January 2022 Newsletter

Sobriety Through Love & Compassion

“I want to be a story of hope, because I was hopeless.”    — Kimber Walton

Every Sunday morning, Kimber Walton leads an outreach team to visit people camping under the Washington-Jefferson Street Bridge near the skate park.

“I understand these people on a very personal level,” says Kimber. “I am passionate about helping people see a way out.” 

The outreach effort includes a service that is lovingly called “Dirt Church” and a barbeque lunch open to all. Kimber encourages them to try a Celebrate Recovery meeting at
City First Church just a few blocks away.

“Celebrate Recovery is how I ended up at the Eugene Mission,” says David Helder, a recent graduate of the Eugene Mission’s Life Change Program. “I met Kimber there, and she kept coming back to me. I decided to listen to her and go to the Mission.” 

Kimber understands, as her own lived experience with addiction once cost her everything.

“I missed my daughter’s entire senior year in high school,” shares Kimber. “She would have nothing to do with me for 18 months.”

Kimber came to the Eugene Mission’s Life Change Program after hitting rock bottom, almost completely cut off from family and friends.

“My mother was searching for me and found me in a storage unit where I had taken what few belongings I had left,” says Kimber. “She urged me to go to the Eugene Mission, and I did.”

Kimber spent her first two weeks at the Mission talking with Life Change staff and pondering the commitment of a yearlong relapse-prevention program.

“My mother encouraged me, but the staff knew the program would be fruitless unless I truly acknowledged my addiction and was ready to change,” explains Kimber.

“The ideal applicant recognizes that they are ready to surrender to the fact that they cannot do life on their own any longer,” says Life Change Program Director Denver Harris. “We are talking about not just being abstinent but living ‘sober-minded.’”

Kimber is frank about her youth and upbringing and the effect it had on her life and choices.

“I was born to parents that were 17,” she shares. “My dad had uncles who started him drinking at a very young age. He loved to go to bars, play shuffleboard and fight. My mother was one of seven children who sought her mother’s attention while fighting off the unwanted attention of her own father.”

At school, Kimber was an exceptional student and achiever. She was offered an athletic scholarship to college and appeared to have a bright future. But like her mother, she found herself pregnant at age 17.

“My mom’s boyfriend kicked me out when my baby was three months old,” shares Kimber. 

By sheer will and the grace of God, Kimber graduated from high school and applied to Trend Business College where she obtained certificates in legal and executive office administration. Kimber experienced success in her career with jobs in office administration and court reporting. Kimber also married her children’s father and endured domestic violence that negatively impacted her and her children. When Kimber decided to end her marriage and the cycle of abuse, her husband took his life. Kimber found herself a single parent with three young children. 

“When the recession hit in 2008, I was laid off,” she says. “I had worked so hard for so long for everything. I had, I just gave up.” 

The devastation brought back the disappointment and worthless feelings of her youth, Kimber turned to alcohol and ultimately, methamphetamine. Over the course of an eight-year addiction, Kimber’s house was foreclosed on, she lost her car, her children left, and she encountered legal issues and a DUII. It all seemed so hopeless. 

“I came to the Eugene Mission to get sober,” shares Kimber. “What I found was not what I expected. I found love and compassion. I met strangers who loved me. I found friends who I still talk to every day. I learned the power of prayer and the healing love of the God who created me.”

Today Kimber is five years sober from methamphetamine, alcohol and cigarettes. Kimber works full-time at Imperial Floors and has a local pastor’s license. She is studying to become ordained while serving as the leader of Celebrate Recovery at City First Church.

“When I completed the (Life Change) program, it was Mother’s Day and my daughter brought me flowers,” says Kimber, breaking into a huge smile. “Sobriety is a choice. I don’t take that for granted. I am active in my recovery every single day.”

Amen.

From Hopeless to Housing

“Some people come to the Eugene Mission because there is nobody left,” says Pamela Wilson. “When I was brought to the Mission, I felt like garbage being thrown away. I was so ashamed.” 

Pamela Wilson is college-educated. She was employed with housing when a series of catastrophic circumstances, including diabetic retinopathy, temporary blindness, partial leg amputation, death of a spouse, kidney failure, cancer—and the surgery and treatments thereof—derailed her future.

“I was so ill, both physically and emotionally, when I arrived,” shares Pamela. “Over the course of my stay here, the changes in me are unbelievable. Both in my physical health and my mental health.”

Pamela notes that participation in the R³ Program helped her take her physical health seriously and develop better eating and self-care habits.

“I am sick and tired of letting this define me,” she says. “I am disabled but I am not my disability. I can do things. I am useful.”

With better control of her medical conditions, Pamela has learned to walk with her prosthesis and her eyesight is improving.

Just this week, we celebrated the good news that Pamela qualifies for a housing program for the chronically homeless with disabilities and will be moving into her own apartment. Way to go Pamela! We knew you could do it!