Today, Ben’s life looks different.  Fifteen months ago, he was battling addiction, feeling lost and hopeless. He’d lost his relationship with his daughter, lost his home and vehicle, and lost friends to overdose. He’d fought with survivor’s guilt… while many of his friends had lost their lives, Ben’s attempts to commit suicide by overdose had failed. 

 

All the while, the Nazarene church was sending him letters in the mail reminding him that they missed him. At his worst, he came back to the altar of their church. He tried one more time to make it on his own, but found himself battling addiction again. Finally, his pastor connected him to Rebuilt Recovery and Discipleship. 

 

His glasses were broken on the way to Rebuilt R&D and when he arrived, he was hardly able to see. Another man in the program immediately offered him an extra pair of his own glasses, and miraculously they were the exact same prescription. He could see perfectly. Ben was on a new path, toward restoration.  

 

Not long after he arrived in Bloomfield, he started working on the coffee shop that was being finished below Rebuilt R&D. His long hours, cleaning and constructing, earned him an invitation to become one of ReJAVAnated’s first baristas.  

 

Now, with well over a year of sobriety, he is working there daily as the head barista. He’s also rebuilding his relationship with his daughter. He has been able to purchase, plate and insure a vehicle. He is playing the drums in the band at the Nazarene church, who never stopped sending him mail. Most importantly, Ben is closer to God than he has ever been. 

 

Ben says that his story is like the verse Joel 2:25 when God says, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…” Ben’s life is being restored. It is being rebuilt.