Greg always knew he was meant to serve God. His single mother raised him and his three brothers to faithfully attend church. In the 7th grade, he went on his first mission trip and knew he was going to be a missionary. Other mission trips followed. As he enrolled for his Masters in Divinity, he sensed he was running out of steam. He plunged ahead only to sink into deep depression. As his thoughts dwelled increasingly on suicide, he turned to alcohol. "I spent my whole life ministering and helping other people," said Greg. "I didn't allow me to be ministered to." Greg dropped out and went back home. Soon after, his worried family and friends confronted him. "They all intervened and said, 'We're concerned with what's happening to you,'" remembers Greg. "They presented this option to come to the Mission." He came to Seattle's Union Gospel Mission a humbled alcoholic with a one-way bus ticket and nowhere else to go . . . Greg knows his experience with alcoholism and depression will make him a more effective minister one day. "The Lord in my calling has always presented me with people in pain, people going through difficult times," he said. "Some things I won't only sympathize with, I'll empathize and know."