At Joy Junction, it is our mission to help homeless individuals by giving them a hand-up, not a hand out. We give them a place to stay, a warm meal, and a chance to regain a foothold in life and reintegrate with society through our programs.

We see the faces of the homeless every day, but many don’t. Even the homeless on the street corner asking for help may go by unnoticed.

Sometimes, misconceptions about homelessness can be the reason behind why the plight of the homeless is ignored. People in a position to make a difference don’t really understand what harmlessness is, and so they don’t want to help.

Common Misconceptions

No matter where or how they started, misconceptions and stereotypes related to the homeless can be harmful and detrimental to aid.

Myth: People who are homeless are there because of drug and alcohol problems.

Reality: Homelessness can happen to anyone. While there are individuals who are homeless because of drug or alcohol-related problems, there are many who are there because of mental illness or depression, family problems, domestic abuse and job loss. Some have suffered terrible tragedies, or have lost the ability to function in mainstream society. Others have become ill or were injured and can’t work anymore. The recent problems with the economy caused many people to lose their jobs, and forced many families out onto the streets.

Everyone has a story and a reason they are homeless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgZmno4AnGE&feature=relmfu

Myth: Homeless are just lazy. They should go out and get a job.

Reality: In reality, many homeless either can’t find a job or don’t have the skills to be hired for or maintain a working position. The depressed economy has made it difficult for anyone to find a job, even if they are qualified.

When someone is homeless, prospective employers wonder where their new employee will sleep at night, if they will be able to arrive at work on time, and if they will look presentable when they get there. Employers are also weary of hiring people who have not been able to find a job, or have only been able to find short-term jobs.

Still others can’t find a job because they never learned the necessary skills, or they never learned how to commit to and keep a job.

So many of the homeless here at Joy Junction want to find a job. They are out during the day job hunting, going from interview to interview and still coming up with nothing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN8trXAU_T0

Myth: The homeless are mostly men.

Reality: Homeless people come from all walks of life. Many women are homeless because they are escaping abusive situations in the home. Some of these women have children with them. There are also many more families finding themselves homeless due to the economy and bad job market.

Clearing up the Misconceptions 

Stereotypes and misconceptions like the ones above only harm the homeless. Why not volunteer your time at Joy Junction and clear up these misconceptions for yourself? Sit down and talk with some of our guests, find out what their story is, and spread the word. Help us clear up these misconceptions so that more people will help the homeless of Albuquerque.

By Jeremy Reynalds, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
Joy Junction Inc.

With Mother’s Day on our minds, our thoughts obviously focus on “mom.” For this year’s celebration, let’s make sure that we do more than just buy mom a rose or two, take her out to dinner and go back to the way we’ve acted all year. Let’s make a resolution to start appreciating mom EVERY day of the year while we still have her.

Here’s my mother’s day story. While I wrote it in 2000 I believe that it is still just as relevant this year as it was back then.

The man made his way slowly up the stairs to the second floor of the hospital where his mother was a patient in the geriatric unit. He walked through the ward, passing by a variety of elderly people in various states of apparent mental difficulties and physical decay.

While he had been warned that his mother’s health was rapidly deteriorating it was still a shock to him when he saw her. She was sleeping but her breathing was heavy and labored. Her hands, lying pathetically at each side of her frail body, were badly swollen. Her once immaculately permed hair fell untidily in all the wrong places.

Being assured by a nurse that it would be okay to wake up his mother, the man went over to his mom and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. “Mom, it’s me,” he said. “Can you wake up?”

The woman stirred, blinked, opened her eyes fully and although a little confused appeared to be pleased to see her visitor.

“How are you?” the man asked.

“Not so good,” she said in a raspy, wheezing voice, speaking with difficulty. “I ask them to come and they don’t. I’ve got bad phlegm. Can you get me some tissues?”

The man took the nurse aside and asked her what exactly was wrong with his mother. She told the man that despite running all sorts of tests they didn’t exactly know. However, none of the tests explained the physical problems being faced by the man’s mother. The nurse pointed out that the man’s mother did have a drug patch attached to her back to help alleviate some of the pain she was experiencing.

After saying goodbye, the man left and came back the next day. His mother was sleeping. This time, things were worse than yesterday. When the man’s mother was woken up, her face was permeated with a blank, vacant stare. She was even unable to recall who had visited her that morning.

Then with the man standing directly in front of her, she said how nice it would be if her so n would come to see her. The man sighed inwardly and went to see the nurse, who again reiterated that while they didn’t know exactly what was wrong with his mother they were still doing all they could to help her. However, his mother apparently didn’t think so. With that vacant gaze she still kept telling her son, (apparently referring to the medical personnel) “I keep calling but they never come.”

A tragic story, but one especially gut wrenching for me – because the elderly woman was my mother. I visited her in late February 2000 as she lay in a hospital bed in South England: a “guest” of the country’s nationalized health service.

A couple of days later I was back in the United States, so glad that a couple of friends had all told me that I should do whatever it took to pay a visit to my “mum” while I could. The week after my return, life went on as usual — except that as you might imagine my mother was never that far from my thoughts.

The following weekend arrived and with it plans for a birthday party for one of my sons, combined with a high school graduation celebration for another and a birthday party for my granddaughter. While it was a happy occasion the joy was tempered by a phone call I received the day of the party.

My mother’s hospital had called saying that she was getting steadily worse and it was not anticipated that she would live through the day. When I asked exactly what was wrong they still didn’t know. In fact, the response I received was very vague and non-committal.

However, being on the other side of the ocean, and being unable to visit physically, what else could we do except pray and commit the situation to the Lord? So that’s exactly what we did. We then began getting the house ready for the party. Mid-way through the gathering, the phone rang. It was a nurse from the hospital in the United Kingdom, saying she was sad to have to tell me that “mum” had passed away a couple of hours before.

As you can imagine, I was very glad that the Lord had prompted me to go see her before she passed on. (The Lord had also been gracious enough to provide the funds for the airfare as well). However, I was especially thrilled that some months before this, when “Mum” first became ill, that I had contacted the pastor from my old church in Bournemouth, England and that he had agreed to go and visit my mother.

While my mother had initially been very hostile to the gospel when I gave my life to the Lord in England in the mid 1970′s, (probably due at least in part to my over zealousness in the way I shared the gospel with her) she received Pastor Vic very warmly. As I knew he would, Vic told my mom all about the love that Jesus Christ had for her. When he asked her if she believed what he was saying, she apparently replied (in that feisty manner that only she could) “Of course I do, I’m Church of England.”

I believe that one day I will join “mum” around the throne of the Lord and we will praise and worship Him together for all eternity. Maybe some of you reading this have poor or severed relationships with your loved ones. Perhaps some of you haven’t spoken to your parents for years and still have no desire to do so. Maybe they were bad parents and you have absolutely no desire to remember anything at all about your childhood.

I understand. There were some pretty rocky moments between my mother and myself. However, as a believer, I made up my mind some years ago that I was Biblically obligated to forgive my mother and love her no matter what she had or hadn’t done. And after a close friend of hers died a few years ago, I made a schedule to call her regularly so I could at least check on her in some limited fashion.

The situation boils down to this. As a friend of mine once articulately stated, the most important thing in life is relationships; firstly with God and then with each other. Make sure that your relationship with God is right, and then take care of all of the other relationships in your life. You will never regret doing so. We are not promised tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow may never come.

We’ve all had moments where we made our mother’s lives difficult.

But what if you weren’t the one making your mother’s life difficult? What if your mother was struggling to keep you safe, to find you shelter and clothing, never knowing where your next meal would come from. Can you imagine trying to shelter your own children from the terrible realities of homelessness? Knowing that the sandwich your child had at school might be the only food they have all day?

This is the heartrending and terrifying situation that thousands of homeless mothers in the United States face each and every day.

The Reasons Why

While some mothers do find themselves homeless due to substance abuse, the belief that most mothers find themselves homeless due to substance abuse is troubling and prevalent. It just isn’t true.

There are as many reasons why a mother and her children become homeless as there are women who are homeless. However, it is estimated that many women who find themselves homeless have been the victims of domestic abuse. A study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that out of 777 homeless women surveyed in ten U.S. cities, 22% said that they were homeless as a result of fleeing domestic violence at home.

Still others find themselves out of a job and without a home due to the bad economy — even women who have high school or college degrees. Some mothers can’t hold a job due to medical problems, or depression, including undiagnosed Post-Partum Depression.

What This Means

Whatever the reason, too many women are finding themselves without a roof over their heads and without a way to feed their children and themselves. They are all struggling against poverty and the terror of not being able to provide for their children, or of having their children taken from them.

Can you imagine being in such a frightening situation, living day-to-day, minute-to-minute, and facing the prospect of losing your children and having your family torn apart?

Many of these women and children need more than shelter — they need support and resources that will allow them to transition out of homelessness, keep a job, and stay out of abusive situations.

Hope and a (Temporary) Home

At Joy Junction, we offer a place to stay, warm food and even warmer hearts to those mothers and their children who find themselves homeless. We never split families up, and we also do our best to help get families back on their feet with programs such as our transitional housing. The school bus stop is even at the end of our driveway!

When you’re sitting down to a Mother’s Day brunch, please remember those who are less fortunate. Please pray for those mothers who are trying desperately to make it through this difficult time in their lives and keep their children safe. Start a Mother’s Day tradition for your family and help us provide for these families by donating food, clothing, formula and diapers, and even your time!

The homeless mothers and their children staying at Joy Junction thank you!

There are many statistics floating around out there about homelessness, especially with the advent of the digital age and sharing of information. You can log on to your home computer any time and see the estimated number of homeless in our city, state or country.

However, those numbers don’t do justice to the real problem of homelessness that afflicts so many men, women and children every day — the people who it is our mission to help at Joy Junction. Numbers take away names and faces and individual experiences.

The Problem with Numbers

It is really difficult to get a true count of the homeless population in any one area at one time.

Why?

Statistics often come from counts of people out on the street and in shelters or soup kitchens. However, homelessness is not always permanent. An individual’s situation may be temporary, or he or she may find a friend or relative to stay with for a period of time, so they aren’t there to be counted. There are also those who aren’t counted because a shelter is too full for them to stay.

Inaccurate counts, unfortunately, lead to a lack of funding and also a lack of understanding of how severe the problem of homelessness is.

There is also the problem with defining homelessness. What exactly does it mean to be homeless? Different statistical agencies have different definitions of homelessness, and so there are individuals who are experiencing homelessness, but are not included in a count.

Defining Homelessness

It’s easy to say someone is homeless, but how do you actually define what homelessness is? Many times people picture those homeless who live on the street, or sit on a street corner asking for help.

But homelessness does not always mean someone is living on the streets. What about those individuals who are in and out of shelters, or those living with friends or relatives because they can’t afford their own home? What about families who have lost their homes and are living in their car or a cheap motel?

The problem with replacing people with numbers is that we forget those numbers are actual human beings who need help, and hope, and a place to stay. Individuals become statistics, and that takes away the reality and the emotion from the dire situation.

Giving a Face to the Nameless

At Joy Junction, we see these faces every day at our shelter, and as we pass out food and necessities from our Lifeline of Hope truck. Every night we see these individuals and families in need we drive around looking for those who need a ride to our shelter and a hand-up. No number can accurately put a number on homeless people who need our help, and no number should be able to. Each one is a person with a face and a name and a story.

It’s easy to see a number and think, “this has to change.” To really effect change, you need to see those who are homeless, speak with them and hear their story. Let them become a person to you, not just a number. Get to know these people are their stories by volunteering at Joy Junction.

Join us on Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about the reality of homelessness and help us put a face to the numbers!

Help Us, Help Others.

At Joy Junction, we serve as many as 300 people, including approximately 80 children, a day.  But the heartbreaking and troubling fact is, we are limited to how many people we can serve at our campus due to space and resource limitations — we are forced to turn away too many every night.

We want to be able to give a hand-up to as many of our city’s homeless as possible; so, it is our ultimate goal, hope and wish to be able to take in anyone who needs us. That’s why we’re kicking off our expansion project fundraiser drive in June!

Joy Junction Village

When it’s finished, the Joy Junction Village will enable us to provide help and hope to our guests. Our expansion plans include new buildings as well as the renovation of old buildings, including our multi-purpose building.

A New Dormitory

Right now, our guests sleep on mats on the floor of the multi-purpose room. The new dormitory will have real beds!

A New Chapel

Our chapel was damaged irreparably in 1986. We will use the new chapel for classes, Bible studies and church services. Our services will be open to everyone in the community, not just Joy Junction guests.

A New Women’s Center

Many of the women and children who week shelter at Joy Junction are victims of domestic abuse. The Women’s Center will provide safety and security for those who are trying to escape the cycle of violence.

A Vocational Training Center

At Joy Junction, we offer the homeless a hand-up, not a handout. A Vocational Training Center will allow us to help those guests who have limited education and lack job-related skills but would like to become productive members of society. The center will help our guests learn marketable skills so that they will be able to find gainful employment and get back on their feet.

The issues that these buildings address are critical, but take funding. The estimated total for just those four buildings adds up to $8,000,000! That’s why we’re running this fundraiser — and that’s why we need your help!

Ways You Can Help

We believe that if we all join in this expansion project, we can make this dream a reality. Here are three ways you can help:

1. Pray that Joy Junction will continue to be able to provide help and a hand-up for the homeless individuals and families in and around Albuquerque.
2. Give a generous donation.
3. Spread the word and encourage friends to support us and donate!

We can’t do this alone. As a donation-only charity, we receive no federal, state or local governmental funding — that’s why we need your help for our expansion project. We believe that if we all join in, we can make a huge impact in the lives of Albuquerque’s homeless.

Together, We Can!

Call 505-217-9586 to learn more about our expansion and to learn how you can help! 

Every night at Joy Junction, we feed as many as 300 people, giving out sack lunches to those we must turn away due to space limitations. That’s approximately 16,000 meals a month! But there are still many more homeless and near homeless individuals who can’t or don’t come to us for help, so we go to them with our Lifeline of Hope.

The Lifeline of Hope is our mobile food outreach. With it, we are able to serve an average of 6,000 meals a month! Most meals consist of burritos or a simple but nourishing sack lunch that usually includes a sandwich, several snacks, and a drink. We also give out soup, bowls of chili, fruit, and hot and cold beverages.

Beginning

The Lifeline of Hope was the idea of Joy Junction founder and CEO Dr. Jeremy Reynalds. He hoped to find a way to reach those homeless and near homeless who remained on the streets. That’s when long-time Joy Junction supporter Victor R. Jury Jr., President and CEO of Summit Electric Supply, stepped in. He bought the one-time catering truck off of eBay, donated it to the center, and flew Dr. Reynalds and a colleague out to West Palm Beach, Florida to pick the truck up.

Now, seven days a week, Joy Junction is able to provide nourishment at a variety of locations around Albuquerque. The locations include the West Mesa and area motels in economically challenged areas where hard-off families may be living long-term.

Hope

The Lifeline of Hope means hope for so many. The food and drink we give to people let them know that someone out there cares for them — and cares about their situation. It’s more than just a mobile food truck with the promise of a hot (or cold) drink. It really is a lifeline! When it’s possible, the truck transports bedding, clothing and personal hygiene kits. We’ve even had donations of flowers to give out to brighten the day of those we serve meals to.

What many people don’t realize is that the food and drink that the truck brings could be the difference between life and death for those who are starving. Others may have fallen on hard times and can’t afford to buy themselves food. A sandwich from the Lifeline of Hope may be the only meal a child from a displaced family has outside of school.

Help

With your help, Joy Junction can keep this line of hope alive! We’re always in need of donations of food, drink, clothing, bedding and hygiene products. Please help us continue to provide this service for the homeless and near homeless of the Albuquerque area!

Call 505-877-6967 to learn more about how you can help our Lifeline of Hope!

However, that’s the gargantuan task faced by Donald Ravizza, kitchen manager for Joy Junction homeless shelter. He recently took some time to tell me about a (well at least semi) typical day.

Don usually arrives at Joy Junction just before 5 a.m. and this day was no exception. He wondered what lay in store for the upcoming day.

He said, “As I parked my car, I wondered if I would have enough food to serve everyone. Before I entered the building, I checked the walk ins outside to see what kind of donations we received the previous night. There was a variety.”

Don said as he entered the building, it became apparent that we had yet again experienced God’s blessings. Firstly, there was enough bread to make it through yet another day.

Don said, “Next I checked the reach ins to see if we had gotten any meat donations. Again God had blessed us. Lots of meats, whole chickens, hamburger patties, even some steaks.”

Don added, “I usually vary from serving hot and cold cereal and pancakes during the week, to eggs, French toast, bacon or sausage (if we have any) on the weekends. Our residents get an extra hour to sleep in on the weekends, which gives my staff more time to do a nice hot breakfast.”

Don said the next question to think about was whether he would have enough staff for the day to get the job done. Wanting to give some of Joy Junction’s former guests an opportunity to build an employment resume, the shelter employs some of them in various departments. That can, however, sometimes be a challenge.

Don said, “This day I found out the cook needed to leave at 9 a.m. for a court date. And I’m not complaining, but we always seem to be shorthanded for one reason or another. Either a forgotten appointment, illness; it’s always something. We always get through the day somehow, though.”

Don said, “With breakfast out of the way, our focus was now on putting away the donations that came in last night. There was a lot of produce and meat. It didn’t take too long. Once that was done, we focused on snacks.”

He added, “We generally do a snack for the life recovery class at the half way point. It gives the residents a chance to stretch and have a cup of coffee and a pastry. We had a good assortment this day. Some days, it’s slim pickings, but our residents appreciate this all the same.”

With the snacks done, Don and his crew moved on to lunch. The menu was tacos, Spanish rice, beans, Mexican pastries and soda. That, he said, turned out to be a crowd pleaser.

Don said, “Prep for lunch went off without a hitch. Lunch was well received and our residents seemed to enjoy it.”

It was now time to think about dinner. Don combined tri tip roasts with rice pilaf, vegetable and bread.

Don was happy with the way his cook was grilling the steaks.

He said, “Doing it the way I asked. If you slightly undercook them, pan them, and place them in the warmer, they come out a perfect medium by service time. We decided on mashed potatoes for tonight, as we did rice last night. We were almost out of potatoes, but more typically come in from generous donors in the week.”

Don said, “We were able to get dinner on time, even though our crew was down two. It just meant we had to work a little bit harder. The thing that gets me through most days here is knowing that what we do is truly helping someone in need. I have been pretty blessed in my life, and truly enjoy what I do here.”

Don recalled a highlight of his work at Joy Junction was when one of our guests approached him a few weeks ago and said he had raised the food quality to that of a five star shelter.

As Don got ready to leave for the day he said, “Another one in the books. Everyone fed hopefully enjoyed it, and now I’m going to head home and get ready to do it all over again tomorrow.”

We see evidence on a daily basis; violence and killings, a seriously troubled economy, ongoing and seemingly endless political partisan bickering, and so the list goes on.

What a depressing scenario! It’s no wonder that prior to his death convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy Mcveigh was reported to have told the authors of “American Terrorist,” (a book that chronicled McVeigh’s life story and related his story of the crime) that he was looking forward to his impending execution.

He explained why. Because “this world just doesn’t hold anything for me … I’ll be glad to leave this (expletive) world.”

Like McVeigh I also used to feel an overwhelming sense of futility about life in this world. As Billy Graham once said, I was suffering from “cosmic loneliness.”

However, a realization (resulting from a spiritual awakening over 35 years ago) that Jesus Christ had risen bodily from the grave and had conquered death, changed my whole life and replaced aimless futility and loneliness with a sense of hope, purpose and destiny.

It was my new found purpose in life that some years later was directly responsible for my founding Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter. The Lord had been so good to me that I felt constrained to pass on the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to those who were physically homeless; many times spiritually and emotionally adrift and in desperate need of a reason to keep on living.

Sadly, in some parts of today’s troubled culture an unshakeable belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is thought of as being an exclusivistic and outmoded system of thinking.

Yet such a belief could give some badly needed hope and encouragement to the Timothy McVeighs and other troubled souls, possibly waiting in the wings looking for a proverbial place to happen. The hope offered at this Easter season by Jesus Christ is the only sure way of helping them.

Those who dismiss the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus and neglect making Him the basis for their lives, end up (albeit unintentionally) mocking the very foundation upon which Easter is based. All they’re left with is the empty and unsatisfactory shell of the Christian gospel which is unable to provide that desperately needed hope we all crave.

Of course, for some people, this upcoming Easter celebration will be all about eggs, bunnies and eating. Now there’s nothing wrong with any of those, as long as the central theme of Easter isn’t omitted. Sadly, many times it is.

Easter is about so much more than colored eggs and a good meal. As Asbury Seminar New Testament Professor Ben Witherington once pointed out, the Resurrection, the real heart of Easter, is “not just a spiritual change in a person’s life; nor is it merely the blooming of flowers and trees when spring returns. The Resurrection is the bringing back from the dead of Jesus Christ in the flesh.”

Witherington told a sad but revealing story about standing outside a small English chapel on Easter Sunday morning. He was waiting to talk with a church official about the upcoming service at which he was scheduled to preach.

The man looked at Witherington and said he had to ask him a question. He said, “You do believe in the Resurrection, don’t you?” Witherington said, “Yes, absolutely, that’s what Easter is all about; it’s the heart of the Christian faith.”

The man responded, “I’m ever so relieved. The last chap who preached on Easter didn’t.”

The fact of the resurrection is the very heart and soul of Christianity; not some mythical sort of unquantifiable spiritual transformation, but a physical bodily resurrection. Christianity is the only major world religion where the bones of its founder are not lying in some tomb. That is why Biblical literalists get so excited about the Bible and proclaim that they have found the truth.

This Easter, I encourage you to take an honest look at the claims of Jesus Christ. You will not come away disappointed.

If you do know Jesus Christ personally and like to talk about your faith with others, please share His love both spiritually and physically with the homeless, hungry and needy this Easter season. As the old saying goes, “You may be the only gospel they’ll ever see.”

Driving for Joy Junction gives woman more miles on her heart than her van

 
Evenings and throughout the night when most of us are asleep, Joy Junction transportation is responding to calls for help all across Albuquerque and checking on the homeless throughout the city.

Recently Joy Junction Transportation Manager Lisa Woodward told me about one such night on the streets of Albuquerque.

Lisa Woodward, Joy Junction Transportation Manager

It began at 7pm when she received a call  to pick up a single female and one child in the Northeast Heights.

Lisa said, “As a driver these calls tend to put you on (guard),  as a mother and child out in the cold at that time of night could always be a domestic (violence) situation.”

Lisa said she arrived at the location she had been given, but didn’t see a woman or a child.

Lisa said feeling sure she was at the right location, but that the woman had either left or was hiding, she drove on a bit and then walked back. Lisa looked in a nearby car wash. She was correct. The young woman had been concerned about staying in an open area where she may be seen.

Lisa said, “She had her six year  old son cuddled up close to her, but the night air was cold and they were both shivering. I introduced myself and helped the young woman to her feet. As  she grabbed her bags, I picked up her son. He  wrapped his little arms around my neck, and whispered, ‘Are you gonna save my mommy?’  I whispered back I was going to do all I could to keep them both safe.”

Lisa said as they drove back to Joy Junction, the woman told her of the many years she had spent fearing the child’s father. Tonight, though, she had enough and had snuck out the back door after the man left to buy beer.

Lisa said the end of the young woman’s story coincided perfectly with her pulling onto Joy Junction property. The youngster whispered, “Beer bad!”

Lisa pulled around to the front of Joy Junction’s main building and introduced the woman to a staff person. No sooner had she done so when she was dispatched to her next call. It was time to roll again.

Lisa made her way to the Amtrak station in downtown Albuquerque, a regular pickup location for Joy Junction guests. There are a variety of ways you can stay at Joy Junction, and one is by signing up for 30 days.

Lisa said, “Most for a variety of reasons have been homeless off and on for most of their lives. They just don’t seem to have the ability to make it in mainstream society for more than a few months at a time.”

She continued, “Many have given up and will spend a lot of their days losing themselves in something to numb them to the world and all of its cruelty, so the ride home is always an interesting one.”

Lisa said most of those individuals whom she picked up know her (and Joy Junction’s other drivers). As a result, there is usually lots of chatter about that day’s events. This night was no exception as they rolled down the road to Joy Junction.

Sometimes, Lisa said, what she hears breaks her heart. She said, “There never seems to be any light at the end of their tunnel.  Their days are the same. Ride to town, become numb, ride back. The light in their eyes seem to dim with each passing day.”

At 8.40 p.m. Lisa was dispatched to pick up a single female at one of the more expensive hotels in Albuquerque’s Northeast Neights. That, she said, piqued her curiosity, as it’s very rare to be called to a hotel charging over $100.00 a night for a room.

Lisa said, “I arrived and walked into the lobby. A  gentleman there pointed towards the lounge, where sat a female in her late 40′s. A police officer was on one side of her having her sign a violation for not paying for services rendered, and the hotel manager on the other. He said he would (be a happy man)  if he never received her business again.”

Lisa said as she walked toward her and introduced herself, the woman  snapped her fingers and pointed toward her bags. Lisa  said she  began to pray for patience. She mentally recalled dealing with a couple of similar situations during her time at Joy Junction.

Lisa said, “People who have lived their lives with much, who have seen us flying signs and put their nose up in the air, suddenly find themselves among us. The  transition is usually painful both for them and us.”

Lisa said she finished loading the woman’s  belongings and opened the door for her.

Lisa added, she stopped and asked if we had running water. “Yes of course we do,” I said.

Lisa said as she drove, the woman engaged in a steady monologue of how she was not homeless; she had simply run out of money. If the staff intended to treat her “like a common street person,” it would not be tolerated.

Lisa said she  calmly explained to the woman that at Joy Junction everyone is treated  the same.

“I begged the Lord to help me keep a Christian tongue,” Lisa said.

Another call caused a change in route. Lisa’s passenger asked her the reason for the change. Lisa explained she had another pickup. To say the least, Lisa said, the woman was not happy.

She asked Lisa, “Has this person bathed today? Do they have something (contagious?)”

Lisa said she’d had enough. She slowed down and pulled the van to the side of the road.

She said, “I looked at the woman for a moment, doing my best remember that her behavior was in part because of her fear, however there are lines in every walk of life.”

Lisa said she spoke softly but firmly. “Ma’am,  the world you’re about to enter is a hard one. Within the hour you’re going to be living in a building with (over 100) of your new best friends. Walking into that building informing everyone that you are not homeless like them (but) you just don’t have money will not be heard.”

Lisa said it’s really simple. “To the homeless the definition of homeless is simple. NO HOME.”

Lisa said she continued, “We don’t look at all the side bars, the person you see flying the sign, the guy with a brown bag in his hand, the one you see wrapped up in blankets in the alley. We are all the same whether we sleep in the multi, in an alley or behind Healthcare for the Homeless. Joy Junction will give you a safe warm place to sleep, food and clothes and the love of the Lord.”

Lisa said she told the woman those with whom she would be sharing her life needed to be treated with respect and dignity. “I hate to see anyone become homeless; it is very hard both emotionally and physically, but only you can make it better for yourself.”

Lisa continued, “I loaded your bags for you at the hotel and will unload them at security when we arrive on property. (After that) you’ll  have to carry them as you go through the process, and from there on out.”

Lisa pulled the van back into traffic and continued driving. She said the woman stated that someone better be carrying her bags, and fell silent.

Lisa said she continued letting the radio soothe the situation; some of life lessons just have to be lived. She then returned to property and unloaded her bags.

The evening continued. Lisa said at about 10:20 p.m. she was notified of a call from the Albuquerque Police Department. (APD).  In response, she drove toward a local truck stop.

Lisa said as she pulled in, an officer walked to the van and explained he had a young woman who had  been in a fight earlier in the evening. Her injuries were minor but she had a skirt, short sleeve blouse and no place to stay. With temperatures expected to plummet to 25 degrees, she needed a place to stay!

Lisa introduced herself to the young lady and helped her onto the van. She told Lisa some of her story as they rode to Joy Junction.

She had been hitching rides with truckers from Phoenix. When they arrived in Albuquerque a fight broke out between the two of them. The trucker left the young woman in the lot and took belongings, purse, and money. She was cold,  hungry and began to cry.

Lisa said, “I tried to calm her, letting her know she was now safe and soon could get something to eat, take a hot shower and rest her body. tomorrow would be better. She thanked me and we arrived at Joy Junction.”

Lisa was next dispatched to a Good Samaritan call. A concerned citizen had seen a young lady wrapped in blanket at the park, and was worried for her.

Lisa made her way to the park in question and after about 30 minutes found the young lady. She didn’t want shelter, but welcomed a blanket. She was also hungry.

Lisa said, “I went back to my van, got her a sleeping bag and two sack lunches. I gave her a Joy Junction card and told her if she changed her mind to please call the 800 number.”

By the time Lisa returned to Joy Junction it was well after midnight, and time to begin night outreach. She stopped by her campus housing, filled up a large cup with coffee and started back out.

Lisa’s first stop at 1.15 a.m. was the little patio behind Healthcare for the Homeless. There were around 10 people sleeping on the little porch behind the building.

“I grabbed lunches and blankets, and walked up and started setting lunches next to those sleeping. A young woman woke up and asked if I was from Joy Junction. I said yes. She asked if we had room for anymore single females. I said we did and she requested shelter for herself and her friend.”

Lisa then drove the women back to Joy Junction.

After dropping them off, Lisa headed out again to continue outreach. This time her destination was a small alley in downtown area where some of the homeless seek shelter. She arrived at 2.30 a.m.

She said, “I pulled in and flashed my lights to let them know it was Joy Junction and not the authorities. I could see people begin to move around. I jumped out of the van and took lunches and blankets and passed them around.”

Lisa’s next experience was spiritually memorable. She said that one of the men sleeping there was a fairly young man, maybe 20, and he asked her if she had a Bible. She said she did, and ran back to the van to get one for him.

She said, “When I handed it to him he thanked me then said , ‘Miss, I can’t read that well do you have a minute to read me just a little. I said I did, and got my flash light. I spent about 20 minutes reading from the Book of John to him. He began to drift to sleep, and I slipped the Bible in his sleeping bag and continued on.”

At 3.10 a.m. Lisa was dispatched to pick up an elderly woman at a local hospital. She found out that the woman had been evicted from her small apartment the prior afternoon. The stress has resulted in an anxiety attack, and an unplanned hospital visit.

Lisa said the woman, who had taken care of herself since she was 15, had lost everything and had no idea what she was going to do.

“My heart hurts every time I have one of these calls,” Lisa said. “I have no idea what to say to ease the pain.”

Lisa  left to finish outreach at 3.50 a. m. She made her way to a park in the downtown area and unloaded four lunches, where she usually saw the same four people. This night, though, there were only three; one had checked into rehab.

Lisa said she chatted with the  remaining three for a few minutes, and hurried back to Joy Junction for her  4.30 a.m. run to town.

Lisa said she took back to town four of the people she had brought in throughout the night, and dropped them at day labor. They were all hoping for work.

She said, “As I always do on my way back I sent out prayers for all those on the street. Returning to property, my shift was over.”

Lisa added, “When driving the overnight shift two nights are never the same. You never know what to expect. However, one thing you can count on something will happen to remind of you all you have and all you should give thanks for.”

Lisa said she’s learned never to say she doesn’t have a story to tell.

She said that in a 10 hour shift there can be at least 20 stories. “Because each of the faces you see on the street or in an alley has a story.”

Driving for a homeless shelter and ministry takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions, Lisa said. “You travel from heartbroken, to angry to thankful onto amazed in each shift.”

Thinking about her job, Lisa said “Although I truly love my job and the work that Joy Junction does, most nights I come home with more miles on my heart than on the van. I spent 10 hours nonstop and didn’t even scratch the surface of all the pain and the needs that are on those streets every day and night.”

Lisa said, “Tonight when you’re closing down your home, turning off lights, turning up heat, checking to make sure the kids haven’t kick off their covers. Please send a prayer up for those who have no covers, or lights to turn off.”

(Albuquerque Journal – 03/19/2012)

WWJD? It’s likely he would help those less fortunate to improve their lot, as we should all do.

By Jeremy Reynalds
Founder and CEO, Joy Junction Inc.

 
I’m an evangelical Christian, although I’m hesitant to use that word because of the negativity it routinely engenders. I prefer to think of myself as an ordinary person who loves Jesus and wants to spend his remaining days helping people.

At one point not so long ago I considered myself a proud conservative evangelical Republican Christian.

Now I’m just me, conservative in some aspects, liberal in others and loving Jesus in all.

So what happened? Well, I’m no longer willing to subscribe to the political correctness which dominates so much of evangelical “orthodoxy.” To be honest, I don’t think some of it is very, well, “Christian.”

Let me explain. Here are some examples.

I founded Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, over 25 years ago. We shelter as many as 300 people nightly and feed as many as 16,000 meals a month. Six thousand of those meals are served on our mobile feeding unit, The Lifeline of Hope, which crisscrosses Albuquerque seven days a week. In addition to the Lifeline meals being poten tial lifesavers, we also regard this street outreach as an integral part of relationship building. Many of the people whom we assist have been hurt both emotionally and physically in unimaginable ways.

For example: A few weeks ago, we offered a guy a hygiene kit which he initially refused, as “I get plenty from the trash.” He accepted when I told him he deserved better than that. What had he experienced for him to think like that?

More recently, we gave three pairs of socks to a woman who was outside with bare feet. (We didn’t have any shoes with us, or else we would have provided them). She appeared intoxicated and quite possibly high. While some of you may disapprove, I believe that what we did was an action of which Jesus would have approved.

It took years for these individuals to get to the place they’re at. It may take as long for them to get back on their feet.

We believe giving hungry people a meal and more is the right thing to do, the “Christian” thing. Sadly, some evangelicals feel that continuing to feed the hungry a meal (or many meals) is “enabling” them. Really? I have yet to hear substantive answers about what to do with all those people we should quit feeding.

I guess the government could do it, but that’s something about which conservatives have been complaining for years!

Here’s something definitely controversial: “harm reduction.”

That’s the giving of clean needles to drug addicts and condoms to sex workers and oth ers. Like many evangelicals, I used to criticize harm reduction workers as promoting irresponsible sex and illegal drug use. The problem was, I had never bothered to talk with them.

Once I did, I found they’re not promoting random sex or drug use. They’re attempting to keep hurting people alive until they’re ready to seek the recovery they need to stay alive. Shouldn’t evangelicals be applauding that?

You can’t preach the Gospel to a dead person.

Something is smelling decidedly bad in evangelical paradise. It’s unconscionable not to feed a hungry person or help a sick, addicted hurting person stay alive.

What’s wrong with evangelicals? Shouldn’t we who say we have been forgiven so much by a loving God want to share that same love with those in need?

Then there’s the political/religious right issue, with evangelical Christians still mistakenly holding to the belief that a change in presidents will mean a profound change in our country’s direction.

It seems to me that evangelicals are being coopted by a political party and reduced to a voting bloc. How tragic!

There’s one way our country is changed. As Christians live out the tenets of God’s Word, quit judging and focusing on two or three litmus test issues, the world will see that we are Christians by our love and profoundly amazing things will happen.