PANAMA CITY — Christina Brannon heard the characteristic chop of a helicopter and peeked out the window of the brick home in Hartford, Ala.
It was an FBI helicopter; the feds had been circling the property for weeks. Brannon’s boyfriend at the time was moving large amounts of methamphetamine, brokering deals with Mexican mobsters, she said.
When she saw that helicopter, she prayed to God to allow her to go to rehab. Later, Brannon prayed for something else.
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“Why don’t you take me home?” she asked God. “I just hurt my family and children.”
Quickly the relationship with that boyfriend grew increasingly abusive. Convinced he was going to kill her and with heavy meth use, Brannon would turn on the lights and challenge him to shoot her.
For reasons that Brannon can only describe as divine intervention, the boyfriend allowed her to leave and she traveled from her home in Dothan, Ala., to Bethel Village in Panama City, where she entered the recovery program. Almost a year later, she is working the job as a van driver for Bethel as a part of the program. She is about to graduate from the program and try to get a job.
“He gave me the wisdom and ability to get out of that situation,” she said.
As another winter approaches, the Panama City Rescue Mission and Bethel Village are preparing for another year of giving hope to the homeless. Brannon is just one of the more than 100 people who stay at the facilities each year.
Downward spiral
Not long ago, Brannon had been living a normal life in Dothan; she had a good job with the school district as a behavioral specialist. She had a husband and two children.
It took just four years before she was living in an abandoned trailer without running water and electricity, using the money she had to score prescription amphetamines and then meth.
“I have no clue how quickly it got out of control,” she said.
The disastrous series of events began with a separation from her husband. Then she was laid off from her job because of budget cuts. Next, she was evicted from her apartment.
Rooming with various friends, she started working at a mental hospital. She was prescribed Adderall for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and found she needed more pills to get through the 14-hour shifts at the hospital. When she ran out, she didn’t show up. At that point she was seeing her children — her daughter, about 15, and her son, 8, — every two weeks at her mother’s house.
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Soon the Adderall habit cost $50 a day. Meth turned out to be a less expensive alternative, so she hooked up with the first meth dealer boyfriend and they would do drugs all night. Upon a break up with that dealer, she no longer had drugs to get her through the day and lost two retail jobs. That’s when she went through her brief bout with homelessness.
“I would probably be dead,” Brannon said of her life without Bethel Village.
About Bethel
The mission houses about 100 people on a regular basis throughout its various programs. A total of 18 beds is available for emergency shelter, 16 for transitional, 27 work program and 64 recovery beds between the Rescue Mission and Bethel Village.
Winter is a busy time for the program. When the temperature dips below 40 degrees, the mission opens the shelter for more people, placing mats on the floor.
It also has special events, such as the community Thanksgiving dinner and December’s Festival of Trees.
The mission is looking for donations of turkeys and canned nonperishable items for its Thanksgiving celebration.
Veterans involved
The Festival of Trees is set for Dec. 2-5 at the Marina Civic Center. Director of fund development Amanda Bawn said the mission usually likes to have 100 tree designers for Festival of Trees.
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She saidabout a third of the participants are veterans, which is what attracted Vietnam veteran Bill MacKenzie to volunteer at the mission. While he normally works in the kitchen, he has worked as a spotter for Veterans Affairs in attempt to get homeless veterans the benefits they deserve.
“Some just don’t know,” MacKenzie said about the benefits available for homeless veterans. “Maybe some have a bad attitude about the government. They’re out of the service and don’t want anything to do with that.”
Substance abuse recovery is a large part of the Rescue Mission’s goal. Director of Programs Rick Briggs has added some programs since arriving in March, including sex addiction, anger management and relapse prevention classes. He said the key for relapse prevention is finding each addict’s particular triggers for addictive behaviors and teaching control. Briggs also has instituted a monitoring program for graduations a full year after the program.
“It’s all the same; whether they’re sitting in a bar in a suit or sitting in a bar with dirty clothes, they’re still sitting in a bar,” Briggs said of treating addiction in different social situation. “Other person has more to lose.”
For most of his life, Tim Knowles built clay tennis courts. He was also an alcoholic, drinking heavily after hours.
About five years ago, he was working for a company in Rosemary Beach; when he didn’t show up for a job, he was fired. He only went to the mission when he had to leave his brother’s place.
“I couldn’t stay there and I didn’t have any other choice,” he said.
Knowles also is a driver for the mission and has been clean 10 months.
“The recovery program puts it in perspective,” Knowles said. “The basic underlying problems was to get a personal relationship with Christ back.”
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With a second chance, Knowles is looking to help people wherever possible — maybe even if it’s just a small gift. Once when he was driving, he saw a homeless regular — he’s gotten to know who everyone is over time. The man’s shoes were riddled with holes and flapping soles. Knowles found him a pair of shoes in his size.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,” Knowles said quoting Paul’s second letter to the Romans. “It means to dedicate your life. We’re all trying to help everybody all the time.”
Want To Help?
- To donate to the Thanksgiving dinner for more information about the Festival of Trees, call (850) 769-0783.