I’m CSPC member Russ Simmons.  This is how I’m living deeply.

“’It doesn’t matter how smart you are. You can make mistakes and find yourself homeless,’ a middle-aged man with several advanced college degrees (who was homeless) told me. That really stuck with me. You think that if you have enough money, you’ll never be homeless. But you can lose money – suddenly. And once you do, you can slide into homelessness easily. It happens lots of different ways. I’ve seen men who’ve been caretakers for their parents– and once their parents die, these men lose their home, and with no work experience, they find themselves homeless. They have nowhere else to go. I’ve seen 18-year-olds who have aged out of the foster care system dropped off at Knox Area Rescue Ministries (KARM). The most common route to homelessness is loss of job, divorce (losing their housing), physical and/or mental problems, and then falling into the downward spiral to ease their pain through drugs and addiction. How do you impress upon them that homelessness is not an identity –it’s just a season– and that their identity is in Christ? That God is a God of restoration, who can restore and rebuild their lives with dignity and hope? That’s the message the homeless need to hear. I’ve been spending time the past several years helping communicate that message.

I was an attorney for 20 years and sat on the bench for 24. My wife Roberta and I prayed about retirement and felt God was leading us into a new season of our lives together. We left our calendars open to His leading and have been on this journey for 11 years.  I prayed, ‘Alright, God, whatever you want me to do, just bring it to me. I’m listening.’ He first answered by having me involved in KARM’s LaunchPoint program. What we do is work to get people off the streets and into KARM, where they can find help. LaunchPoint is their initial introduction to KARM- we’re trying to put them in situations where they can learn to trust people again. Because when they’re on the streets, they are in a culture and a society that are not trustworthy. They are so beaten down from abuse by family and friends, and by choices they have made. They’re just existing. Many get to the point where they really don’t care if they live. We are introducing them to hope– because that’s something they have lost. We are introducing them to a relationship with Jesus, which gives them the hope they need… to desire to get out of the situation they are in. I remember one young man, maybe in his 20’s, and this was during cold weather. He came into KARM through LaunchPoint, and the first week he had his toboggan pulled down to where you couldn’t even see his eyes. He would not really respond to anything. The second week, it was raised a little bit– you could almost see his eyes. The third week, his toboggan was completely up. And by the fourth week, he was talking. That’s what can happen when you get vulnerable people into a new place where they can begin to feel comfortable and trusting.

Another man in the program, maybe in his 50s or 60s, told me, ‘Well, I’ve just come to the realization that I’m just too old to keep making the same mistakes over and over.’ It’s surprising how many homeless people have a church background, either through their parents or a lot of times through a grandparent who has nurtured them. KARM is unapologetically about Jesus, so a lot of the people in the program start remembering how they were raised and remembering where they need to be. They start getting back into the Word and into prayer. It’s wonderful– being part of all this has really made an impact on me. God has made me more open to people and more understanding of where they may be in their lives. All people have problems- they just don’t want to talk about them. But the people I meet through LaunchPoint generally get to a point where they’re ready to talk about their lives and their problems. And once they start doing that, it’s the first step toward the healing process. And isn’t healing what Jesus is all about? The Bible passage that’s meant the most to me on this journey has been the part of Matthew 25 where Jesus talks about the sheep and the goats. At the end, he mentions the poor and people in jail– people who are homeless.  He says, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.’ Knowing the way Jesus lived and the brutal way He died for us, spending time with the homeless and with men in prison is the least we can do for Him. What we can do for others pales in comparison to the mercy and grace Christ has given to us.

Embracing Jesus’s love, serving Him from a grateful heart, has even led me to into prison. Let me explain. About two and a half years ago, I also became involved with Men of Valor. This program, which is an outreach to those serving time in correctional facilities, starts when men are still in prison or jail. So I go into the prison in Morgan County every Tuesday night, helping inmates see how the Scriptures apply to different areas of life. We’re preparing people who’ve been INSIDE the walls for the day when they’ll be able to again live OUTSIDE the walls (whereas KARM’s LaunchPoint prepares them to go from living OUT on the streets to living safely WITHIN walls). With Men of Valor, they spend time being encouraged and discipled in the institution through Bible study, memorizing Scripture, and prayer before they get their release. What impresses me most is the joy these men express, even though they’re inside four walls with very little freedom. The majority of them have come to a point where they’ve realized through their relationship with God that they’ve made mistakes. They’ve acknowledged that a mistake has led them to where they need to be, and a new story for their lives begins. God is writing it. God is redeeming them from being a prisoner and making them a member of His family. One fellow really stands out as a vivid example. He had more tattoos than anyone I’d ever seen. He spoke of a lot of demon possession. He was on so many prescribed psychiatric drugs that he was sluggish and virtually inert. But through Men of Valor, he committed his life to Christ and got off all those drugs and was just bubbling over with enthusiasm. He’s now been released and is doing well at one of the housing facilities where Men of Valor helps these men reacclimate to life outside the prison walls. And he is just one instance– when these men change, they have no inhibitions about their joy in Christ. They are exuberant about it! They form fellowship groups while they’re still in prison, and they’re involved in the church services which are offered while they’re incarcerated. God is so kind to encourage me by letting me see their enthusiasm and joy.

I can go to the Morgan County Prison at 5:00 in the afternoon, tired from a long day. But by the time I leave, I’m full of energy! That’s how encouraging it is for me to see how joyful these men are. We meet in the chapel– they have pews in there and some seats. We talk about an assigned Scripture reading and everyone’s highs and lows for the week. Most of the highs are visits from family. There are a few that don’t have family visits, which is very sad. (Though, over time, you often see God restoring those family relationships.) They’re still dealing with a lot of things, right? They still deal with the fact that they can’t see their families whenever they want to see them. It’s still lonely in there. But what they’ve discovered is, as God promises, He is with them even behind bars. He’s there helping them apply the Scriptures to their lives. They talk about the times where they have conflicts with somebody in the prison– how they wanted to react, how they remembered Scripture, and then based on that Scripture, how they reacted in God’s way. That’s the Spirit at work– trust has been built, and they feel comfortable talking about these sorts of things. That’s my favorite part of doing this: sitting down with men one-on-one, listening to their life stories, encouraging them, helping them find hope. The relationships built through this program are just priceless gifts. You even establish relationships with the staff, which also becomes very important.  It’s been life-changing for me to be involved in ministry where the focus is touching people hands-on, rather than just giving money. That’s where God wants us to be. He wants us to be in relationship with Him and in relationship with others, too. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. So I’d encourage anyone: Don’t wait until you’re retired to get into a personal volunteer relationship. You won’t regret saying yes to these opportunities.”