2025 October #2
By a Joy Junction Staff Member (JBF)
Our future plans can vary from huge expectations, like traveling the world, to simple relaxations, like sitting out on the patio with a favorite beverage.
Most of us usually have an idea of what our life will include in the years to come. We’ve planned accordingly. But, when those plans suddenly change, it can be pretty earth-shattering.
Having an uncertain future is scary, to say the least.
When the bottom falls out of our meticulous and well-organized plans, we are, sometimes, at a loss as to what we should do. Sometimes, homelessness is the result.
That’s a position that others may have seen as a possibility in a specific person’s life. They’ve been unwise in their choices and walked a different path than the one that was expected by others.
However, there are many times when it is a total shock to find out that a certain someone has become homeless. They were responsible and worked hard…but unexpected life circumstances interrupted their plan.
Many of our guests never planned to be placed in a situation where a homeless shelter was their only option.
Latisha (not her real name), one of our guests, found herself in that position.
Here’s her story:
I was raised with a rules-based “don’t do this or that” religion. I don’t remember hearing anything from the Bible. I noticed that people outside our church seemed to “live better.” I felt there were too many people who said the right things at church on Sunday, but became a different person at school when Monday morning came.
In my mid-teens, as soon as I could, I got a job and earned enough money to be able to get a car and drive myself to another church. I attended that church for about five years. So, I have a background of worshiping God, and I’m so thankful for that. I could not have gotten through this life without His help.
I married in my early twenties. My daughter was born in the first year of marriage. My husband had told me he was a Christian, and I believed him…but it became evident fairly early in our marriage that he was not. He turned out to be a very controlling man.
I survived some pretty rough circumstances…
After many years, he eventually connected with another woman and left us. Quite a few years have passed since then. I know it has been God who has helped me get as far in this life as I have.
I wound up working for an organization that allowed me to see God’s hand at work. But, one day, a woman came in posing to be someone she was not. She wound up stealing all the money I had. I was very upset and said some things that caused me to be fired.
Since I had no money or job, I could not pay for my living expenses. I had to find a place to stay. I had heard about a faith-based shelter [Joy Junction] and hoped it would be as safe as I was led to believe. It is! I am so thankful that there is a place like this for people like me. I am trying to get my life turned around and plan to move out as soon as I can.
Shelters were/are created to provide for the necessities of life, during a short timeframe, for those who no longer have the ability to gain such things on their own. It’s a “resting place” until circumstances can be turned around.
We know it is a hard position to be in, so we try to make our environment as much “like home” as possible by offering three meals a day and providing a place for safe rest each night.
No matter the circumstances that cause homelessness, we truly want people to feel comfortable coming to us for help. Whether they need to stay for a short period of time or a longer duration, our goal is to provide for their needs. We hope to make a hard situation a little less painful until they can move out and join the working society again.
A future can be planned and dreamed about again.
It really can.
Detours may have popped up in the original plan, but being able to see that there IS a possible solution to the current situation is huge.
A new start may be hard, but It can be the beginning of something wonderful.
