Nearly eight years ago, Mary walked through Fresno Mission’s doors with a one-year-old on her hip and nowhere else to go. Today, she’s the one welcoming families in.
As a case manager at Fresno Mission’s Family Center, Mary sits across the desk from parents facing some of the hardest days of their lives. They’re often surprised by what she tells them next.
“I’ll be upfront with you,” she says. “I’ve been where you are. I have my own history that I worked through.”
For Mary, that honesty is part of the job. She wants every family to know the person in their corner isn’t just someone paid to be there. She says,
“If I can do it, you definitely can do it as well.”
Mary isn’t the only one at Fresno Mission who can say that. Her husband, Keith, whom she met while they were both serving at Searcy Center, now meets people on their very first day of recovery as the center’s Program Coordinator. He knows that first step well, because he once took it himself.
Theirs is a story of two lives transformed at Fresno Mission, a family that began here, and what happens when the people who were once helped become the ones helping others.
Nowhere else to go
Mary grew up a self-described “daddy’s girl” who went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. Everything changed at 18, when a painful break with her father left her on her own. Searching for acceptance and security, she found herself in a cycle of abusive relationships and had begun to struggle with addiction.
By early 2019, that struggle had lasted about six years, she had been homeless, in and out of jail, and through three abusive relationships. Her daughter had just turned one.
“I was completely lost,” she said years ago. “I felt like God had forgotten me, and so I forgot about Him.”
One moment still stays with her. During a violent fight with her partner at the time, she looked over and saw her daughter playing quietly beside them, as if nothing was happening.
“All this chaos was happening around her, and she was getting used to it,” Mary says. “I remember thinking, I’ve got to get out of here.”
She was in drug court, testing weekly and attending counseling twice a week, determined to get better but unable to break free on her own. One day her counselor told her plainly that it wasn’t working. Then he told her about Fresno Mission’s residential recovery program, then called Rescue the Children (RTC) and known today as Searcy Center.
Mary had already been searching online for programs that would let her bring her daughter. All she found were expensive programs out of state. So her first question was most important to her: Could her daughter come with her?
The answer was yes. Mary did a phone interview that same day and was in the program about a week later.
“I had this one-year-old and nowhere to go with her. So I stayed.”
Finding peace
Mary cried her first night in the program. “Oh my gosh, what did I do?” she remembers thinking. Going back, though, wasn’t an option. That same night, the women had choir practice. Mary had never been one to put herself out there, but she didn’t want to sit alone in her room. So she signed up.
“I really put myself into it, and it was the best thing,” she says. “After a couple of weeks, I knew I’d made the right choice.“
Mary had grown up in church, but she says she never truly had a relationship with God until the program. Through chapel, classes, case management and on-site therapy, she began to see her past differently.
“Looking back at the choices I made, God was right there the whole time, protecting me,” she says. “Recognizing that for the first time showed me how close He’s always been.”
“The presence of God is so heavy in that place. Even on my hardest days, I still felt peace.”
There were hard days. On one of them, someone asked how long she had been in her addiction. Mary counted up the years. The answer that came back stayed with her: You gave all those years to drugs. You can give yourself 18 months.
Mary did and stayed the full 18 months. Along the way, she earned her high school diploma and began working at the SPCA. When Mary graduated, she moved into an apartment with her own name on the lease. She had a job and a car.
Not long before, she had been living on the street. “I was a whole different person,” she says. “God made a way the whole time.”
A tug on his heart
Keith’s journey to Fresno Mission began in one of the hardest seasons of his life. In November 2022, after serving time in prison, he found a new beginning at Fresno Mission, a moment he now sees as the start of a much bigger work God was doing in his life.
Even in his darkest season, Keith could feel God tugging at his heart, calling him toward something different. Through the program’s structure, support and steady focus on faith, he answered that call and became a graduate of Fresno Mission.
“I understand firsthand how much a person’s life can change through faith, accountability, support, and a willingness to grow,” he says.
Today, his message to anyone still in that dark season is that God is always there when you’re following Him.
Coming back
After graduating, Mary returned to the Mission as a staff member, working in program support at Searcy Center. It was there, surrounded by the same community that had helped them both heal, that she met Keith, who was serving on the Mission’s maintenance team at the time.
For someone who had known so much chaos, what stood out most was how safe Keith made her feel. Their relationship was built on a shared faith and on the calm and respect Mary had once believed she’d never find.
“Keith is such a safe space,” she says. “He’s such a calm person.” After years of turmoil, she’s learning what it means to simply feel at peace at home.
Mary had also learned to guard her daughter’s heart. “I did not want to bring anybody around her unless I knew they were going to stay,” she says. Keith was the first. As the three of them grew closer, her daughter came to call him Dad, and he’s proud to be her father. Today the two are married and expecting their second child!
“He’s everything I could’ve asked for,” Mary says.
Mary later left for a role she’d long wanted in the SPCA’s spay department. After about a year away, she knew something was missing.
“After working for the Mission, it’s just so different,” she says. “I was like, I’ve got to get back.“
When Mary and Keith were invited to share their story at the Mission’s Valentine’s banquet, Mary mentioned to Priscilla Robbins, chief ministry officer, that she’d love to return. The next week, Richard Lopez, Director of Family Center, called. By the time she sat down for the interview, he had already printed her offer letter.
Mary joined Family Center as a case manager this March. “Working for a faith-based ministry brings something almost like healing. On the hard days, I know people are praying for me.”
At Family Center, Mary works with about 14 households at a time. Her focus is clearing whatever stands between a family and a home of their own: old debts, past evictions or simply never having learned how to save. Together they build a budget and pay down what’s owed, so families don’t move out with a bill hanging over their heads.
Most families don’t arrive looking for a life overhaul. They come because they need a safe place to stay. Even so, Mary sees lives change all the time.
“A lot of them get sober being with us, and that’s not even what they came for,” she says. “A lot of them find God being with us, too.”
She never forgets what it costs the people she serves to be there.
“I chose to work here, but they sometimes do not choose to live here,” she says. “This is probably one of the hardest times of their life. Being able to be there for them through that is something I don’t take for granted.”
Not every story ends the way she’d like. On those days, Mary holds on to something she learned in her own recovery: a seed, once planted, is still there. “Nothing I say in Christ’s name will come back void. Whether it flourishes now or later, it’s still there.”
On the other side of campus, Keith meets people at the very beginning of their recovery. As Program Coordinator for Searcy Center, he leads admissions and intake, and he supports clients through counseling, case management and recovery planning.
“I get to meet individuals at the very beginning of their recovery journey,” he says. “I have the opportunity to hear their story, assess their needs, and help them take the first step toward stability and recovery.“
Like Mary, he also gets to see what happens next.
“I see individuals grow in their faith, rebuild relationships, overcome addiction, develop confidence, and begin to recognize their own value and potential,” Keith says.
“Seeing the difference between the person who first enters the program and the person who eventually leaves is one of the most rewarding parts of my work.”
Keith’s commitment to the people he serves doesn’t stop at intake. He’s now pursuing certification as a drug and alcohol counselor so he can walk with clients even further in their recovery. Outside the Mission, his faith keeps him serving others as a deacon at his home church, The Word Community Church in Fresno.
Your support makes stories like theirs possible
When Mary went looking for help, she couldn’t find a program that would let her keep her daughter, or one she could afford. When Keith came out of prison, he needed people ready to walk alongside him. Fresno Mission was there for both of them because of people like you.
Your generosity keeps a mother and her child together at Searcy Center while she recovers. It provides warm meals from CC’s Kitchen, a safe bed, chapel services, classes, case management and counseling for men and women rebuilding their lives. It gives families at Family Center a safe place to stay and a case manager to help them clear the path to housing.
And your support keeps working long after graduation. Mary and Keith are proof. Today, they’re the ones opening the door for the next person who walks in with nowhere else to go. Every gift you give is multiplied through people like them, in the lives they touch and across our community.
Thank you, Mary and Keith, for sharing your story and for the love you pour into the people we serve every day.
