Tyler graduated high school and was training at Job Corps to become a bricklayer when his lifestyle choices and substance abuse issues finally caught up with him. Becoming increasingly desperate for money to buy drugs, he stole a gun from a neighbor and sold it to a minor. He was caught by the police and sentenced with a felony conviction to a year in prison, with several years of house arrest to follow. After his release, Tyler’s family wouldn’t take him in and, with no place to go, he came to Good News Ministries in June of 2018. But the loving hand of God was at work because Tyler was now hearing the Gospel message of salvation through faith in Christ every day. He soon came to an end of himself and accepted Christ as his Savior.

After receiving Christ, Tyler’s attitude changed completely. While he was growing spiritually, he faced real difficulty finding a job or even getting an education because of the felony and the GPS monitoring system on his ankle.

We helped him get training through several different programs including woodworking and our own Small Parts Assembly. Remembering his previous experience in bricklaying Tyler, with the help of our Men’s Shelter staff, applied to the BAC pre-apprenticeship bricklayers program.  Unfortunately, the program was full at the time but finally this month he was able to begin the training!

Tyler, now age 26, is completing his time in the pre-apprenticeship program and has done so well that he has already been assigned to work on several job sites! We allowed Tyler to use one of our ministry vehicles to get to and from work and just last week he was able to purchase a donated vehicle from us at a greatly discounted price. Please pray for Tyler as he takes these huge steps towards self-sufficiency!

“I’ve been waiting on this apprenticeship for a while and now it’s an opportunity to move forward…a chance for improvement.”