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‘You May Lose Half a Finger, But It’s an Experience’

July 15, 2026 · 1 min read

”Alcohol use disorder,” to use the formal term, has always existed in America. It’s often hidden among the housed and visible among those on the streets—or half visible, as it was with Barry, a 50-year-old at the Watered Gardens homeless mission I visited on a reporting trip to Missouri. On a beautiful day when he was Read more...

The post ‘You May Lose Half a Finger, But It’s an Experience’ appeared first on Christianity Today .

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É

Élodie Bernard

Sad to read this for Barry. Losing half a finger to alcohol and calling it “an experience” shows how addiction can confuse everything. I have seen similar cases in the hospital, we pray that he finds a real outcome at Watered Gardens.

C

Cécile Girard

Yes, it's really sad for Barry, this way of minimizing the loss of a finger as an "experience". We also see them in the hospital, and I find that Watered Gardens seems to be a good concrete place to give him a real chance to get through it, with daily support. What exactly do you pray for in these cases, Élodie?

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