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Mark Wood
Director of Operations
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world,
to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they
accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds
and glorify God on the day he visits us.1 Peter 2 verses 11-12
Mark Wood knows about the “sinful desires, which war against your soul,” and his faith and determination have helped him to overcome his drug & alcohol addictions. Mark was born in 1963 in Warren, Ohio and was raised in a working class neighborhood. He explained that he had a nice childhood and his mother Louise and father Bob were very ethical parents who were good providers for their children. His parents were spiritual people in their own way, and were just very private about their faith and did not attend regular church services. They sent Mark to Sunday school at North Park Baptist until he was ten years old. Bob worked in the construction industry for 35 years and passed away when he was 76 years old after enduring pulmonary edema health problems. Mark has two older brothers and one sister.
As a teenager he smoked some pot when he was around 13 years old and it got him started on the wrong path. Mark went to high school at Warren Harding and played on the football team as a lineman. The politics involved with the team kind of aggravated him and he wondered why he even bothered to participate by his senior year. Although he did not get into any trouble, and had a lot of respect for his parents, he had his group of neighborhood friends and they did an assortment of drugs & alcohol together as teenagers. He tried to get along with everyone though, and he feels his father had a very strong influence on him to have decent values and respect other people. Aside from the addiction problems that so many of us develop as teens, he felt very fortunate about his childhood. After graduating from high school he worked various odd jobs but could see that this area was very depressed economically and he could not find a decent paying job. When he was twenty years old, his brother called him about moving out to California, and he immediately sold what he had and bought a bus ticket to San Francisco. He went to work the next day in San Rafael as a construction laborer and helped to build a retaining wall his first month out west. He then went to work in Fairfax at a service station for a while and eventually ended up driving a tow-truck for a couple years. From there he went to work for BYGG Inc. and was a Corian countertop installer and became one of the companies key employees.
Mark was heavily involved in drug abuse during his stay in California, and developed a cocaine habit that was very detrimental, and it cost him the majority of his paycheck each week. Cocaine had become a very popular recreational drug in the United States by this time and still is, and Mark was just one of the millions who had fallen into the snare of it’s addiction. He spent his evenings bar hopping and doing alcohol and drugs, and met a young woman he ended up living with for four years. Drugs eventually destroyed their relationship, and in retrospect he felt it was very sad, because if they would have been straight, they might have had a chance at marriage and a nice life together. The next young lady he lived with had an addiction problem too, and was also mentally unstable. He describes it as a train wreck of a relationship from the beginning and she eventually stabbed him in the back with a knife during an argument over drugs, and he was very lucky he was not seriously injured. The drug habit was taking its toll with the worst yet to come.
After working for BYGG Inc. for around nine years the owner decided to start random drug testing the employees. He had been suspicious that Mark was a user for quite a while. Mark was always living paycheck to paycheck and was making very good money. He was eventually drug tested at work and failed. He confessed he should have straightened up his act right then and there and went through rehabilitation so he could have kept his job and started a better life, but his addiction problems and pride would not let him. Once Satan and the kingdom of earth have their hooks deeply into us, it is hard for us to get free without the proper help. We all have free will, and you must first want to be helped before God or man can assist in the mop-up process. Crack cocaine and the euphoria it brings is obviously a tough nut to crack, just as it is so hard for an alcoholic to not take that first drink. Mark lost his job and went to work at a small fabrication shop, and actually lived at the shop. He began using meth amphetamine while working there, and for the next six months things just began to go more and more downhill. He eventually was on unemployment and when it ran out was calling his parents for money.
When he heard that his father was having health problems, Mark headed for home at age thirty-two. He stayed with his parents for several weeks and then met a young lady who he ended up spending the next eight years with. The drug and alcohol abuse continued to rear its ugly head, and it destroyed that relationship also. During this time Mark was employed by Rusco Products in Youngstown and performed the trade he learned in California; installing Corian countertops, and he also learned to install cabinets. Many ownership changes occurred while he was there and in time he lost his job. He moved back home with his mother for a short period of time and it got to the point he was doing more and more things that were out of his character so he could obtain money for his drug habit. He went to jail thirty days for receiving stolen property, and he said it was a very strange feeling when he finished his jail-time and had absolutely no idea where he was going to go from there or live! He ended up gaining employment fixing up a house on the West side of Warren for a few months, and was able to stay in the house at the same time. He was subsequently thrown out of the house and started to contemplate going to the mission because of the cold weather, but ended up at a friends house for a week who was also addicted to crack cocaine. He left there and spent several weeks living in his truck in the bitter cold weather.
When Mark finally decided the Warren Family Mission was his best option for survival, he had nothing but the clothes he had on and two garbage bags full of clothes to his name. He had many preconceived notions of what the mission was going to be like, but when he met Pastor Dan Ellis for his initial assessment, it put him more at ease. He explained that Pastor Dan treated him very compassionately, and had a good sense of humor. In Mark’s mind this was just going to be a cold weather stay for survival, and that would be that, he would hit the road. Pastor Dan often talked to him and encouraged him that he should stay. After three months he did leave for four days and stayed with a woman, but he opted to go back to the mission after thinking it through. He finally made a verbal commitment to stay for the full program. Pastor Dan kept encouraging him that since he was already starting to walk the walk and live the life of faith, he may as well commit his life to Jesus Christ. Over time, the strong faith shown by many of those around him, and the morning devotions/prayer really started to sink in. The Holy Spirit was penetrating the walls. One day a woman in Bible study who was speaking about spreading God’s Word made some comments that really hit home. She explained that those who give their lives over to Christ are in a win-win situation. As a believer in God’s Son you will get to go to the Kingdom of Heaven and be with the Lord in paradise when you pass on; and even if there is no Heaven you have lived a life of love and caring for others instead of just living for yourself, and you have helped to make the world a better place. For the non-believers, they lose both ways. Is it worth the risk?
As time went by that year, Mark started feeling more comfortable and a helpful part of what was happening at the mission. He was appointed as a monitor and also a driver-monitor. The Pastors were placing more trust and faith in him as time went by because he caused no problems and obeyed the rules. He was developing faith, and he was appreciative of what the mission was doing for him and the others staying there. He learned that being a Christian was not only about not doing bad things, but also about becoming actively involved in doing good deeds to help his fellow man. His handyman skills were becoming a benefit to the mission. He remodeled the duty office and the shower, and is now helping on the house-remodeling project that is so desperately needed at the mission. He admitted that he was tempted at one point to move out with a young lady who was a temporary stay, but had a long talk with Pastor Chris about the situation and knew it would be a bad move. It has been a very humbling experience for him to have the Holy Spirit become an active power in his life, and now he understands what Jesus Christ and his blessed Salvation can truly mean to an individual. His past sins are forgiven now that he is a Christian, and he realizes we must show the same forgiveness toward others that God has shown us. Mark had an honesty and air of humility about himself and his mistakes during his interview that was impressive. He was very blunt and honest about his sins, knows he has made some errors, and truly admits that he is sorry for it and wants to change for the better “In Christ.” With the Holy Spirits guidance he is making the turn. He feels he has a long way to go with his faith and much to learn (don’t we all), but he also knows he is on the right road and it is a very joyful feeling. His mother has even acknowledged the change in him, and he stressed that it feels good to have peoples trust back.
Another thing that Mark is figuring out is that the person who follows Christ and honestly seeking the will of God for his life will experience the wonders of the Holy Spirit, our great comforter and helper. When he was offered the position of Director of Operations for the mission, he was debating in his mind and talking to the Lord about it, looking for an answer on whether or not to take on this important position. That morning the mission secretary Judy handed him a stack of business cards with his name on them and told him “I think you’ll be needing these.” He got his answer to the question. Mark has also taken on the responsibility of being the Food Service Specialist for the mission, which is another vital role. When asked to perform a testimony for a local church, he explained that he had made up notes to read, but when the time came to talk he just tossed the notes aside and let the Holy Spirit help him do the talking and it turned out much better than he could have expected.
Mark feels that the mission is a tremendous place with spirit-filled and compassionate Pastors where a person with a wrecked past and has been written off by society can get healed mentally, physically, and spiritually. He said that a saying he picked up in the past is very appropriate to the way he feels about life now that he has broken the chains of heavy drug & alcohol addictions, and gone through the missions program and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life:
“Yesterday is past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift, that is why they call it the present.”
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4 verses 4-9
