‘We've got to have faith to please God'

Name: Gene Cooksey.

Age: 31.

Residence: Marysville.

Occupation: Farm work.

Hobbies, interests: A lot of woodworking. I make prayer boxes and crosses and just made three crosses for Twin Cities Rescue Mission – one 10-foot tall and two 8-foot tall – for the outskirts of the property. When people look toward the mission they can see them.

What brought you to the Yuba-Sutter area? I was raised in Tulare down south and became homeless in Sacramento. I was working my way north about four months ago when I stopped at the mission and ended up staying. God answered my prayers and got me off drugs and straightened my life out.

Place of worship you attend: Twin Cities Rescue Ministries.

How long have you attended? Three months.

What is the importance of faith in your life? I was reading a little bit on faith this morning. What agrees with me is the belief that you’ve got to have faith to believe in God, that he sent Jesus to die for our sins. We’ve got to have faith to please God.

How do you live out your faith? It goes back to making the prayer boxes and passing them out to different churches, to people who come to the mission. I believed in God before I came here. I blamed him for all my problems – my ex-wife leaving me, my family abandoning me. When I got to the mission I realized it wasn’t him. He’s trying to better my life.

Faith in Action appears Saturdays. It features a member of a church, temple or mosque and the importance of their faith. To suggest someone to be featured, contact Faith & Family coordinator Larry Badger at 749-4776 or lbadger@appealdemocrat.com.