“Hi Ray, how are you?”

This simple question saved a life. Ray Hopper was on his way to buy a gun - part of a desperate plan to end his drug addiction. He wasn’t going to kill himself, he was going to kill a troublesome drug dealer hoping that in doing so, he’d end up in prison so he could kick his drug habit and start his life over again.

“Hi Ray, how are you?”

It took him a moment to recognize the young woman, the daughter of an AA member he’d met years ago during another attempt to break free from addiction. It was a pivotal moment.

“It dawned on me that there was another way to get clean and sober,” he recalls. “That’s when I decided to go to church.”

That decision saved both the dealer’s life and his own. Ray visited Sherbrooke Mennonite Church where over the next several years he would be befriended, challenged, shown love and given back his sense of dignity and self-worth.

Ray’s past experiences with church had not been positive. After years of being sent from foster home to foster home where he was told that he would "never attain any sort of goodness that would make him acceptable to God," Ray began to hate God and God's people. He trusted nobody except himself and would use fear to manipulate and control others.

Eventually Ray ended up addicted to cocaine and in trouble with the law. On the day he entered Sherbrooke Mennonite church, Ray was at the end of his rope.

"I felt depleted, completely bankrupt and defeated and I was not a pretty sight,” he recalls. “I had a scar on my face, I smelled really bad, and I was very anxious and scared. I thought God would see me in church and punish me. I expected to drop dead as I walked up the aisle. You see, the only thing I had done with my life was to use people, to instill fear in others to control them."

To his surprise, the people at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church made him feel welcomed right away. Church members reached out to him by giving him a room in their homes. He even spent time in the home of Garry Janzen, the pastor at Sherbrooke.

“I could not believe that Garry would take me to his home to stay with his family,” Ray says.

Over the next few years, others in the church also provided him with a place to stay, supporting him emotionally and spiritually. Through one of their fellowship groups, Ray came to faith in Christ.

One of the things that had been nagging at Ray's conscience since coming to Sherbrooke was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Ray was persuaded to turn himself in and Garry went with him to the police station. They made a number of trips to see a lawyer and to attend hearings.

Eventually Ray was sentenced to six months in prison. After serving part of his sentence he was released on electronic monitoring and was offered a place to stay in the home of a family in the church. While staying there Ray started doing drugs again, transgressed the monitoring rules and was sent back to prison, where he ended up in a fight that sent him to solitary confinement – the “hole.”

Reflecting back on this event Ray says, "It was when I was in the hole that I realized nothing had changed. So many people in the church had helped me and I had messed it up. I had taken people's help but I had not done my part. That's when I decided that I had to get serious."

After his release from prison, Garry directed Ray to a drug rehabilitation program that helped him understand his addiction, as well as his relationship with other people and with God. During this time he developed a strong desire to study the Bible and when he completed the drug recovery program, Sherbrooke Mennonite Church paid his way to attend a semester of Bible school.

Five years later, life has not been without its set backs, but Ray has stuck with his decision. Today he runs a successful business on Vancouver Island. The people at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church hold a special place of affection in Ray's heart.

"Without them, there is no way that I had a chance. They were my stepping-stones and each person played a part. I believe that God works through people. They showed me love and helped me develop relationships with people and with God. They helped me believe that I was worthy of God's love, even as ugly as I felt."

You’ve read how the encounter with Sherbrooke Mennonite Church changed Ray’s life but his experience also had an effect on the church. Because of their journey with Ray and others like him, Garry and the people at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church have developed a vision for a drug rehabilitation ministry.

"We were pretty naive in the beginning, we just loved Ray and he respected that," Garry says but adds that they have also realized that they can't support people with addictions on their own. In their efforts to assist people with addictions, they have found that there is a shortage of drug recovery services.

Sherbrooke is now working together with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Killarney Park Mennonite Brethren Church, First United Mennonite Church, Vancouver Mennonite Brethren Church and Hope for Freedom Society in order to establish a new drug recovery program in Vancouver called "Place of Refuge".

Reflecting on the need for this new ministry, Garry says, "We often have people come into the church seeking help to start their lives over - to leave a pattern of destructive living and return to a constructive lifestyle. We are convinced that the need is real and that we can help."

We ask for your prayers and support to help get this new ministry started.