Gateway is a huge reason that I am not only alive today, but I am blessed with a peace I never imagined would be possible on this planet.  It was a Saturday afternoon in 2001 that I desperately called Craig, an acquaintance that I had met in AA a few weeks earlier.  He was sober and told me to call him if I ever needed help.  Boy, did I ever need help.  I had just finished a horrible two-day binge of alcohol and cocaine.  It felt that if I continued the way I was going, I would soon kill myself.  You see, I couldn’t live with alcohol and drugs and I couldn’t live without them.  So I called and told him I would do whatever was required of me to stop this way of life.  I could no longer do it my way. 

He told me that he had been going to this church that had really helped him connect with God for the first time in a practical way.  I had been trying to connect with God ever since praying a prayer to become a Christian in the eighth grade.  But I had resigned that I would have to “endure” this hell on earth until I died, then I would be at peace in heaven.  The more I failed, the more I felt uncomfortable in church.  But Craig told me that Gateway’s policies were “Come as you are” and “No perfect people allowed.”  That immediately put me at ease, because I definitely qualified:  I had lost my car to a drug dealer, I had lost my fiancée, and I was about to lose my freedom to a possession charge.  Most importantly, I had just about lost hope that I wanted to live.

Fast forward to today. Two years later, I have been sober since the first weekend I walked into Gateway (absolutely no coincidence).  I realized that drugs and alcohol were just symptoms of my real dilemma…separation from God.  And I have realized that I can enjoy this life rather than simply endure it.  I thought that I needed to get well and then come to church.  I had it backwards.  I needed to come to church to get well.

 –Trent