“When you know that you’re bad, you always feel like you’re doing something wrong.”
After meeting her biological parents and realizing her mother and father were both addicts, Sonja believed she was just damaged goods; a bad seed.
“I gave myself that label because that’s where I came from, from people who were already dysfunctional, who were ‘bad.’”
Sonja fell into the same cycle of addiction. “I’ve been on a lifetime journey of alcoholism and trauma and problems that come with that, and I ended up homeless.”
She and her grandson, Xavier, were homeless when she heard about the Union Gospel Mission’s long-term recovery program and decided she wanted to change her life.
The Union Gospel Mission exists to break the cycle of homelessness, abuse, and addiction that has often been passed down through multiple generations. Breaking that cycle can begin with one person who chooses to deal with her emotions and pain instead of using a substance to avoid them. And when one person makes this choice, the effect reverberates outward, impacting the other people in her life, as well.
Sonja began the process of breaking the cycle in her family. She graduated from UGM Women’s Recovery with the tools and resources necessary to live life a whole new way. Today, she has a full-time job, a home for Xavier and herself, and she is reconnected with her daughter. She has learned the value of trusting others and developing relationships.
Sonja is building a new legacy in her family.
“Every day, God is showing me new ways that he’s working in my life and my family’s life and bringing us all together.”
And she no longer sees herself as “damaged goods.”
“I stopped believing lies and I started believing the truth…It’s just amazing that I feel like I can just be myself and that there’s not something wrong with me all the time.”
Learn about 21 ways you can help others break the cycle within their own families.
3 min read
Phil Altmeyer, Executive Director: September 20, 2023
“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” (Luke 10:33) Although the paths that brought...
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Genevieve Gromlich, Content and Communications Manager: September 14, 2023
As a case manager at the Men's Shelter, Bob McLellan says he’s become a better listener. “I used to be afraid to talk to homeless people on the...
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Genevieve Gromlich, Content and Communications Manager: September 6, 2023
For our neighbors caught in cycles of homelessness, abuse, and addiction, we want to share the message that there is a way out. There is hope for a...
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Lynn Yount, UGM Volunteer : August 16, 2018
In the autumn of 1951, a group of businessmen from Spokane attended a dinner hosted by Albert Arend, where they heard testimony from a former...
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Union Gospel Mission : December 14, 2016
From its inception in 1951, Union Gospel Mission’s purpose has been to break – not perpetuate – the cycle of homelessness.
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Union Gospel Mission : February 25, 2014
Editor's Note: This is the first in a regular series, "The Crisis: a Troubling Reality." We will begin to examine and discuss the causes, conditions...
