Cherry Street Mission

At age 5, Gerrie’s voice was so remarkable that she was leading songs on Sunday mornings at the
church she attended with her parents. But when her mom and dad separated four years later, her life took a much different path. There was no more church, no more warm family dinners together. Instead, by age 11, Gerrie was using alcohol and drugs to escape reality.

Over the years, she engaged in prostitution and theft to support her habit, eventually going to prison when she was 18. Despite many attempts to achieve and maintain sobriety—including several stays at the Sparrow’s Nest—Gerrie never could fully escape her addiction.

“The first time I came to Cherry Street was in my early 30s,” Gerrie, now 55, explained. “I had just gotten out of prison. I’d been sober for 10 years, but I relapsed. I needed a place to get sober, so I stayed at the Nest for six months, got housing, and stayed sober for four years. But getting high has always been a way of life for me. Stress triggers it: trying to take on more than I can handle; trying to keep up with the Joneses; worrying about what people say about me; being lonely. I just wanted to escape.”

And so the destructive pattern repeated itself many times—until August 2010.

“I was homeless, hanging around the corner from The Oaks,” Gerrie recalled. “Staff and friends I’d made at the Nest would stop and tell me how much they loved me. They fed me, prayed with me, even pulled me out of people’s houses when I was getting high. I’d been praying, and God gave
me a flash: I realized that I was tired of acting stupid, looking stupid, and feeling stupid. I threw my crack pipe down the drain, walked around the corner, rang the doorbell at The Oaks, and told them I needed help.”

Today, Gerrie has been clean and sober for 18 months and is in Phase 2, the Restore stage, of our Ready For Life program. Trained as a cosmetologist, she recently had her license renewed and is working at a salon.

“What’s different in my sobriety this time is my relationship with God,” Gerrie stressed. “I’m on my knees, praying, learning about His promises, reading His Word. I relate [my relationship with God] to my drug addiction, which started out small but got big. I figured if I started out little with God and stayed on this road, my relationship with Him would grow big.

“ ‘I know that I know that I know’ that I don’t ever have to get high again. I don’t have to sell my body anymore. I don’t have to get stressed over things.
I’ve found joy. I’ve found peace.”

And once again, Gerrie is in church, singing on Sunday mornings.