Companion Stories: Garry
"I've been here about 6 weeks now. For me it's great, I just love the place. I love the whole ethos of it, the fact that they give people a second chance and work and a bit of dignity, earning their keep. It keeps your mind occupied.
I'm doing the painting and decorating at the moment - I used to be a self-employed painter and decorator until things went pear shaped. I'm using my skills. Plus I'm out driving which is good as well, a chance to meet people. You meet different people outside the Community when we go to pick up or deliver stuff.
I know quite a lot of people around here from my work before, decorating, and I was also a pastor here in the Baptist church. I was a decorator first, served my time as an apprentice in Edinburgh, but then after a long journey I became a pastor, though I later went back to painting and decorating for a bit.
Some people I know are surprised to find I'm here. They have a certain view of who's at Emmaus and are surprised that people they know could be here. From my point of view, I can use that as a good PR thing and encourage them to find out a bit more about what it's about. There is a stigma around homelessness, drug addicts, alcoholics. But people round here generally understand a bit about Emmaus so they're quite supportive.
From my point of view, the companionship at Emmaus is a big factor too. Before, I tended to keep myself to myself. It's great to mix with people again, though you have your privacy as well. My marriage broke up so there's a healing thing going on as well; you can get counselling here and people to help you. The staff are brilliant, you can talk whenever you want to. There's a caring side. A chance to get back on track, deal with a whole load of different issues.
One of the best things for me is that it's also a break from financial worries. I'm going to need to get back into that eventually, earn a living, keep a house, but it got so bad financially before that it was a constant worry. It became intolerable, I wasn't bringing any money in, I didn't feel like going out to work after my marriage broke up. I was living on savings but they ran out. I was renting a place; if you've not got money coming in it doesn't take long to get into debt. It's good to be in a stress-free environment for a time, just to get sorted out, get your mind back together, so you can start to plan again for the future. It's getting that pressure off you.
It's good that there's no time limitation either; it gives you a chance to get your head together and start to make plans. It takes time. At the moment I'm still getting my head together. I don't know how long I'll stay but I know I'll find a plan when it's right. To be honest, I'd quite like to work with Emmaus in some capacity, give back from my experience. Before I became a pastor I was into drugs, I was an addict, and I always thought when I went to theological college that I'd go back to Edinburgh to work with drug addicts and homeless people. After all these years it's almost come around for me. I'm quite open to that.
For me this is a springboard to whatever's ahead. It's the start of my new life, whatever it will be. It's not the end, as far as I'm concerned, it's the beginning. It's not something I feel ashamed about, being here. Far from it. I'm excited about the whole aspect of Emmaus, the ethos, what it's working towards. I've been surprised, I never knew about all this till I came here, the international stuff, that it's a world-wide organisation. To me that's fantastic. I'm still learning about it, all the different aspects. It's a lot to take in."
