Stories of Changed Lives

A Life Transformed

“I have pretty much felt hopeless all my life,” confesses Dawn, a mother of three who found refuge at Cornerstone Manor, Buffalo City Mission’s shelter for women and children.

From her earliest memories, Dawn’s life has been shrouded in darkness.  Her father abused her physically, emotionally and sexually, and her mother was a drug addict.

Dawn dropped out of school at 16, and at 18 was pregnant and married.  She abandoned her child and husband to feed a growing addiction to methamphetamine. 

“I was only 19, and I had crashed to the bottom,” Dawn recalls.  She successfully walked away from her addiction to drugs, but instead became addicted to sex.  “I just wanted someone to love me,” she says.

Since coming here, Dawn’s life completely changed.  “Cornerstone has given me hope,” says Dawn, who arrived at our door pregnant and another child in tow.  “Before, I was walking in darkness by myself.  Now I am walking with God in the light.”

At the Mission, Dawn’s life has been transformed.  She is a miracle, as are many other homeless men, women and children who find new life here.