BILL JONES: A New Life
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Profile by Kristen Schmid

     It took losing two weeks of his life for Bill Jones to decide to get
control over it.  Though he'd had a drinking problem for several years, Jones
had still managed to work at "good jobs" that kept him moving back and forth
between Las Vegas and Tampa every three to four years.  Then, on a 1989
bus trip between the two cities, his drinking got so bad that he had a two
week blackout.
     Jones has no recollection of that period, or of how he ended up in Pinole,
where police found him.  After being hospitalized, Jones was sent to
Richmond.  Here he entered the Rescue Mission's Disciple Program, an 18-month
Christian Recovery program, combining the 12-step approach and biblical study.
The live-in participants attend 4 hours of class a day, work six hours a week
around the mission, and receive individual and group counseling. In addition to
addressing their addiction problems, participants concentrate on "making a
lifestyle change," Jones says.
     He emphasizes, "anyone can stop drinking and stop using, but that's just
the tip of the iceberg." For Jones the program gave him the time to reflect and
make these changes, rather than remain in denial, "I knew I had some very
serious problems and that I had to take a look inside me."
     Jones graduated from the Disciple Program in February 1991, but he didn't
leave the Rescue Mission -- he stayed on as an employee.  Jones said he was
led to this decision, and to the Mission itself, "by God." He had other job
offers for more money and a better position, but decided to work for the
Mission.  Jones began as manager of the Mission's Community Distribution
Warehouse, and then, armed with new knowledge from a UC Berkeley certificate
program in Drug and Alcohol Counseling, he obtained his current position as
Education Coordinator of the Mission's Urban Training Center (scheduled to open
in September 1994)..
     The main reason Jones has this position -- where his responsibilities
include overseeing the computer learning center, adult and child education
programs, and case management workÑis that the Disciple Program changed more
than his drinking habits. "I have much more patience and understanding; instead
of my whole life being centered on me, I have concern for other people,"
Jones said.  After graduating from the program, Jones felt he needed to give
something back, and education, an area he had always been interested in,
seemed "a good avenue to help...reaching out to other people, sharing some
of my experiences.
     Although Jones says he will "always be in recovery," he has come a long
way since that fateful bus trip only five years ago. "I drank a case-and-a-half
of beer, a quart of scotch, everyday for ten years -- but what did I really
have?   I was all by myself...here's where I am now - clean, I'm sober, I know
what day of the week it is.  I feel good about myself."