PANAMA CITY — A formerly homeless man is making a fresh start in a new home, after graduating from the Panama City Rescue Mission’s addiction recovery program.
Sean Morgan, 24, moved into a two-bedroom townhouse at 2930 Ormond Ave. on Thursday. The mission’s newly opened Bargain Center furniture and appliances store delivered furniture to his apartment at the time he moved in.
“It’s a joy to see someone do as good as he has and come as far as he has in such a short time,” said mission enterprise manager Rick Reynolds. “I’ve seen him grow, and for him to get out on his own, he is on the path to become the man that God intended him to be.”
Morgan came to the Rescue Mission after being medically discharged from the Navy after a month of service. Feeling as if he let down his family, Morgan turned to a life of drug abuse.
“My goal was to fly Blue Angels; it’s something I wanted to do,” he said. “My whole family was military and I was pretty much the first one to break that chain.”
Originally from Texas, he moved to Bay County in 2011 to live with friends. He would spend the following two years addicted to drugs and, at times, in jail.
“At the time, I was just a big, angry, walking person,” he added.
Following a stint of bad behaviors and time spent in jail, Morgan entered himself into the drug addiction recovery program at the Panama City Rescue Mission.
Since joining the addiction recovery program last year, Morgan now has a job at a local restaurant, a new home and hope.
“When I first came in, I was broken, but now I have options,” Morgan said. With the help of the mission, “I’m doing a lot better and there’s a big difference; I’m partially put back together.”
As a part of the recently updated addiction recovery program, students in the program are required to and assisted with being employed and establishing a new residence prior to graduation.
“I’ve been here for (about a year)and now I’m finally out; good feeling, that’s for sure,” Morgan said, noting that he looks forward to the freedoms of living an independent lifestyle again.
