My name is Collins Michael Blaha. I recently turned 60 years old. I have been in the 3E
process now for a little over two years. Ten years ago I was a normal person just like
any one of you. I had a successful real estate business, drove a nice car, had a nice townhouse
and lived a normal successful life. Sometime around 2013 I experienced stage 4 kidney failure.
I had kidney dialysis. Because I was on dialysis I could not work. I ended up losing everything,
losing the car, the townhouse. I was very sick. I lost everything, lost everything.
Basically had the clothes on my back. One day after about 11 months of dialysis I was
touched by the hand of God and my kidneys spontaneously healed. Nonetheless I had nothing.
A few days after I went off I was told that I no longer needed dialysis. I was
evicted from where I was living and was literally on the street and ended up at a local shelter.
I was there for several months and one day I met somebody who was to become my closest friend.
The question that changed my life is one night in the shelter he looked at me and he asked me
if I would be his friend and I told him yes. I would love to. It was later on after he asked me
to be his friend that I had learned that he was a servant leader coordinator with a 3E restoration.
Being homeless had changed not only my life but it changed me and put me into a mode where I wasn't
thinking like a normal person. I was introduced to the 3E process by my SLC. I had begun looking
for a job but was unable to find anything. You know I had a backpack on my back and probably
hadn't shaved in three or four days. I must have applied and interviewed for a couple of dozen jobs
without getting any response. I was getting very discouraged. My SLC asked me what I needed to
be successful with a job. I said I need a shower. I need a shave and more importantly I need a
change of clothes because I was showing up in the homeless car. My SLC took me to Belk.
I bought me a white shirt, nice pair of pants, decent pair of shoes. I was able to drop all my smelly, homeless clothes and a huge backpack at the church and appear as a normal person with a job interview.
The very next job I interviewed I got and that was my first step towards becoming a whole person and it wasn't until later in the process
that I discovered that there was so much more that I needed just a job. There were all in
friends through 3E that I met. It helped me to find health care. It helped me to get clothing.
It showed me how to use public transportation to get to and from my job. My SLC and my all-in friends at 3E arranged an apartment for me which I was
stumblingly able to pay for. My SLC and my all-in friends at 3E have been
walking with me since day one. They've been supporting me the whole time and as
time goes on they've given me the tools where I can do more and more on my own.
The period of time that I was sick and the period of time I was homeless I had lost the ability to function normally.
And it took me a long time to regain the everyday skills that most people take for granted to exist in today's world.
After having spent some time with my SLC and at his church I began to develop relationships in the church.
I realized that I was a member of a family for the first time in years and years with people who care for me like brothers and sisters and who I came to care for like brothers and sisters.
That sense of family, that sense of support has really been important to further my progress and it is a process and it's not something that I could do by myself.
It's been two years now but because of the 3E process I need the bless and less.
I realized that although I am at a point where I am needing the people less and less I want to be closer to them.
At some point I want to be able to help somebody else.
