
restaurant.
I was managing one of the mostpopular restaurants in Columbus.
Yeah.
(21:33):
And I'm thankful for Denise, butI was still in my addiction, I
was drinking, still hiding it.
I was hiding it from the, yeah.
I was hiding it.
I was drinking it.
I was and a leave.
I left there because I gotfired.
'cause I was stealing alcohol.
Oh.
I was getting off late at nightand I would take me a bottle of
liquor home at night.
Wow.
And know, and eventually thatcaught up with me and I got
fired for it.
(21:55):
I was doing really good then.
I, making good money.
Had a house downtown by the CoCola Museum.
So you were, you had graduatedor gotten out of the Freedom
House or the Grace House by thattime.
Yep.
And then, yep.
Living on your own.
Managing.
And then you just, addictionpulled you back into the
addiction.
I went down that rabbit holeagain, back smoking weed again.
I was, wow.
And I was mad at myself forgetting back, being, getting
(22:15):
back to where I was.
And it was just a rabbit hole Icouldn't pull myself out of.
And I was on probation.
And I ended up popping dirty ona urine screen for marijuana.
And they put me in a DRC programthat was a pop dirty in August,
beginning of August of lastyear.
And then then you still livingon your own, just going through
(22:35):
the DCI was my own, but my myprobation officer said, you
couldn't work.
You couldn't work.
So I didn't know what to do.
Then I was gonna be homelessbecause of my addiction.
Yeah.
My addiction was actually gonnamake me homeless because I have
nobody, all I had was myself.
So I knew only one thing to dois just try to reach out to the
Grace House, which I didn't knowwas the Freedom House.
Yeah.
It had changed at that point, bythat point.
(22:56):
Yes, sir.
And but towards my end of timeat Grace House, Jamie Lee had
come in over there and her, shewould come into my restaurant.
Sometimes I would, my casemanager Matt would come in, so
they all knew me.
Yeah.
Downtown, the restaurant, westill kept connections that way.
God bless'em.
So when I called 2 1 1 to getput on the waiting list, they
told me it was gonna be abouttwo and a half months, three
(23:18):
months before I could get inthere.
And.
I was like, man, this is realitynow.
This is, I'm gonna be on thestreet.
Yeah.
So I prayed and prayed, and Igot a phone call a couple days
later.
It was like two days later, andit was it was a female voice.
And she said Mike, I said, yesma'am.
And she was she goes, how youdoing?
By that time, I knew it wasJamie.
I said it was no, even for me,even lie to her, I'm not doing
(23:39):
very well.
She goes, are you okay?
I said, no.
And I remember her saying, shegoes, just come home.
Wow.
Yeah.
She said, just come home.
And I just sat there and cried.
I think she might even cried andOh wow.
She told me what I had to do toget to come, to get in there.
And I think I was there probablytwo days later, three days
later.
Wow.
So just welcomed with love andacceptance to the Freedom House
(24:01):
is, yeah.
Not even saying what, howThrough Freedom House took me in
and saved my life.
Wow.
There's no other way to put it.
No other way to put it.
What an incredible journey Mikehas described so far.
And next week we'll pick upwhere he begins to share how he.
(24:21):
It becomes truly transformed histime at the Grace House, which
then had become the FreedomHouse, the men's shelter for
Safe House, just how the Lordreally got ahold of his heart
and the amazing things that Goddid to get him on the path to
victory to where he is today.
So you're gonna want to comeback next week to hear that, but
(24:44):
I just think of how.
Amazing and incredible.
Mike's story was from thebeginning, I think, of the
lessons that are there, theenabling mother, the absent
father.
I think if you have listened tothis week's podcast and heard
the story of Mike and how heshared.
(25:04):
How he just got so off track atsuch a young age.
If you're a parent, I hope thatthis might make you really think
about the way that you parentyour children about being
present in their lives to beginwith, about creating a structure
and boundaries and.
Guardrails and just simply notletting them do certain things,
(25:28):
not letting them go certainplaces, not letting them have
certain friends.
Just really putting up thoseguardrails to protect them I
hope that you enjoyed thisweek's podcast.
I know I did, and I know forsure that if you come back next
week, you'll enjoy the rest ofMike's story and just the
amazing lessons that he sharesthat he has learned along the
(25:49):
path to victory.
God bless you this week and Ilook forward to being back with
you again next week.
We look forward to being with you again next week
as we share another testimonyabout the power and the goodness
of God to change lives throughSafe House Ministries.
if you are someone listening tothis podcast that loves to hear
these stories of the greatthings that God is doing in
(26:11):
changing people's lives for thebetter, and if you would like to
be a part of that work, pleasereach out to us You can reach us
at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus,Georgia, 31,904.
You can call us at seven oh sixthree two two.
3 7, 7 3, or you can email us atinfo@safehouse-ministries.com.
Microphone (Samson Q2U Mi (26:33):
Thank you so much for being with us
this week for the renew restoreand rejoice podcast of safe
house ministries, we pray thatGod will bless you this week.
And we look forward to havingyou back with us again next week
for a new episode.
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