When Shane is asked about starting the Rescue Mission Alliance Central Coast, he pushes back. “I didn’t do it, God did. He just used me,” Shane said. “Sometimes you’re a tool and you don’t even know it. That was 15 years ago. Now I’m back as a client.”

Shane, born and raised in Santa Maria, had always been a drinker, but after his marriage failed it got worse. Shane needed help, and he got it at the Ventura County Rescue Mission in Oxnard. After he completed the life recovery program, he came back to Santa Maria.

“I was thinking, ‘Why don’t we have this in Santa Maria?” Shane said. “I went and talked to some people at some churches and they brought in other people to hear the story of a guy who wanted to start a rescue ministry, and it really just took off.” But Shane never takes the credit. “The Lord just put me on fire about the whole idea. I was just talking, talking, talked myself right into it. My mom and my sister were involved and their friends and our community churches here in the area. I’m glad I was a part of it, but I didn’t do it. The churches did it. God did this.”

Shane even went with a pastor into the triplex that would house the program men and took out walls, reconfiguring the space. Once the mission got started, an executive director was hired and moved into the triplex. As the mission began to grow, he realized he needed help and turned to the Rescue Mission Alliance. Not long after that, the boards decided to merge the organizations together.

The Rescue Mission Alliance Central Coast became part of the Rescue Mission Alliance, which also includes the Ventura County, Victor Valley, and San Fernando Valley missions, as well as the Valley Food Bank.

After graduating the Ventura County program, Shane was clean four years before he slipped. After some time “living fast, and living selfishly,” Shane knew he needed to get help again. “I was afraid. Because of my history with this program, my involvement, I just thought, ‘How do I walk through those doors and say, ‘I want to join the program.’?” It was Shane’s nephew that talked sense into him. “My nephew said, ‘If God helped you build that place, he did you a favor. Go back and revisit.’ I just knew he was right. I had to get that from my nephew.”

Shane acknowledges his struggles and, about six months into the program again, he is hopeful. What’s next for him? “Sobriety for the rest of my life,” Shane said with a good-natured laugh. “When I finish the program, I don’t know what I want to do, and I’m not worried about it. That’s another thing about being a Christian. If you’re giving yourself to God, whatever He wants, I’m fine with it.”