He Got Shot in Atlanta and Pictured His Kids at His Casket. So Conorris Got on a Bus.

Conorris Henley, who goes by King, is a graduate of the Rise Discipleship home. He came from Atlanta, Georgia, and by his own account, his life there was completely out of order, running the streets, using and selling, and convinced he could never break the cycle.

A friend had actually offered him a way out three years earlier. But back then Conorris had a pocket full of money and a pocket full of drugs, and he turned it down. Then he got shot in Atlanta, and a light went off.

"I screamed out, God, help me."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SKD4T58g7g

Too Ashamed to Go Home

By then Conorris was living hotel to hotel, pillar to post, sometimes sleeping on the ground. His family loved him, but he was too ashamed to call them. The drugs, crack cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, had shut him all the way down.

Underneath it was a shame that went deeper than the addiction. He had been raised believing in God, and somewhere along the way he became ashamed of that too, ashamed of who he really was, convinced he could run his own life without God. It never worked.

The Picture He Couldn't Bear

His lowest point was staying in drug houses with the lights and water shut off, and then the shooting itself, watching his own blood run from a bullet wound. In that moment, one image came to him, and it wasn't prison or jail.

"The next thing I saw was my kids looking at me in a casket. And I couldn't bear that."

His godmother had always told him he couldn't play both sides of the fence, that he would have to choose God or choose the other way. This time, he chose God. And he made up his mind for good on the 30-hour bus ride his friend paid for, all the way from Atlanta to Abilene.

Welcomed, Not Locked Up

Conorris arrived afraid. He had been to prison twice and jail more times than he could count, and part of him expected more of the same. Instead, something happened he had never felt before.

"I was met with so much love, so much gratitude. People treated me like I was a new brother. I never had that feeling in my life, to be welcomed into a home."

He is fourteen months in now, and the thing that stuns him most is that his character changed, something he never believed could happen. His thoughts, his feelings, all of it is different.

The Bible and the School Clothes

When Conorris was going through it, a brother told him to go talk to a leader. He sat down with Belony, half-expecting advice from human experience. Instead, Belony opened the Bible, like he always did.

There was a day Conorris had no idea how he was going to get his daughter her school clothes. Belony opened that Bible again, and then he asked a question Conorris never forgot.

"He said, what size is your daughter? We're going to send her school clothes. That meant the most to me. It made me stay."

The Breakthrough Was Outside

The home built new habits into him, praise and worship, prayer, church twice on Sundays, and reading Proverbs every single morning, a habit so deep that even now, as a graduate, he doesn't feel right if he skips it. His anchor verse became Proverbs 3:5-6, to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

At first he didn't understand why the men worshiped both inside the home and outside it. Then one day, out in the open air, it happened.

"Something touched me and I broke down. It was like a burden lifted off me. That was my breaking moment."

Even when he messed up along the way, the leaders kept loving on him, kept giving him chances to lead, kept building him back up into the man of God he is becoming.

Waking Up Happy

Today Conorris wakes up happy, glad to be in the house of God, glad to have work, glad to fellowship with his brothers and show them the way. He works alongside another graduate who helped him land a job. He can be there for his kids now, with a clear mind. And he is genuinely excited about the next season, especially the chance to grab new brothers who don't yet understand what the home is, bless them, and tell them he has sat right where they're sitting.

"A lot of addicts say, I don't have a chance. There is a chance. All you've got to do is pick up that phone, make one call, and do that intake."

If This Is You

Conorris was shot, homeless, and too ashamed to call home, and God still made a way to get him here. If that's where you are, or if someone you love is out there with no way back, don't wait. It's free, a real person answers day or night, and they'll even help arrange the way to get you here.

Ready to reach out? Get help now. Freedom really is just one phone call away. (325) 232-5449.

And it's all free because of people like you, who make the bus ticket, the welcome, and the school clothes possible.

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If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or thoughts of suicide, you are not alone and help is available. Rise Discipleship's 24/7 helpline is (325) 232-5449.