Ed didn’t like himself much, so he wandered through much of his life flying under the radar — unseen, unknown, and alone.“I never met my dad,” he says. “And my mother abandoned me because she had a lot of difficulties. So my aunt raised me, but my uncle was kind of a mean guy. He put me down a lot and told me I’d never amount to anything. I think maybe that’s why I never thought I was good enough, and I was always looking for acceptance. To this day, it hurts that I don’t know my mom. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that.”From the age of 14, Ed felt drawn to the streets — along with alcohol and marijuana. After high school, he drifted from town to town, job to job, but never really going anywhere. Haunted by depression and loneliness, all he cared about was “drinking and partying. I didn’t think about life. Every morning, I woke up and my only thought was where I was going to get more weed.”Then, in 2005, he found crystal meth. “Meth really messed with my head. I thought everyone was against me. I was always in a fog,” he says.Finally, in August 2013, he ended up homeless. “I just didn’t care. I didn’t have anything to live up to,” he recalls. “I slept in front of the library, under the Cimarron bridge, by the park — just looking for places to camp.” He believed the lie his uncle had told him years before.

Focused on a New Life

But in January 2014, he came to Springs Rescue Mission. “From day one, I felt welcomed. I was surrounded by generous people who’d give me the shirt off their backs, who’d look me in the eye and say they love me. I’m not really used to that. But it motivated me to seek the happiness I was looking for my whole life. I’m learning that I matter and that God has a purpose for me.“The old Ed is gone. Now I’m focused on the new Ed and my new life. And it’s just starting.”