Hope for New York

My name is Carlos*. I came from Trinidad to the USA in 1989 and moved to Queens.  I started to work as a security guard for

Saks Fifth Ave

for five dollars an hour.  After about four months, I was asked to work there full time.  My salary jumped from making five dollars to thirty dollars an hour, then $30,000 a year to $80,000 a year.  I was really happy.  I had never seen money like this in my life.  I thought I was on top of the world.

I started drinking at the bars and smoking crack.  I was chasing after different women every night and I was living a very sinful life.  Every morning I would go to work stark drunk.  My supervisor started to notice.  At my job, you are allowed to have three warnings before you are terminated.  I got nine.

But in the first full year of working, I was the first person to sell one million dollars for the furnishings department.  Even with this big accomplishment, after nine warnings, my supervisor had no choice but to fire me.

After I lost my job, I continued to live the life that I was living – drinking, drugs, and women.  After a few months, I used up the money I had saved.  I lost my girlfriend.  I lost my desire to keep living.  I went from making $80,000 working on

Fifth Avenue

to being homeless.  I felt like I ran into a brick wall.  I was like a stray dog with nothing to live for, just waiting to die.  I even thought of jumping off the BrooklynBridge. One cold night, I was sitting in Dunkin Donuts, all cracked out.  No drugs left.  No money.  I remembered one of my friends telling me, “There is a place called The Bowery Mission.  You can get a plate of food and a bed for the night.”  So I decided to go.

When I arrived at The Bowery Mission, I got a meal and a place to sleep.  The next day I decided to join the residential program.  I had to go to chapel services each day.  I started to listen and learn what God can do – how he can change lives.  So with nothing to lose, I asked the Lord to forgive me for my sins and to help me if he is real.

That was it.  I started to seek God with all my heart.  The Lord has done so much for me; I cannot begin to thank him.  He died for my sins and forgave me.  He gave me purpose in life when I had lost it all.  He opened the way for me.  Today I don’t have the money I used to, but I have never been so happy in my life.  He changed me into a new creation.  My life is transformed, and he lives in me.

I thought I would come to The Bowery Mission, get my life together, and move on, but I now have the opportunity to become a Mission Trainee working at The Bowery Mission.  I am asking the Lord for the next steps, but I would love to become a counselor at The Bowery Mission and help others by sharing what the Lord has done for me.

*Please note that names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.