While I was homeless for most of my life, I have been blessed to find a home at the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake Women’s Facility. Here I found the help I needed to become sober and get off the streets.
Growing up in Michigan, I started a homeless lifestyle when I turned 18. Early abuse made me distrust almost everyone, especially when my mother didn’t believe I had been abused. As an adult I traveled from state to state and at age 24, I met a man at a homeless shelter. We were married and had two children.
However, when he turned abusive, I took my two young children (ages 2 and 3 at the time) and began living on the streets. We were eating out of garbage cans or whatever handouts people would give us. I realized I couldn’t make my young kids live that way, so I sought help. I was able to place my children in guardianship with a couple that went to a church where I sometimes attended. The couple raised my kids, who are now nearly 40 years old.
I had two more children as I traveled from state to state, still homeless. I was eventually forced to allow them to be adopted. Alone and using drugs and alcohol to cope with past and current heartaches, I felt scared. I was on the streets not knowing if I would be able to have food and stay safe. At times I would steal just to have food to eat and try to stay alive.
Last year, I made my way back to Utah. I had been here 13 years earlier and had stayed at the Rescue Mission’s Women’s Facility as a homeless guest back then. I loved the mountains and knew the Mission had a program to help people get off the streets. In my 60s, I faced many health problems and knew I could no longer live in homelessness.
The Mission welcomed me into the New Life Program, and I am happy to say I now have a personal relationship with Jesus. While I had gone to church in the past, I went for the wrong reasons. At the Mission I learned to understand the words of Jesus in the Bible, learned that I could talk to Jesus through prayer, and have been healed in physical, emotional, and spiritual ways.
As I attended Bible studies and through individual and group classes with the Mission’s staff, I came to realize I harbored unforgiveness towards many people. On the flip side, I also had done much harm to other people and needed to be forgiven myself. Over time, God healed my heart and I have been able to forgive those who I held grudges against. At the same time, I have received God’s forgiveness for the wrongs things I have done, even at times when I am not able to speak directly to the people I have harmed, because of lost contact.
I fellowship with a great church family at Capital Church. The teaching there is inspiring, and I enjoy the community with others. It is a “come as you are” church that makes me always feel welcome. I don’t have to put a front on and can be honest and genuine.
At age 64, I have health issues that have qualified me for monthly disability payments, which I am taking. I am saving money to move into Hope House, the Mission’s transitional housing unit for women who are moving out of Women’s Facility and into self-sufficiency. I expect to be able to move to Hope House in a couple months.
While my disability prevents me from being employed, I can volunteer to a limited extent. I spend several days a week serving breakfast or lunch (sometimes both) at the Gail Miller Resource Center, which is just down from the Rescue Mission’s Women’s Facility. I enjoy serving the homeless there because I have been in their shoes and can connect with them. I share my story and hopefully they experience the love of Jesus through interacting with me. I tell them there is a way to get off the streets.
While my parents have both passed on, and I do not have relationships with my children, I am sustained in my relationship with Jesus, good friends here at the Rescue Mission, and an awesome church family. Please pray for me as I transition to Hope House. Thank you for supporting the Rescue Mission, where God showed me the truth about Himself and forever changed my life.
Keith: Stable, Working, and Continues to Grow
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