Juan’s Story of Resilience and Hope

His mom already lost in addiction, and his dad, a truck driver, was rarely home. “I had to experience and go through all the pain and trauma of my mom,” he says. “She was very abusive.”

After his parents divorced and shared custody, Juan hoped things would improve. Instead, his mom’s abusive boyfriend shot him in the knee with a 12-gauge. When Juan went to school the next day with visible wounds, CPS was called.

By the time he was 11 or 12, it was finally time for him to speak in front of a judge. But a week before the court date, his mom told him that if he chose to live with his dad, she would kill herself.

Juan chose to stay with his dad.

A week later, his mother died by suicide.

Soon after, his dad was diagnosed with hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, and diabetes—but he kept working. Juan did too. He worked, finished high school, and proved his perseverance through it all.

From 2015 to 2020, he served as a volunteer firefighter. But when he was 20, tragedy struck again—his dad was killed in a hit-and-run accident. “I lost a best friend.”

At 21, Juan followed in his dad’s path and became a truck driver.

Eventually, he left trucking and moved back to Tucson to live with a family member. But once again, he found himself in a dangerous situation. “My roommate was using fentanyl.” After everything he had experienced with his mom’s addiction, he knew he had to get away.

That’s when he came to Gospel Rescue Mission.

GRM became a turning point—but even this journey took time. “The first time I came here was in March,” he says. He left, thinking he had another job lined up, but instead found himself stranded in New Mexico.

He returned to Gospel Rescue Mission in August.

This time, something deeper began to change.

At GRM, Juan enrolled in the culinary program and graduated. He began to build something new— a sense of purpose.

He shares that he is now “closer to God by His grace and His mercy.”

Juan knows that even though “change is painful,” it is worth it.