LifeChange Graduate Profile: Kurt Justus

Even though he was only six, Kurt remembers the older couple who drove him down a coastal highway with his body badly broken. “I didn’t know who they were, but they probably saved my life.”

Kurt was walking on the beach with a babysitter when a sneaker wave pulled him down and a log rolled over him twice. His injuries were so severe it was doubtful he would ever walk again. Kurt did walk again. He also experienced another near miss accident when he was in middle school and a car he was riding was struck by a truck at high speed.

Despite these brushes with near death, Kurt remembers a normal childhood with trips to the family beach cabin, and fishing with his Dad. As he grew into his teen years, there was more and more friction with his Dad. Kurt struggled in school, but he was responsible and focused when it came to working on a paper route, doing yard work and working at Burger King to buy his first car.

When his Dad said no to a car, Kurt’s rebelliousness grew stronger. When Kurt bought a vehicle behind his Dad’s back his Dad forced him to return it, Kurt felt betrayal and bitterness.

Kurt was trying pot and alcohol and was a “rocker,” and his parents forced him into rehab, where Kurt said, “I busted out of there. I didn’t think I needed to be there. I didn’t understand.”

He tried all kinds of drugs and alcohol, and he was kicked out of his parent’s home. He dropped out of high school, “I never thought I would drop out of school,” Kurt remembers. He got a job at a pizza parlor and got his GED.

The next several years Kurt alternated between using pot and alcohol to using other drugs, like cocaine. He was able to do construction work, and also some work in an Alaskan cannery. Even though he was still using, he was able to start a landscape business, but his girlfriend’s brother introduced him to meth and he lost his business in one year.

Kurt then did lots of drugs over a period of eight years. He would steal meth ingredients from stores and sell them. He smoked, snorted and shot up. He was hanging around people doing the same thing.

“It was really bad, but I felt there was no way out. I needed the drug,” Kurt recalls.

Meanwhile, Kurt’s father was donating items to the Union Gospel Mission thrift store and receiving the newsletter where he learned about the help available in LifeChange.

Amid the chaos of his addiction Kurt remembers, “My Dad planted that seed about LifeChange.”

Kurt tried a thirty day rehab in Montana, but ran away from there and then snuck onto a Greyhound by hiding in the bathroom to make it back to Portland. He started using again and was in out of jail, he was badly assaulted in a dispute about the apartment he lived in.

He was depressed with his life when he came out of jail and then into LifeChange, but as difficult as LifeChange was, eventually Kurt found it rewarding.

“It was fun to do Monday projects, I felt good about that and in LifeChange, I built real friendships,” Kurt says, “the only time it was very hard and when I thought about leaving was when my Dad passed away.”

“Looking back I can see my near misses, I can see how bad things can be, but I know they could be even worse,” Kurt says.

After graduation Kurt will get a job and hopes to own a home with some property, “Someplace peaceful.”

What is LifeChange?

LifeChange is a community. Each member of LifeChange lives and works together at the Mission. The cornerstone of LifeChange is faith in the transforming power of Jesus Christ. LifeChange is a peer-based, each resident helps each other to identify issues and grow in their recovery. LifeChange is self-governed, as residents work together to make decisions as a community. LifeChange is long-term, and goal– oriented. Most residents spend two to four years to complete LifeChange.

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