Meet Ann

Meet Ann. She can’t thank YOU enough!

“I needed this support from the Mission and God.”

To cope with a painful home life, Ann started drinking at 13. “It was a dysfunctional upbringing,” she says. “There was violence and abuse. Just not a good place to grow up.”

Drugs and alcohol started as a way to “escape and not feel the way I was feeling. To numb myself.” But the initial escape she found ended up causing her more and more pain as addiction took over her life.

Ann was crushed when her husband of 16 years overdosed and left her a single mother. Her relationship with her three children disintegrated because they couldn’t understand why their mother let alcohol take over her life.

Ann says, “We stopped talking because they’ve been disappointed so many times with me not being able to quit.”

The turning point came when Ann was diagnosed with cirrhosis and liver cancer. She realized that “it was time for me to start thinking about other people in my life and not just myself.”

The day she walked into Great Falls Rescue Mission, everything changed for Ann.

“When I walked in, I knew I was where I was supposed to be,” she says, smiling. “I just felt peace.”

“If the Mission ever asked me to do anything, it would feel like a blessing… to do it for everything they gave me.”

Instead of escaping her problems, in our care Ann dedicated her life to the Lord and learned to let Him guide her through difficult times. She attended chapel services and recovery programs, and she found a church home.

The Mission also gave her a place to rest and recover while she underwent medical treatment.

“It’s been hard, healthwise, but the Mission made my stay here a blessing. They cater to special needs people have.”

Today, Ann is overjoyed to be in her own home. She has a good relationship with her daughter, and hopes to reconcile with her sons. “I want to be a better parent. Live for my kids the way I should have lived for them. Live for God.”

You may never meet Ann, but she’s eternally grateful to YOU for your support – today, her heart is filled with new hope for the future. “The Mission is a big part of my life being saved. Now I know God has a path for me.”

To read our Easter 2020 issue of The Beacon, click here.