My name is Seth. I am 28 years old, born in Merced, California, and I grew up in Le Grand. At a young age, my siblings and I were taken from my mom. We moved in with my dad at my grandparent’s house. My dad was always gone working, and when he was home, he was sleeping because he worked a lot of hours. I have a lot of great memories of my childhood with my dad, but there was always something I constantly missed, the presence of my mother. I always missed her, and it was very rare when I was able to speak to her or see her. As I got older, I knew when she was trying to get custody of my brother and me because I would hear family members that answered the phone start yelling at the phone saying, “Don’t ever call here again”, followed by a lot of name-callings.
In school I found myself getting bullied constantly for being chubby. I started playing sports, and when I got into middle school I was playing football, basketball, and baseball. In my junior year of high school following football games, I began partying with friends and began drinking, and smoking marijuana.
Not long after graduation I moved out of my dad’s house and began working a full-time job at Live Oak Farms. A few months into working I moved in with a co-worker/friend. Week’s after moving in, I was introduced to methamphetamine. Little did I know my life would be a downhill spiral. I found myself in my first serious relationship, got engaged, and moved to Gustine with my pregnant fiancé. I continued to get deeper into my addiction. Over the next two years, my fiancé and I lost two sons in childbirth. We separated, and I packed up and moved back to Merced.
After living with my mom for four months and having some clean time, I went back to living the fast nightlife and being a drug addict. Over the next six years, my relationship with my family was torn. I was homeless, riding around town with two backpacks and my guitar on my little BMX bike.
On October 23, 2019, I walked into the Merced County Rescue Mission desiring and willing to do what I had to do to turn my life around. During my intake, Warren Cornelio asked me, “Do you believe in the higher power of Jesus Christ?” I knew about God, but I never accepted Jesus into my life. At that moment I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I am now going on having 9 months clean. I am now an employee for the Merced County Rescue Mission as a peer navigator in the Hope for Men program. I am engaged to be a beautiful, God-fearing woman, and God has also blessed me with the opportunity to be a father to three beautiful children whom I love like they were my own.
I thank God every day for allowing me to live another day and for giving me the opportunity to help people change their lives just like the Rescue Mission helped me find God and gave me the structure in my life that I needed. God continues to work in my life every day. I am proud to say that I am a child of God, and I will never forget the great things that the Rescue Mission has taught me.
Seth, MCRM Hope for Men graduate