Stories of Transformation

God is continually at work at The Lamb Center transforming the lives of our guests. The stories below are indicative of those of literally hundreds of men and women whose experience at TLC resulted in major positive life changes. The names are fictitious, but the stories are true.

Vickie has been a guest at the Lamb Center for almost two years. Even with a consistent employment, she lost her housing twice because she lacked sufficient income to make rent payments. Vickie came to TLC regularly to seek counseling and spiritual direction. Recently, a Single Room Occupancy space opened up through Fairfax County's affordable housing program. Because of Vickie's persistence at getting and holding a job, her income was sufficient to qualify. Vickie recently shared this prayer with us at Bible Study:

Sam has been at TLC off and on for almost four years. During that time, he went through a number of treatment programs, but he had trouble staying sober and keeping a job. As a Navy veteran, he had been working with the VA to get into its recovery program, but was unable to do so. He heard about the success another guest, Dave, had with sobriety at a Church Army program in Branson, Missouri and asked if we could send him there. We did. After being in Branson for about a month, Sam called to let us know that he is sober and doing very well in his recovery program. He told us of the fear and tears he had the day he left to go to Missouri. Even though his fear of change was great, his desire for a change in his life was greater.

Before William was incarcerated, he was told he needed to enter an alcohol and drug recovery program before his court date. Although William received several one on one counseling sessions at TLC about necessary steps to recovery, he not only failed to enter a recovery program, but also missed his court date. From behind bars William wrote that he had about six or seven weeks left before completing a recovery program there. He said he had "never actually looked at alcohol or drug abuse as a disease" and that "threw him for a loop." William went on to write: "Thank you for all the help and support that you have always given me and other Lamb Center guests, I just could not recognize and would not take hold of the life raft that you were throwing out to save me until I came to jail. Tell others my story and pray they will grab TLC raft to recovery".

Johnny is one of those people with an "attitude of gratitude." He came to TLC and focused right away on obtaining employment. Sometimes we think that a person who is unemployed and has lost everything would find it difficult to be grateful. Often waiting in line for lunch, Johnny talked about how much he appreciated TLC and the volunteers who listen and are so helpful. With our job counseling support Johnny's efforts resulted in a job at Red, Hot and Blue. He also has a scholarship at NOVA Community College to study heating and air conditioning. Johnny's story has motivated other guests to seek job counseling and work hard at getting a job of their own.

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