The staff is made up of:
- Executive Director: Administration/Family Support Services: Angie Korkowski
-House Facilitators: Gordon Davidson, Tim Rutherford .
T he testimonies of Staff are as follows:
Angie Korkowski
I am a child of God.
I am a recovered addict. My life began as a mistake: I was conceived out of wedlock. It was in a small village in old Germany. My unwed mother did not look down at her bulging belly and say how much she loved or wanted me. She was abandoned by her family. Eventually they came back in her life but it took a while.
When I was five years old we moved to Ontario, Canada where my mother married a man. He had a mental illness. He molested me one night and we fled. I now had a baby sister. We fled to Surrey B.C. and moved in with my step dad who became my Dad. He had two older daughters and he and Mom had three more daughters of their own. Seven girls!
At this time, I was unaware of skeletons that were in our closets. The eldest daughter was never really ever there. She never would come for any occasions. I never knew her. The next sister was three or four years older then me. She didn't like us being there. She left suddenly at when she was 14 years old. Later I found out why: My Mom began beating me. Sometimes she would really hurt me. Sometimes she'd get so angry with me for stuff I didn't do. I was 10 or 11 years old.
My grandpa began touching me. It was a secret I couldn't tell. He told me I would get blamed—- that everyone would hate me. It would be my fault. No one would believe me. Then he would sneak into my bedroom and have intercourse with me. I was scared, confused. Confused, because I liked the attention. Mom just hit me and called me names. Still he said NEVER tell. Over the years the molestations got fewer as I was getting older and realizing it was wrong. I carried lots of guilt and shame. I started stealing. This was something I could control.
Then he started with my younger sister. Oh my gosh! He came to me one more time and he was forceful because I had said NO. He hurt me. I was bleeding. I told my Mom that night. He had done it to my older sister but no one believed her that's why she'd left to go to foster care.
As I grew up I was known to "shame" - I was beaten and called humiliating names like slut and whore, and that by my own mother. I was blamed for the molestations after he died.
I moved out at 17 and got into witchcraft and Satanism. My boyfriend was 29 years old and a warlock. I went to meetings in New Westminster and Burnaby. It was hidden well. After one night of rape, I left my boyfriend and hitched up with the father of my son. We got married in 1982 and I had our son in 1984.
Drugs and alcohol were present. Our marriage was over. It spiralled out of control. I left him for bikers. They would save me, I thought. It didn't happen. I was used basically (I allowed it) as a prostitute. I slept with whoever I was told to. Of course there was so much booze and drugs, I was never really "there" anyways. I was using booze (hard liquor straight) pot, MDA, snorting and smoking cocaine, also T3's and demurral Doctor prescribed.
I met my daughters father next. He hit me when I was pregnant. It got very brutal then. He left us nine years later for my best friend.
Then I met Richard. He was a lot different. I fell in love. We moved in together almost a year later. We had lot of struggles with our addictions.
After my stroke, I pretty well quit. I was so scared I 'd have another. When Rich first gave his heart to Christ, I quit for good. I was done. I absorbed as much of recovery as I could. It took me a year and a half to come to Christ.
We finally got married in 2003, a glorious day because Christ was there! I worked for the Salvation Army and I too became a soldier. We had planned to become officers however God had something else in mind: Joshua House.
We are incorporated under the Society Act registered as a Non Profit Organization.
We have a Board of Directors which meet monthly to discuss issues concerning Joshua House. These people, or as we like call them our mentors, have each something to offer Joshua House. We enlist their help, wisdom, guidance and prayer for this Ministry.
We praise God our Father for giving us His vision and continuing guidance to direct our paths.
Thank you Jesus ...you are worthy of all praise! Amen.
Gordon Davidson
I use to blame God for everything that happened in my life! I suffered every from of abuse from as far back as I can remember until I was 13. I started using drugs to drown out my feelings and I would steel cars and run dope to afford my habits. I was abandoned at 15 to the streets I turned to a life of drugs and crime. I tried to end my life at 17 at the age of 19 I was in a high speed chase; I never stopped for the road block. I don’t know why they never shot me I guess I can say now God had a plan for me then that I was yet to find out. I thought later as I was in jail I don’t care for my life but what if I killed the 2 friends that were with me that were screaming for me to stop could or would I want to live with that? I did almost 2 years for that but I said that would be that last time I went to jail or stole for drugs.
I got out of jail moved to Abbotsford with family got a job and was set on changing my life. However crime was easy to stop a cocaine fueled addiction was not. It didn’t matter where I was where I went. My chains were not in jail they were in my heart and I dragged them where ever I went. I was still broken inside I tried to control the pain by hiding in work and using on weekends. Slowly I was destroying my family again finally after a year or so my brother’s wife was sick of the lies and kicked me out. I lasted for a little while but I was on a losing end of a fight and I was going to hit bottom or die trying.
I went to treatment but for all the wrong reasons not because I was done using. But the most important thing happened there. I new I would never stop using drugs on my own so I called out to a God that I blamed for everything to help show me the way to guide my life out of the pit of death and sorrow. I found Jesus Christ that night. And in that time I talked about my abuse for the first time in my life to any one.
Soon after I left I relapsed due to not staying on the path of the Lord. I wanted the world I had to much pride and arrogance. I tried to get clean a few times but it was not going to happen. I could feel darkness in my life I never felt it before because I did not know God in a personal way before. I know God was showing me that there was more at risk then just this world. I needed to have a broken sprit I had to drop all my pride. I would have to give my life up to save it.
I got there one night in 2004 I called Angie told her I need help but I just got my job back so in a week or two I would come in. I had to make sure I paid my mother back for the money I stole so she would not be in a jam I caused. What a lie! As soon as I hung up I called back and told her just that. I said who am I kidding this job will just buy more drugs I have a better chance at diving out the window in the apartment and living and in fact if I don’t come right now that’s what I will do. Richard was there within 15 minutes.
He took me to Joshua House. My plan was to stay there until I could go into a treatment center. After a week there I saw the guys there we wonderful men they worked together, helped each other, actually cared for each other. I saw the Lord there. I new then that there was nothing treatment was going to do for me that God could not. I had the tools I needed to learn how to use them.
Joshua House showed me how to use them it gave me the support to reach out in my community for support and make new friends. I had to allow God to change me from the inside out. It was the hardest thing I would ever do. I had to kill the man I spent so much time creating and be reborn. I could go on about 12 steps and groups and book work but they did more for me then any of that they were shoulders to cry on they were hands lifting me up when my faith was week. I have heard if you want what we got so many times it’s not funny I never saw happiness. I saw it in Joshua House I found out all I want is to be happy to have joy in my heart and to have faith in the face of adversity. Did I mention I stayed there for 2 months without paying a cent. Most places would not take you in without money in hand and to treat me with love and compassion. They paid for the counseling I needed to work through my abuse and anger. But God showed me that I was never alone that when I was hurting he was crying and he could not kill the people that were hurting me no more then he could kill me for my sins. He loves all his children the same. Their houses kept me for a year I worked out my salvation dropped my pride and found purpose for my life. But most of all I found how to use my past for good and not as fuel to hurt my self and others I took the power I had giving to the devil back by the grace of God. If not for Joshua house I am sure I would still be a sinner or dead but I been redeemed. I now work with lost souls like I use to be with hopes that they to will find there way.
I got to hear my mother say before she died that she was proud of the man that I had become nothing can compare to what that means to me. They have done this for hundreds of men through blood sweat and tears. They continue to carry the word of God and save lives from the streets and jails and in some cases a life heading for death. I don’t wish for death any more I pray for God to lead me and I would gladly follow him where ever he leads me. I have my family back and God has led me to the woman of my dreams. If you ask me if life is good and if God is good and I will say all the time.
I remember walking in the dark of night so many times wondering if my life was always going to be pain and hurt if that’s all there was. I would walk and talk to what I thought was my self I know now I was not alone God was with me every step of the way. He led me to Joshua House and they gave me the help and support I needed. They showed me how to be a Christian not profess to be one to carry my cross and then help others carry theirs.
No matter what you been through no matter what sins you have done. You are worth saving!
May the grace of the Lord shine upon you and may his light guide you home.
Sinner, Redeemed
LOVED
Gordon Davidson
Timothy Rutherford
I was born into a family of 9 children and I am the youngest. My birth father was an alcoholic and when I was only 2 years old my mother left him to be with another man, I never got to really know my real dad until I was around 13 years old; I never understood why my mother left a drinker for a drinker who also beat on women and children.
As a result of these unfortunate circumstances we spent 12 years running too and from my mothers boyfriend, never spent more than a year in one home or school. There was constant physical and emotional abuse in my home. In an attempt to escape from life I would spend time with a step grandpa who sexually abused me from about the age of 3 years old until age 12, because I chose to be with him instead of being beaten and told I was a loser, etc, at home, I took on a great deal of shame. I even doubted at times my own sexual identity and that set me up for many years of messed up relationships with messed up women in attempt to prove I was normal, and to gain self worth. (That doesn't work by the way!)
Turned to booze and drugs at an early age to escape feeling like a loser and later to relationships and work addictions. None of these things worked for very long. I was always left feeling like a loser, unworthy....empty!
At around the age of 6 I was introduced to Jesus Christ at a Sunday school my sister Kelly took me to. WOW, I took to it like a fish to water, there wasn't any doubt in my mind or heart. I knew inside "this stuff was real". From the age of 6 until 9 I prayed and prayed for God to change things around my home, but night after night I would hear my mother and sometimes my siblings being beaten by my step dad, as well as myself. I came to believe, it must be me, I was unworthy of Gods help, perhaps even my step dad was right, "maybe it was all my fault". So for a time I turned to praying to satan, that didn't work either, I gave up on religion.
In 1995 I found God again in a treatment center, I had lost everything including my wife and step children. Really, they were my everything, including my self worth. It was very clear to me I was called to serve God in the recovery field, it was what God had been preparing me for my entire life; a part of me still didn't believe God could accept me, still believed I was what my step dad had convinced me of as a small child, "that I was worthless". God would give me opportunities to serve and I would run away when it got too serious, I would return to old relationships and addictions. In 2006 I came to Joshua House and God clearly told me to stay and serve. I'm too tired of running away from God, He won't let go, and I've never really been able to let go of Him.
Joshua House has allowed me to use my God given gifts here. I've never felt so at peace and content as I do now. To the degree I've learned to submit, I've allowed to serve. I thought I had to fix me, here I've learned God does that; I need only to submit to God and let Him do the work, and I am willing. Thanx Jesus for Joshua House!!!
- Timothy
