Kim’s Success Story

Kim Hunsaker: Sober, Employed, and Living in Southern Utah

When I came to the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake four years ago, I didn’t believe in God. Today, with over four years of sobriety under my belt, I depend on Him regularly to help me and guide me through this often difficult world.

I came to the Rescue Mission as a broken woman, who had suffered through many traumas. I was escaping an abusive relationship, but even before that, my heart had broken.

A DIFFICULT 15 YEARS

In 2003, as a young mother with little support, I decided to place my son, who was 18 months old, for adoption to keep him away from an abusive father. While I believe this was the best decision for my son, it broke my heart to part with him.

Five years later my mother was killed in a head-on collision where her bones were broken from head to toe. I felt like God had taken her in such a hard and brutal way that I stopped believing in Him. I didn’t see how He could allow something like that to happen.

In 2013 I was married and had an eight-year-old daughter, but my husband was using drugs so often that I decided to leave him. I was also using drugs at the time and eventually had to sign away my parental rights, allowing my daughter to be adopted.

It was 2014 and I felt like a failure. Before she died, I had made my mother a promise that I would do everything I could to keep my daughter (her granddaughter) with me. In my heart, I believed I had failed not only my dead mother but my daughter too.

As I spiraled into deeper despair, my life fell apart, into addiction and homelessness. I was using meth and my day-to-day life consisted of, “what can I do to get some meth today.” I slept in fields or wherever I could find a place for the night.

Then, four years ago, I decided to seek help at the Ogden Rescue Mission. Something clicked in me. I was tired of life. I was tired of doing the things I was doing. I asked the Mission if they could help me, and they welcomed me in.

A CHANGED LIFE

Since coming to the Ogden Rescue Mission, God has changed my life. I was able to learn how to work again, doing work therapy jobs inside the Mission. I helped our homeless female guests check in and obtain beds and other resources. I felt like my work was making a difference, but I also saw how hard it was for women living on the streets and knew I never wanted to go back.

Through the counseling and Bible studies I came to believe in God. I learned He didn’t hate me, but had always been there to comfort and console me through my heartbreaks. I opened my heart and started praying to Him, asking Him to take my sorrows away and keep me sober for one more day. Then I prayed the same thing the next day.

As I depended on God and His Son Jesus, I found I could stay sober and could even have joy, despite my past pains.

Still, when I was just about to graduate from the Rescue Mission’s program, my father was hit and killed in an auto-pedestrian accident. Through my time of sobriety at the Rescue Mission I had rebuilt my relationship with my brothers who lived in Hurricane, Utah. I called them and said I couldn’t live in Ogden any longer. There were too many bad memories for me there.

I was blessed when they said I could come live near them and have their support. Today, I live with my older brother in Hurricane. My younger brother along with many of my nieces and nephews lives a short distance away and are a great joy to me.

I have a good job at a popular truck stop and regularly attend recovery meetings that help me address ongoing issues and stay sober. I have reached out to both my son and daughter, who are both adults now, and hope to have them be a part of my life in the future. Still, I understand their hesitancy to have a relationship with me but trust God will heal those relationships when the time is right.

Please pray that I would continue to stay sober, stay on track, and be able to reconnect with my children. Thank you so much for supporting the Ogden Rescue Mission and providing a place where God could change my life. I don’t know where I would be today without your support.