Manny: From Meth to Meaning

At 26, Manny Ordaz-Ríos found himself in the winter cold with nowhere to go.

Several months back, he realized his life as a drug dealer and meth addict was so far removed from who he really was that he decided to leave it behind. That night, without telling anyone, he left his friend’s house where he was staying and walked several miles to the homeless shelter near downtown Des Moines.

“When I walked in, I said, ‘This is going to be like the airport. I’m just waiting for a flight out, and I’m not gonna be here for that long. I just need to get back on my feet.”

But days turned into months, and Manny timed out from the shelter.  He was escorted to the door and left standing on the street.  “I was completely lost.  I didn’t know who to go to.  I just started walking around looking for locations to get out of the cold.”

Eventually, he found some people who let him stay in their small tent camp under a bridge.  He was grateful but recalls the unbearably cold nights.  Fortunately, he learned about Joppa from his friends and met the team that delivered heaters and propane tanks to the homeless camps every week. That’s when he met Peter Ruiz, a Joppa volunteer from Palabra Viva church. The two quickly realized they both spoke Spanish and struck up an immediate friendship.

Peter learned that Manny was raised by his single mother in a bad neighborhood of San Jose, California, and that he gave his life to Christ at age 14.  After high school, Manny moved to live with relatives in Marshalltown, Iowa, but he got involved with people who did drugs and lost his way.

Peter shared his faith with Manny and invited him to church.  When Manny took him up on his invitation, Peter started picking him up every Sunday.  Then Peter talked to his boss and got Manny a job.  A few months later, Peter helped Manny find an apartment.

“It was the first time that I was coming back to my feet,” says Manny, “through [Peter’s] persistence and just because of the love of God that he has for people.  The connection came because of the volunteer work that Joppa does, but he took it to another level.  He went that extra mile with [me].”

Today, Manny is living the life he knows God meant for him.  He met Gladis, his wife of five years, at Palabra Viva and has helped raise her three sons.  Gladis says she never worried about his past.  “I met him as a new person, and I know by the grace of God we can be new creatures.  He loves God … and he’s a very kind person.  He has a big, big heart.”

Now, Manny goes out alongside Peter with the Joppa Winter Heat Team to serve people experiencing homelessness as he did.

“[Joppa] was an open door for me to get reconnected to Christ,” he says.  “[It’s] one of those ministries that really goes above and beyond.  There’s a God behind it that is definitely pushing it forward.”

 You can help people like Manny transition out of homelessness by giving at joppa.org/donate.
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