I have never lived on the streets but I am an alcoholic/drug addict who has time and time again lost, ruined, or destroyed, every relationship, job, and or good thing that has come into my life. In just the last year I have suffered divorce, bankruptcy, and eviction – all due in part to drugs or alcohol. I have come to realize that all of what I have lost in my life, I lost to because of ungratefulness. I was never satisfied with what I had. I always had to have more, bigger, better, and since I was so busy trying to get what I didn't have, I lost what I did have, and that took me to the edge of self-destruction.

Today I am in recovery program at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. I’m finding out that I am not a bad person, and that God loves me and has a plan for me.

Part of His plan is revealed in my writing, He gives to me beautiful things to write, and I then share them with others. Great things are in store for me, I have just got to be still, wait on my Lord, and trust that He will provide for me.

My whole life is a walking testimony to God's mercy and grace. I have no secrets. I am not proud of my life. I am actually ashamed of most of it, but I know that God has forgiven me, and that is all that matters. So for me it is now forward and upward.

Thanks and glory be to God, and Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission.

POEMS written by Jeff

A moment can last forever or be done in the beat of a heart,
A moment can change a person forever or pass one by as quick as a dart-
In each moment of life there is a chance, if one is willing,
to glance into Heaven and with an Angel dance-
God's moment's for us are countless, for each one of us He wishes to bless,
yet, all to often, to many of us fail to see
just exactly what that moment was meant to be-
Enjoy each moment with God that you receive
in His boundless love do trust and believe,
for happiness and joy to us He wishes to give,
for all of the days that we shall live-
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Without God where would I be
if not lost out at sea,
most assuredly hanging from a tree-
Without God where would I be
in a bottle or bag of dope immersed
praying all of my life choices could be reversed-
But, with God all things are possible
grace and mercy, forgiveness for my sins
the realization of dreams that might never have been-
So, without God where would I be
if not lost out at sea,
most assuredly hanging from a tree-
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We have come here to this place
to find our little piece of grace,
Some by chance others by plan
trying to find ourselves if we can-
Bound by chains which away we must cast,
to the Lord we must look for release from our past,
For in the end ourselves we must face
when we stand before the Lord asking for grace-