Faith helps man turn lives around

PINELLAS PARK - Sammie and Stephanie Manning love playing with their two boys: 5-year-old Mike and 18-month-old Sammie Jr. But it wasn't always that way.

"We lived day to day looking for our next fix -- next alcohol drink or drug of choice, whatever we decided that day," Sammie recalled.

Sammie and Stephanie say they were constantly high with nowhere to go and nearly ended up living on the street.

"I felt like it was a dead end for us," Stephanie said. "There was nothing else on the other side. The grass wasn't greener on the other side because there was no grass."

That was before they met Pastor Jeffery and Wanda Polhill, who run Touched by an Angel Ministry, a faith-based homeless shelter.

"I think spiritual healing is the best healing," Jeffery Polhill offered.

Jeffery is no stranger to the law. He spent almost half his life in prison. When he got out 15 years ago, he went door to door knocking on doors, doing odd jobs.

Jeffery never lost sight of his dream to run a shelter. One day, after he finished remodeling a building, the owner handed him the keys to start his ministry.

"It surprised me at the time. I didn't know he was going to do it, but at the time I was remodeling the building, I was already praying, asking God for the building," he continued.

The Polhills bought a 48-unit shelter two years ago. Their program has an 85-percent success rate turning around wayward lives and making them productive members of society.

Former resident Dewayne Thompson is now in school training for a job in health care.

"Life is wonderful. It's great. I never thought that it could be this good for me," he said.

Stephanie says she has learned a valuable lesson.

"They have given us ambitions and they taught us that no matter what we have gone though in the past and how bad a situation was in the past, that we have faith in the future ahead," she added.