Addiction recovery story: How faith saved a Utah couple

Lester and Stephanie Herrera found the Lord and sobriety through the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake’s New Life Recovery Program.

Lester and Stephanie Herrera found the Lord and sobriety through the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake’s New Life Recovery Program. (Lee Benson, Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — It's the oldest recipe for success in the book. Quite literally.

Turn your life over to God and follow the path spelled out in the Bible.

You'll get no argument from Lester and Stephanie Herrera that it's a formula that can change lives. Even those once considered lost causes — like, for example, theirs.

Three years ago the two were using meth and heroin at a rate considered excessive even by their low standards. They'd been drug users ever since they married in 2008 when they were in their 20s, but recent deaths of family members and other factors had put them on a bender that was essentially 24/7.

Then on a cold early February day they got caught robbing a grocery store so they could buy more drugs and both wound up in jail.

Turned out, it was the best thing that ever happened to them.

Pending a court date, and thanks to a less extensive criminal history — she'd only been arrested around 20 times, compared to Les, who joined a gang when he was 13 and had been in and out of jail all his life — Stephanie was released after two weeks.

She had the clothes on her back and a ring. She pawned the ring for enough money to book four nights at a budget hotel.

Alone and out of choices, on the fourth night she started calling help lines to try and find a place to stay.

Meanwhile, Les called her from jail with a suggestion she'd never heard from him in their 15 years of marriage.

"Hey, Babe," he said, "You should ask God for help. I really think you need to pray."

"Of all people in the world he's telling me to pray. He'd never done that, ever," Stephanie remembers thinking. "Maybe I should pray."

So she did.

The next morning she got a call from the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake telling her they had a place for her.

Thus began a journey to sobriety and redemption the Herreras will testify to you is nothing less than a miracle.

At the Rescue Mission's women's shelter on State Street, Stephanie was introduced to the "New Life Recovery Program," a 13-month regimen designed to help a person turn their life around.

The first month focuses on addressing life-defining issues and recapturing a measure of stability. That's followed by six months of education, including addiction recovery classes, one-on-one counseling and Bible study. The final six months involve finding employment and developing self-sufficiency skills necessary to make it in the outside world.

Everything is provided: a warm, safe place to stay, three meals a day, clothing and other essentials, all free of charge.

The Rescue Mission is a private Christian-based nondenominational organization that exists entirely because of donations and support from generous community donors. Its headquarters on 463 S. 400 West in downtown Salt Lake City is as nondescript as the patrons it solicits, distinctive only by the "Jesus Saves" sign in the form of a cross on the front of the 120-year-old building.

"It's not a glamorous facility," understates executive director Chris Croswhite, who oversees a staff of 24, including pastors. When someone knocks on the mission door, "Our baseline," says Chris, "is that's a human in front of us, and they deserve love and respect and an opportunity to become the person they're supposed to be; the person God wants them to be."

As Stephanie began assimilating into the new life recovery program, she suggested her still-incarcerated husband might consider doing likewise once he was released.

Lester, still affected by the promptings to pray in jail when he'd never prayed in his life, was all ears. The only problem was he feared he could be going to prison for a long time.

Then, "God just took over," he says, and after four months he was released from jail — on the condition he enter an addiction rehab program.

He immediately checked into the Rescue Mission's men's facility and started writing a comeback story parallel to Stephanie's.

Everything Stephanie was doing at the women's shelter, Lester was doing at the men's. They were separated, but on a trajectory that would not only get them back together, but with new strength to turn to and new ways to cope.

In the summer of 2021, slightly more than a year later, Lester and Stephanie were proud New Life Recovery graduates.

After that, thanks to the mission's help, they moved into an apartment in Murray, found steady jobs (he's an industrial mechanic for a brickmaker, she works for a medical supply company and is a part-time teacher) and a new lease on life that continues to this day.

The last time either of them used drugs was the day they went to jail. That's nearly three years now.

They are confident they won't go back to their using ways. "What we came to realize is we weren't drug addicts," says Lester. "We were using drugs to cover up scars that ran deep."

"The reason people fall back into that behavior is they don't understand the reason behind why they're doing it," says Stephanie. "I realized I didn't need to spend my life being embarrassed of the things I'd done or the choices I'd made. I wore my past shames around my neck like an anchor. I learned that God had forgiveness for me. I learned how Jesus had given his life for the wrong things I have done."

Adds Lester, "Here's the thing I learned about the Lord: he loves us and he's constantly wooing us. But we have to do our part every day."

The pair are avowed, unabashed ambassadors for the Rescue Mission that rescued them.

"I could go on for days telling you how much I love this place," said Stephanie on a recent Saturday morning as she and Les stood underneath the Jesus Saves sign.

"Every opportunity we get to let the public know about the mission, we do," said Lester.

"Jesus turned our lives around, but here is where we were able to grow in the Lord.

"If God could give us new desires, then I have hope for anybody."

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