A prostitute saved Jon’s life.He was drinking and getting high in a seedy motel south of downtown Colorado Springs when he met Deborah. Although they became fast friends, Jon was afraid to get too close. But when she invited him to dinner, he relented.“I had no idea where we were going,” he said. “So we get to dinner and it’s at Springs Rescue Mission. … This was ‘before Christ.’ I had no relationship with Jesus. I didn’t know anything about him. It was the one thing I had never tried.”Jon was in bad shape. He had struggled for decades with homelessness and addiction. But he was welcomed and embraced all the same by the men from the New Life Program.“We talked a little bit and then I went back and found myself sitting at Dorchester Park,” he said. “I was being drawn towards the Mission. There was a cross on top of the building, and I’d just look at it.”On April 5, 2003, Jon let go of his pride — entering the New Life Program and accepting Christ. He’ll soon celebrate 17 years as a clean and sober man of faith.

“I’ve been clean ever since,” he said. “The New Life Program gave me a chance to get off the streets and focus on my sobriety. But it’s Jesus that really turned my life around — he gave me a new future.”

Roots and Roofs

Jon was raised in Phoenix by parents living in active addiction. They often threw lewd house parties, inviting unsavory strangers into their home and putting Jon and his three siblings at risk. And one night, the unthinkable happened.

“We were molested,” he said. “My parents didn’t know it, but that happened to every one of us kids — my sister, my two brothers and me.”Jon’s parents divorced when he was 14 and his mother was given full custody of the kids. But she spent most of her money feeding her addiction and neglected to feed and clothe Jon and his siblings.“One day Social Services came through the front door and I crawled out the back window and left,” he said. “They took the other three kids, but I avoided that.”That was the moment Jon’s life on the streets began. He survived, but quickly fell into addiction. He moved from marijuana to alcohol and on to speed, attempting to bandage the wounds of his youth.

“Part of my addiction was escape,” he said. “It was a way to numb out and forget about my past.”

Jon hitchhiked around the country working construction. He left Phoenix for southern California before ending up in Minnesota, where he tried to settle down. He met a girl, had a daughter and started a roofing business. But when the relationship went south and the drugs took hold, he gave it all up and hit the road.“I had two companies that I lost to my addiction,” he said. “I ended up in a hotel room in Columbus, Georgia, and I tried to commit suicide. I overdosed six times in two days — self-inflicted by shooting drugs — but I kept coming to.”After the failed suicide attempt, Jon decided once again to skip town. He bought an Atlas, closed his eyes and plopped his finger down on the page. The verdict was Colorado Springs.

New Life, New Wife

Jon graduated the New Life Program in 2004 and became an active member of his church. That’s where he met Tracy, who has since become his wife and the mother of his children.

“Now, I have people who love me very much,” he said. “It’s not about me anymore. It’s about my kids, it’s about my wife, it’s about a whole lot of other people with needs that we can help. It’s about putting others first.”Jon and his wife run a successful remodeling business, as well as a nonprofit called Sock It Too ‘Em, which distributes socks to homeless men and women in Colorado Springs. He’s rekindled his relationship with his once-estranged daughter and is busy raising a two young kids (a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl).These days, his life is about giving back. He tries hard to be a good family man, he comes back to support and encourage current men in the New Life Program and he hits the streets of downtown Colorado Springs three days a week to provide warm socks to homeless neighbors.Jon says his secret to success and sobriety is simple: Support from Jesus, family and friends.

“I’d say that we have a great future,” he said. “God has really blessed us.”

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