Andrew has been getting in trouble since he was a kid, but he doesn’t want anyone blaming his family. “I came from a really good family. My aunts and uncles were all close, and we’d go to grandma’s on Sundays for dinner. My parents were always there for me. My dad was at every (sports) practice growing up, and my mom was in the bleachers at every game.”

Andrew is dyslexic, and he thinks that’s why he started acting out in school. “I was always shielding that from people, and making fun of other kids to feel better about myself,” he said.

He started smoking marijuana as a kid, before switching to meth when he was 16. “Growing up, I looked up to my brother and his friends,” Andrew said. “I knew they smoked weed so I got a weed pipe. I got in trouble for it at school—I hadn’t even smoked yet. But I was treated as a drug addict. At that young age, to have that label slapped on you in sixth grade—it was hard.”

When he was 19, Andrew went to rehab, and two years later, he had a good job, a steady girlfriend and had moved out of his parents’ house. But after his best friend was shot by police during a drug deal, Andrew struggled. He was arrested for drug trafficking and a DUI, and went to jail. The silver lining was that he detoxed from drugs. “I didn’t sleep for 30 days, but I kicked it,” Andrew said. “I was relieved to be there almost. I didn’t have the stress that I had outside.”

After two-and-a-half years of sobriety, Andrew relapsed. “Within six months, I lost everything I had gained: relationships, my self-respect. I wanted it back so bad. … One day, I heard this voice—‘Something greater than you. Something greater than this.’”

Andrew wanted a change of scenery. “I needed to go back to a program, and I don’t know why, but I really wanted to go to Denver.” But probation terms meant staying in the state. When he got to the mission, Andrew met the program manager, Chris, who had recently moved from his post—at the Denver Rescue Mission. “I knew I had to leave where I was, and go start a new life. Then I find out Chris had left his hometown and had come here to start a new life. It’s that little connection that I recognized right away. … They say this is where God met me, but I think this is where God brought me.”

As for the future, Andrew is letting God lead him. “Sure, I have goals and dreams. I want a family. I want a new life. But I have to put God in the middle of it. I was a drug addict, but the addiction was just a symptom. I was acting up long before I was getting high. It’s a spiritual issue. Can God fix me? Yeah. But I need to put in the work, too. Then he’ll meet me where I’m at.”