Joseph Fisher, 1932

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”

How I thank my God through Jesus Christ for setting me free from that awful habit of drink! Back in 1920 as a young policeman in Baltimore I became a victim of the habit. The craving grew worse until I lost that position and several others and finally my home and family.

An outcast, I struggled with the habit for ten long years, trying every available “cure” but finding nothing that would help me. At last I arrived in Washington, after traveling back from the West Coast bu freight train, and was told that I might find a place to stay at the Central Union Mission.

I attended the Gospel service at the mission that night and heard a man speak about a Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Cure. I knelt at the altar and asked Him to come into my life. When he came in, the habit went out. That was 17 years, 9 months, and 5 days ago. I stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made me free.

Joseph Thomas, 2009 A current resident of the Spiritual Transformation Program, Joseph Thomas tells his story of what brought him to the Mission, and how God was with him all along.

Phil 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

It all started when I was a little kid. I was abused sexually and mentally, until I couldn’t take it no more. It changed my whole thinking about life. What kind of God would let people do that to you?

So I started to lean on my own understanding of life. I wasn’t going to take it anymore. So I started to go to the dark side of life. I started hanging in the streets more. I would stop going to school, but when I did go I would leave early and take girls home with me and have sex with them, so I liked what I was doing. I found ways to get more girls, and one of the ways was drugs. So I was introduced to weed and crack. I smoked weed, but I sold crack.

This went on for 20 years until my mother passed of cancer in 2003. It started to change my thinking. While all this was going on I got locked up in 2005, and my brothers kept my money and drugs for me. But while I was in I asked God to get rid of that stuff for me and He did.

But when I got out something else happened…Everybody who I thought had my back stopped caring about me when they found out I wasn’t doing that stuff anymore. I found myself homeless, and this lasted for a year.

Then one night I asked God to help me. The next morning a lady gave me a card to go to church, then at church I met a program man who worked at Central Union Mission and I have been here ever since.

Thanks to God, you see we can do all things.