In a way, Wayne Cook was already dead — or wanted to be. “I was ready to end it all,” he says. “I was 50 years old, addicted to drugs, homeless on the streets, broken, and hopeless.”

Wayne struggled with drugs most of his life. He’d been to prison, in and out of countless rehabs, and hit rock bottom so many times he lost count. Nothing could change his race to the grave. “By 2009, I’d been living on the streets for a couple of years,” he recalls. “It was so bad, my only pillow was an old boot with a roll of toilet paper inside. Depression, guilt, and shame were killing me. Spiritually and emotionally, I was completely broken.”

One afternoon, he laid down to sleep on the sidewalk across from Atlanta Mission. He saw a crowd of men at Atlanta Mission’s gate and decided to check it out. That decision led him inside, where he found a safe bed and a hot meal. He’d been in a lot of shelters and rehabs before, but there was something different about Atlanta Mission. He decided to stay. And the longer he stayed, the more he opened up.

“It was like a Bible boot camp,” Wayne recalls. Over the next year, as Wayne grew in the Lord, and alive in Christ, his life slowly transformed. The transformation was so profound, Atlanta Mission equipped Wayne with hundreds of hours of training to serve on staff at Atlanta Mission and minister to other men who are seeking help here. A true professional, he builds relationships, offers encouragement, and connects them to services that can transform their lives, like his was transformed. He found his true calling, he says.

Wayne remembers when he was “dead” on the streets. Now he celebrates his new life every day. And he knows his new life is possible for one reason: Easter. Christ’s resurrection. “If Jesus Christ didn’t rise again, none of this would be possible,” he says. Jesus spiritually raised Wayne from the “dead.” But your gifts led him to Jesus. Thank you.