Matthew's Freedom Story

If you met Matthew today, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t guess his past. A man with his life devoted to God doesn’t reflect the life of a man once addicted to drugs.

Matthew was living a life he thought he had under control. However, when financial hardships became too much, he turned to drugs to keep himself going physically so he could work numerous jobs.

“I was just sort of running my own race. I thought I could figure it all out. That I could do everything on my own,” Matthew says.

All too soon he found drugs consuming and threatening his life. “Everything was just surrounded by the addiction,” he says.

Matthew checked himself into the St John of God Hospital in Sydney and was there for seven weeks. However, when he was told he was right to leave, he knew he wasn’t ready to go home. “It felt like my first day of school,” he says.

Thankfully, a social worker from the hospital referred him to The Salvation Army’s William Booth House in Surry Hills.

“Going from a private hospital into William Booth House was a real freak out because I didn’t know what to expect,” says Matthew. “And I got everything I didn’t expect. Like people that didn’t even want to be there but needed a room for the night.”

After a few weeks, Matthew eventually found himself at the Miracle Haven Rehabilitation Centre in January 2006. During the 10-month program, he began attending weekly church services at Bonnell’s Bay Corps.

“Even though the Corps all knew who I was, they didn’t treat me any different,” says Matthew.

Matthew also began attending programs run through the Corps that were offered to the public. He also began to meet people who had their own battles in their lives that couldn’t be fixed in a rehab.

“It was eye-opening to see people out there in society, without a so-called addiction, that were getting their lives together too. So it made me feel much more a part of society, and I realised everybody in society had problems. Everybody’s in recovery in one way or another.”

Today, Matthew has a full life in Christ, free from the bondage of his addiction. He is grateful for the guidance he can give to people going through the same rehabilitation that he did.

“It’s about being able to have the free will that He’s given us to go out and help other people in the same situation. These days I pray about everything and worry about nothing.”

Photo Caption: Matthew, who has been through The Salvation Army’s Miracle Haven Bridge Program, now lives a full life in Christ.

Photo Credit: Supplied by Matthew