Daniel Apaez

“Any door that is open for Daniel right now is all Daniel’s doing,” says Thelma Hernandez, his SAMMinistries case manager. “It’s him showing up.” Daniel Apaez’s Journeys of Hope video, produced for the SAMMinistries annual gala, tells how he and his son went from the street to a two-bedroom apartment.

When Daniel and his son ended up out on the street, “I was at a point where I was losing hope,” he says. They became clients of SAMMinistries’ Transitional Living and Learning Center, and his caseworker, Thelma, is “there for every step of the way.”

He made a couple of decisions, he says, and started “fixing my life and getting back into serving God and living for Him.” His son has heard about the man his dad used to be, but “what I see now is definitely not what I thought then.” “He’s so nice,” he says. “He’s so considerate.”

Daniel has committed to earning his GED, which he wants for “a stable career and a steady income coming in.” A rent voucher got them into the two-bedroom. Daniel thanks everybody who helped them. “The future is gonna be bright,” he says. The video ends on the gala’s theme, Opening Doors to Brighter Futures.