Recovery with Freedom Life
By Jim Smith
McDowell County
As 2022 comes to an end, we want to take a moment to thank you for all your kindness and support. Your frequent donations helped us give reentry families and individuals a new start. To this day for 2022, we have served over 250 clients across the McDowell region with not only life coaching, housing, and job placement they needed urgently but also hope and happiness.
Let me introduce you to Ashley and her two boys. Ashley started using substances at 14 years old. She would be around good people and then would shift to people that were a negative influence. 
This battle went on for several years. Ashley held things together for a good while and was able to begin a college journey. Soon after she lost her grandma and it pushed her back to substance abuse. As with most users, there comes a time to seek a bigger high. This led to her experimenting with hard drugs. During this phase of her life, she began her journey to “rock bottom.” She lost her kids in a custody battle and soon after went to prison. While incarcerated, she began to reflect on her life choices and relationships. She realized that she needed to return to her walk in her Christian faith. God used Freedom Life to give Ashley the boost she needed to overcome her fears of rejection and failure. Ashley enrolled in the program, attended group meetings, life coaching, and counseling, and was housed in the Freedom Life women’s transitional house. Fast forward many months later and Ashley is doing well and has both her boys in her life! She now has her own place to live as well as her own car. Her kids are involved in the community and sports. Ashley is working full-time at a restaurant. She would like to be a full-time peer support specialist in her life career, in moving toward that goal she is a mentor at the McDowell county jail. Ashley has just received her certification as a peer support specialist through Vaya Health and graduated from the Freedom Life Program on November 18th.
At Freedom Life, we see so many clients who want to return to help others. We believe there is a powerful movement happening when formerly incarcerated clients have a calling to help others out of the same trench. The is a calling and purpose in this powerful movement of recovery.
Hence, as we approach the joyous celebration of Christmas and New Year, we urge you to come forward and support more individuals and families that need the services we offer.
Freedom Life will be expanding our services into Avery and Yancey counties starting in January 2023. We are a 501 3c nonprofit ministry and we cannot sustain our services without donations from individuals, businesses, and churches. Please reach out if you would like more information about Freedom Life. We will send you information and meet with you or your organization to share the vision and insight about all the amazing things God is allowing us to do.
We have a goal of $15,000 to finish out our year. We received a matching challenge donation of $5000 toward this goal. You can double your donation by helping us with this goal through this first $5000 challenge. You can give by mailing a check, or going online and clicking donation in the top right corner.
Freedom Life Ministries, PO Box 1134 Marion, NC 28752 www.freedomlifeministries.org 828-559-2224
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Jim Smith is an area Worship Arts Director, He is the Development Director at Freedom Life Ministries, and runs a production company – wjscreativegroup.com
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