Stories of Changed Lives

God Wasn't Finished with Me Yet!

Punishing winds tore through Bill Lacy’s thin jacket and sweat pants as he walked the train tracks from Utica to Syracuse in a full-blown blizzard.  “I remember asking God to let me go to sleep and die, but He wasn’t finished with me yet,” he says. 

Bill’s journey was just one of many attempts to leave drugs behind.  “I couldn’t take hurting my family again or myself for that matter.  So one day I just woke up and started walking.  I was smoked-out drunk and felt less than human with no money left.”

The change of location didn’t result in the change of lifestyle Bill had hoped for, and months later he began walking again—this time to Buffalo.  “I was starving, wet, dirty and smelly.  Whenever I was on the brink of giving up, God showed up in strangers who gave me money or something to eat.”

 Once in Buffalo, Bill came to Buffalo City Mission where he found shelter, a hot shower, fresh clothing and three meals a day!  Chaplains told him about the GEM recovery program, but, says Bill, “I didn’t try it with my whole heart—I just wanted out of the cold.  When you give half, you get half … and I fell again.”

Today, Bill is grateful our Men’s Center staff was patient with him.  “Thank God they showed mercy on me and gave me another chance.  That’s when I let God in my heart.  Today I live to serve Him in any way I can.  I am a new creature.  I love the Lord and everything He is doing for me.”

The journey to new life was tough for Bill and he hopes to help others avoid the pitfalls he endured.  “I want to tell them they don’t have to go down that road.  It’s a dead end,” he says.

Buffalo City Mission Men’s Center has been a place of welcome, peace and fellowship for Bill.  “I’m living with a bunch of guys trying to find the Lord in a city mission and I’ve never been more at peace.  I’m on a big blue cloud and while I still have trials, if I keep God first, I know there is blessing on the other side.”