Rescue Mission bonds help change outlook on life for Macon man battling cancer

Kevin Peters could easily dwell on what's gone wrong, but instead he's focusing on what's going right.

The 45-year-old lives at the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia after years of alcohol, drugs, jail and, most recently, a cancer diagnosis.

"This place right here has been overwhelming, all the love," he said.

He originally went to get medical treatment about a year ago for issues he thought stemmed from prior drug use. Instead, doctors found a type of stage 4 carcinoma in Peters' tongue, throat and lungs, and they told him that he had four months to live without treatment.

His immediate thoughts were not on getting better.

"Wow, I bet I can get some good pills now," he remembered thinking.

He continued using methamphetamine, even as his cancer treatments began, and he weighed as little as 130 pounds this past spring. That path landed him in jail, where Peters had a revelation.

"Everything just hit me," he said. "I was thinking, 'I'm fixing to die in jail.' ''

He was getting visits from local clergy, who talked to him about salvation, heaven and hell. Peters had been concerned about his eternal home, but he had become convinced he was already headed for hell.

About 2 a.m. one morning, Peters said he prayed and turned his life over to God.

"He comforted me and loved me, but the fear of going to hell really got me saved," Peters said. "Everything I used to worry about in my life, everything that mattered to me, didn't matter anymore."

Peters' change of mind-set included his cancer diagnosis.

"I stopped worrying about it; I turned it over to God," he said.

That was about six months ago. After that, Peters moved in at the mission in September. There, he reconnected with the mission's vice president of programs, Pat Chastain.

Chastain and Peters grew up together in Warner Robins, and Chastain had his own challenges before his conversion.

"It's really a huge encouragement to know that he and I used to be on the same side of the fence," Chastain said. "We made a lot of bad decisions and bad choices."

Erin Reimers, the organization's executive director, has been impressed with Peters' outlook on life in the face of weekly cancer treatments.

"He now is so grateful to be here and so grateful for this opportunity to live a different life in whatever life he has left," Reimers said.

FILLING A VOID

Now Peters, who is back up to 180 pounds after a couple months of support from the mission, helps with the intake of donations.

He said he enjoys the job because it allows him to interact with the people who help make the mission's work possible, often without asking for a donation receipt or any other form of recognition.

"You just see how blessed this place is," he said. "It's just amazing."

Peters also plays basketball at the facility, and he recently took part in a "staff versus residents" kickball game. Reimers said she was astounded to see him -- in the midst of intense cancer treatment -- slide into first base during a recreational activity.

"I'll be honest with you, I hurt for about three days," he joked.

Chastain has also noticed Peters' transformation since his cancer diagnosis.

"He's got more life in him than anybody I know," Chastain said.

Peters is one of 37 men in the mission's Life Recovery program, aimed at identifying events in their past that helped lead to a life of alcohol and drug abuse. For many of them, that includes physical or sexual abuse.

In Peters' case, "that wound is healed, but it hasn't healed properly," Reimers said, noting that working through the issue will be part of the next phase of the program.

Interacting with the other men in the program, especially his six roommates, has been a major part of Peters' involvement with the mission.

Growing up as an only child with no father in the picture, he said the "brotherly love" of men in a similar situation has helped fill a void in his life.

"It's the connection we have," he said. "Unless you have a piece of what I have, it's hard to understand."

Since he's gone through about a year of cancer treatments, Peters' prognosis has improved. He hasn't asked his doctor how long he has to live, he said, but the original timeline for cancer as advanced as his is three years.

That would give him about two years left now, but Peters isn't thinking about that.

"I really worry about what I'm going to eat for lunch more than I worry about this cancer," he said.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 9:06 PM with the headline "Rescue Mission bonds help change outlook on life for Macon man battling cancer ."