Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Glenn Sandifer, a Trussville resident and founder of Unforsaken Ministries, gives Angela Edwards a collection of kitchenware for her new apartment on Jan. 5. Edwards is a recent graduate of the Lovelady Center in Birmingham. Unforsaken Ministry aims to help individuals struggling with addiction receive the help needed to get on the path to recovery.
Glenn Sandifer knows what it's like to struggle with — and recover from — addiction. That's why the Trussville-based minister started Unforsaken Ministry to help addicts and their families overcome addiction and to offer support as they grow into their recovery.
The roots of Unforsaken Ministry began when Sandifer was in his mid-30s. The son of a minister, Sandifer spent many years in the throes of addiction, eventually getting clean and turning to Christ. He became a Christian at the age of 35 and, shortly thereafter, was called into the ministry himself.
One of Sandifer’s first positions was as the pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, in Gordo. While ministering to an elderly church member who was dying in the hospital, he encountered the woman’s son.
Sandifer soon discovered the young man was an addict himself. While he had no formal training, Sandifer realized his past gave him insight and avenue to reach the young man, even if the rest of the family and members of the Gordo community thought he was a lost cause.
“I never really worked with addicts, but I had been one so I was able to relate to him," Sandifer said. "When I started hanging out with and befriending him, everybody was telling me, ‘Don't waste your time.’
“First of all, I have enough rebellion in me that if you tell me not to, I’m going to,” he added. “But, secondly, if there was no hope for him, then there is no hope for any of us.”
Sandifer helped him get into rehab, and while the young man hasn’t stayed 100% sober since then, word started to spread that Sandifer had a heart and ability to help people struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol. During his 17 years pastoring in Gordo, Sandifer said about half of his duties centered on addiction-related issues.
“I would say about 50% of my ministry was with people in addiction or their families," Sandifer said. "Finding them rehabs and visiting with families and trying to counsel them through their guilt and shame, and trying to let them know it wasn’t their fault.”
Four years ago, Sandifer was called back to the Birmingham area, eventually taking a position as the pastor of a church in Trussville. Three years and a contentious exit later, Sandifer was out of work and was unsure of his next move. Sandifer said he felt God led him out of a difficult situation, but what to do next remained unclear for months.
Sandifer said he and his wife, Marti, decided to take two months off from searching for new jobs and allow for some time for God to lead them.
“I was struggling mentally, spiritually, physically. My depression was almost paralyzing,” Glenn Sandifer said.
During his respite, the Sandifers learned that the daughter of a friend was in jail in Tuscaloosa on a drug-related charge, and they were asked for help. Sandifer agreed to accompany the young woman at her court appearance in April 2022.
The judge allowed the woman to go to the Lovelady Center, a faith-based living facility for women in Birmingham’s East Lake Community where Sandifer was already teaching. The judge, realizing Sandifer was a minister, released the woman into his care to transport and help her settle in at the Lovelady Center.
“They took her back to the Tuscaloosa jail to process her out and, evidently, she passed my name around, and it wasn’t long before I started getting calls from family members of people who were in jail,” Sandifer said. “That’s where it all cranked back up again.”
It wasn’t long before Marti realized her husband was in his element and enjoying life again, helping people regain their lives after addiction. She suggested that he should
do this work full time, even though he reminded her that it didn’t pay.
“She said, ‘You know, we’ve never worried about money before, and we’re not going to start now,’” Glenn Sandifer said.
Shortly thereafter, he officially founded Unforsaken Ministry, putting a board together and reaching out to the community for support. The ministry currently has individual donors along with financial support from three Alabama churches. North Park Baptist Church in Trussville is also providing office space and logistical support.
Additionally, Sandifer insists that while he is the face of the organization, Unforsaken Ministry could not function without the efforts of the board of directors and other volunteers making his work possible.
“I’m kind of the boots on the ground, but this isn’t my ministry. This is our ministry, because there are a lot of people behind the scenes,” he said. “Without them, I could not do what I’m doing.”
In just over a year of existence, Sandifer said the ministry has helped dozens of people not only overcome addiction but successfully navigate life during and beyond rehab.
“The scope of this ministry is so much wider than I ever thought it would be,” he said. “The recovery doesn’t end when you drop them off at rehab, and it doesn’t even end when they graduate from rehab.”
Unforsaken Ministry helps recovering addicts with everything from clothes and other essentials while in rehab to assisting with post-rehab needs, such as finding a place to stay, providing the first few months of rent and offering rides to and from court appearances if they don’t have their own means of transportation.
Sandifer said the ministry never considers anyone a lost cause and will continue to offer support and encouragement if and when someone relapses.
“So many people have just given up on others, but God doesn’t give up on us,” Sandifer said. “Even when people relapse, we’re still going to walk with them.
“I don’t put my expectations on the help we’re offering them,” he added. “I have hopes and I encourage them, and with most of them, I have a good enough relationship that I can be honest with them, and tell them when they’re messing up. But, you just don’t give up on people.”
A perfect illustration comes from his own life, when Sandifer was homeless due to his addiction and was given a second chance by his father.
“My father told me I could come home but only for three months, and I know he didn’t mean three months and a day,” Sandifer said. “I had a job, a vehicle and a place to live, but I was still using. But I look back to that short period of time and, had my dad not allowed me to come home and give me an opportunity to get my feet back under me, there's no telling where I would be today.”
Every day, Sandifer and the team put that kind of love and support into action, helping others get back on their feet more than once. For instance, Sandifer recently helped a woman who, after getting clean, allowed a former significant other back into her life.
After the partner became abusive, Sandifer said she began using again and “got way off track,” and she couldn’t pay her rent. Unforsaken Ministry paid the woman’s rent for a month and then, after she went back to work, paid portions of her rent over the next few months.
“She called me just yesterday and said she paid her whole rent this month,” he said. “Had we not helped her during that rough patch, like me, where would she be today?”
Learn more about Unforsaken Ministry online at unforsakenministry.org.
