Our guest this week, Johnny, works on staff at Atlanta Mission today. But getting here took nearly losing everything. Years before he ever encouraged a new man on campus, Johnny stood on the edge of a MARTA platform, ready to end his life. That night should have been the end. Instead, it became the beginning. 

After surviving a suicide attempt and completing the program, Johnny stayed sober for 14 years until a relapse forced him to face the deeper trauma he’d been outrunning since childhood. 

Now restored, reunited with his wife, and serving at Atlanta Mission, Johnny walks with men who feel as hopeless as he once did. His story proves that recovery isn’t a straight line.  

Note: This episode contains mature themes. Viewer discretion advised. 

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After years of addiction and relapse, Mark Coffin hit rock bottom in a hotel lobby, detoxing alone with nowhere left to run. That moment changed everything. 

In this episode, Mark shares how faith, 12-Step recovery, and doing “the next right thing” helped him rebuild his life from survival to stability, and eventually, to purpose. 

Now more than 30 years sober and leading a thriving business, his story is proof that recovery is possible, and that choosing life is always worth it. 

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For Danny, addiction started at just 11 years old. After decades of pain and arrests, he found himself completely broken. But God wasn’t finished yet. 

Through The Potter’s House, Danny learned a new way to live. Now five years sober, he’s married, raising his daughter, and helping others believe that change is possible. 

This episode is about what happens when you surrender everything, do the next right thing, and let God rebuild what’s been broken. 

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Ozzie spent years angry, trying to be someone he wasn’t. What started as fitting in turned into addiction, homelessness, and nights spent sleeping in bathrooms. 

In jail, he prayed to God for help. The next day, The Potter’s House called. 

This episode is the story of what happened next: how Ozzie faced the emotions he’d buried and learned that he wasn’t angry, he was just sad. 

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This week on Unseen Atlanta, we sit down with Brooke Hempel, Senior VP of Research at Pinkston and Vice Chair of Atlanta Mission’s Board. 

Brooke believes that nonprofits can only truly live out their missions by understanding people. In this episode, she shares why data is an act of stewardship, why excellence in marketing builds trust, and how the next generation’s search for hope could reshape the future of giving. 

It’s a conversation about faith, insight, and what it really means to know the people you serve. 

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This week’s episode features one of our employment partners, Adria Marshall, CEO and founder of EcoSlay. Adria decided to become an employment partner with us because she knows that most of us are “a few situations away” from those having to start over, and that when we choose to meet people where they are, good things happen. 

In this conversation, Adria shares her own story of faith, perseverance, and purpose, and why creating opportunity for others has become the most meaningful part of her success. 

Learn how your business can make a difference at atlantamission.org/corporate-partnership. 

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For most of his life, Denh felt like he had to handle everything alone. He learned to keep his pain quiet. But when he lost everything, he made the difficult choice to ask for help. 

At The Potter’s House, Denh found people who listened for the first time. In this episode, he shares how learning humility, faith, and honesty helped him begin again, and what it really means to be heard for the first time. 

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When churches and nonprofits join forces, the impact multiplies. In this conversation, Bryan Apinis, Director of the Intersect Project and Be Rich Campaign at North Point Ministries, shares how partnerships built on relationship have mobilized millions to give, serve, and love. Together with our CEO Tensley Almand, he explores what it means to move beyond charity into collaboration, and why the real transformation happens when we act collectively. 

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At My Sister’s House, women talk about Ms. Avis the way you talk about someone who changed your life. She’s tough, direct, and refuses to let you hide behind denial. But she also has a gift: seeing past the addiction, past the pain, to the person God created you to be. 

In this episode, Avis shares her own story of incarceration and recovery, and what she’s learned after more than a decade walking with women on the long road to healing. 

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When Candy first walked into Restoration House, she looked up and whispered, “Finally, a roof.” 

Her story started decades earlier with the shock of learning she was adopted at 12, spiraling into rebellion, addiction, and destructive relationships that left her homeless on Atlanta’s streets.  

In this episode, she shares the reality of her story, and the moment her advocate, Ms. Avis, told her to “take a hard look in the mirror,” and how faith gave her the strength to rebuild. 

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