Poland
Friends, your support of the New Life Center in Poland has made these incredible stories possible!
Jacek, 50: Why the New Life Center Succeeded After Two Failed Attempts in Rehab
My name is Jacek. I am 50 years old and I come from Wielkopolska. I arrived at the New Life Center in August this year.
I come from a poor family. My father abused alcohol, which he did not notice. Often, he got into verbal, physical altercations with my mother.
At this point, I made up my mind never to touch alcohol. In my youth, I never drank - even though I encountered it often in the army and could have easily abused it.
After leaving the army, I got married. Initially, everything was fine - we had five kids, I was busy with work - drinking never crossed my mind.
After about 10 years of marriage, life got mundane. I started drinking.
Then I drank some more. It became an habit.
Everything started to fall apart. Eventually after 15 years of marriage, I divorced. After these events, I completely turned away from God. It appeared God didn't exist at this point. It was convenient to blame Him for everything.
I started to drink without moderation.
I lost interest in everything, including my children, my parents. It was all about the drink.
As a result of this, I was in and out of jobs. This habit contributed to getting myself a court order of 8 months imprisonment and suspended for 2 years. I was assigned a probation officer. I lost my work license.
Twice in 2010, I went into rehab. Only because I felt I had to do "something," but I did not know exactly what.
I had my final treatment in Krakow, which finished after 7 months. I stopped drinking for 3 years. I felt confident. I was pretty sure I did not need God's or anyone's help. I have it all other control. Or so I thought.
I was lying to myself. I was soon drinking again. After sometime, I returned to rehab. Then I fell ill with cancer of the left lung. I lost
consciousness. All was not well with me.
God gave me a second chance, and after a year and a half of this disease, I returned to good health, but I started drinking again. I drank for 6 months, I lost my job, apartment, landed on the street. Same cycle.
Yet again, I started therapy in Gniezno, I was able to secure a well-paid job. But this time was different; I received an offer to come to the New Life Center.
Thank God I chose the NLC.
I regained inner peace. My faith in God and Jesus Christ was renewed.
Right now, I'm rebuilding a relationship with God.
NLC's inclusion of God's Word - the Bible, gave me a new perspective of life. Made me look soberly and rationally on my previous life.
Now, I do not drink. I'm rebuilding my confidence, and subsequently hope to repair the wrongs that have done to other people, to rebuild contact with my children.
This is now my main goal in life - to serve God with humility and patience.
I believe that I can now achieve social and spiritual stability - through "HIM who strengthens me."
Henryk, 65: Walking Away from Alcohol After 20 Years
My name is Henryk and I am 65 years old. I have been an alcoholic for around 20 years of my life.
In my life, I have had two very long spells of non stop alcohol abuse: once for about three years, the second after I lost my mother - which went on for over four years. I was drunk day and night.
In December of 2015, I got some of my mind back and decided to come to the New Life Center.
Here, you learn how to regain sobriety, and more importantly, learn the basics and benefits of forging a relationship with God. This was a part of my life that was really lacking; I felt lonely - it was me against the world.
Now I have peace and joy. My dream is to live a life firmly rooted in a strong relationship with God. I believe without God, I am nothing.
I now go to work in the same place with a friend from here - Waclaw.
Together we cycle a few kilometres everyday. I feel like my life is headed in a new direction now. Now I have HOPE.
