Daniel*: Part One

*name has been changed to protect identity

Working with We See You San Diego is like being on a never-ending road trip, only the roads we take on this journey intersect miraculously with individuals on their own path—paths that, most often, are leading straight into destruction.

One recent intersection came about as a result of hearing randomly from two heartbroken parents in New York whose thirty-year-old son, Daniel, had been missing for a year. Nothing in life prepares you for reality such as this. Nothing. There are no Parenting Skills 101 classes that offer instruction on how to deal with the raw pain and emotion of missing children. You do what you can although, most often, don’t know what to do. So, they filed a missing person’s report with the local police—a report that somehow led to a rumor that he was possibly struggling with drug addiction and living on the streets of San Diego.

It was a start, but, what do you do with news like that? Who do you contact? After multiple Google searches for various entities related to homeless ministries and outreaches they stumbled upon We See You San Diego. They reached out, hoping against hope that We See You could provide some assistance.

What they found was Candace, our Recovery Coordinator, whose own road had led her into homelessness and drug addiction prior to intersecting with We See You and meeting Jesus. Candace suggested the parents send Daniel’s photo to her, and promised she’d do what she could. As it turns out, she did more than she knew as you will find out in Part Two of Daniel’s story.