There's only one event I want to write about from the week.
Yesterday, I received news that one of our former clients overdosed and passed away. He was a client who had recently relapsed from the program, and came by on Friday to pick up his belongings. From the Mission, he went to a restaurant in Lowell where he entered the bathroom and proceeded to get high on heroin. A waitress found him in the bathroom.
This is the most tragic thing to ever happen in my tenure at the Mission. He was on my caseload a week and 2 days ago, and now he's gone. I am in shock over this situation, and the residents at the Mission are going about life as usual. Tragically, this is 'normal' for them, and they have experienced death as a result of getting high time and time again. For me, it was hard to swallow - I saw this guy yesterday and the last thing I said to him was, "Hang in there, buddy."
There is solace in knowing that a couple of weeks ago he was baptized, that we were able to have conversations that suggested at least a desire to know more of God, and I find hope in the fact that his baptism represents a change happening in his heart, that Jesus gave him new life, and that now he is with Jesus and the cycle of addiction has been broken in his life forever.
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