Richland Source15%
Never lose hope: Residents share stories of faith and recovery from addiction in Mansfield 48%
By Katie Ellington Serrao30%
8/2/2026, 2:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Anecdotal, and Indoctrination, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 22% saturation with 140 hits. Analysis detected 1,009 faulty-reasoning hits from 636 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.5% and a BS Rank of 48% (15,935 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 52.10% of the article peer group.
MANSFIELD — James West is convinced no one is too far gone for God’s redemption.
After all, he’s living proof.
“I spent 18 years in addiction.
I have two prison numbers.
I’ve done everything under the sun that there is to do to try to fulfill that void,” he said.
West preached a short sermon Saturday afternoon — not in a church, but in a parking lot.
“The Lord Jesus Christ wants to save your soul,” West said.
“He can do for you exactly what he’s done for me.”
West was one of several speakers during an overdose awareness and recovery presentation Saturday at an event organized by Crystal Stewart of Paradise Church.
The church recently launched an outreach ministry for people suffering addiction via a 12 Steps with Jesus program on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Recovery Worship Service on Sundays at 6 p.m.
“We’ve all came from this same spot where you’re at, and we’ve made it to the other side,” Stewart told a small crowd of people, sitting in the parking lot on black folding chairs.
“This isn’t about shame, it’s about encouragement.”
‘If you think you can’t do it, I promise you, you can’
The Jericho Wall of Remembrance and Recovery served as a backdrop for the event.
The memorial art park, just east of First Christian Church and managed by the ARC Empowerment Center, includes the names of 85 people who have died of overdose.
“All my friends and my family are on that wall.
I don’t want to see another person up there,” said Melissa West, before urging the crowd to enter a recovery program.
“My brother’s on drugs right now, and I have to pray every day that the coroner does not call me to go identify my brother,” she said.
Melissa also knows the struggle of addiction.
She told the crowd that God is the reason she’s still alive.
“Every drug you can think of, I’ve done.
I was not the person I am now,” she said.
“If you think you can’t do it, I promise you, you can.”
A teenager came to the microphone and told the crowd she had found God in the hospital following a suicide attempt.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re suffering from.
Doesn’t matter how hard it is.
You can always lay it down to the Lord,” she said.
“He will listen to you.
He will not judge you.
He’s got your back.”
“Even in your hardest moment ...
You think He doesn’t love you?
I promise you, He does,” she added.
Anna Hamilton, who got sober four years ago alongside her daughter, said it’s important for people in addiction to hear stories of hope.
“When I heard testimonies, it gave me hope that my daughter could make it,” said Hamilton, who now runs a street ministry called Mother’s Love that helps other people living with addiction.
‘The community is cheering you on,’ mayor says
Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry was also in attendance and briefly spoke to the crowd.
“I just want to encourage you that the community is cheering you on.
We want you to get better,” Perry said.
“We want you to be recovered and able to be a great part of our community.”
Before the event ended, attendees lined up to receive fliers on various assistance programs and bags with free, travel-sized personal hygiene items.
Stewart said she hopes to start hosting monthly recovery events in the future in collaboration with other churches.
“There’s recovery services all over this community and all the churches are coming together under one accord for the purpose of God’s glory and to save souls,” she said.
“So it’s not just us.
It’s the whole community.
We’re all in this together.”
Speakers
7speakers67%attributed speech208writer words
Selected voice
82%flagged-word coverageCrystal Stewart
102 attributed words24% of attributed speech60% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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