/ericlong

Program Living Graduate: Eric Long

1/3/2019

"Before I came to Hope House, I didn’t have any direction in my life. I was a really angry person, and even worse, I was very close-minded. I had made a lot of mistakes in life out of misplaced loyalty, anger, reckless decisions, and I had no control over my life whatsoever. I started looking for places where I could get the help I needed to change.

Repeatedly, I was told by the people I trusted that they didn’t know what to do or that it wasn’t their job to help me. Things went so far that I ended up in jail, and that’s where I met Jon Calloway, Program Living Director at Hope House. I remember explaining that I had reached out to people and was consistently told that they couldn’t do anything to help me. I told him that I couldn’t take one more person saying it wasn’t their job to help me. He responded, “It is explicitly my job to help you,” and that’s exactly what he did.

Being shown a lot of direction from the Bible was a big part of what gave me enough peace to start putting things back together, realizing that I could take things one step at a time. There was a better way than doing everything on my own. In the past year, I’ve spent as much time as I possibly could in Bible study, and I became a Christian. I’ve been able to foster connections with people at Hope House and other Christians who were there for me and had enough patience to take the time to care and talk to someone like me. It has improved every area of my life.

I’m going to culinary school because I came to Hope House and graduated Jobs for Life. I’ve rebuilt relationships with members of my family because I’ve gained the humility and peace that allowed me to put those relationships back together in a Christ-like way. I’ve even joined Hope House, and I work here now as a Transportation Associate."