Warmed with His Love
Steve* remembers the night vividly: His boss from the carnival stopped the truck, threw everything Steve owned into the river and drove off.
Steve’s entire life had been a roller coaster of extreme highs and lows. After his mom died when he was just 4, he lived overseas with his grandparents who were U.S. ambassadors. They had money to provide him anything a child could want.
He earned a master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science and got a great job back in the States. Then Steve was introduced to cocaine and heroin and started down a path of destruction that landed him in prison. Eventually, he ended up working for a traveling carnival.
“I had every chance,” Steve shares. “Other guys were slinging dope at 12 because they had to. They had no choice. I made my choice. I blew it. I was consumed by so much shame and guilt.”
And now here he was, standing in the middle of a bridge in Kansas City, penniless, lost and alone.
Just after midnight that night, we welcomed Steve into the warmth and safety of our Men’s Center, where he spent three nights in our overnight shelter before joining our Christian Life Program (CLP). Here, Steve’s life has been transformed by the love of Jesus Christ reflected through our staff and his pastor at Raintree Community Church, Kenny.
“I can see God’s love now,” Steve says honestly. “The things Jesus preached in the Bible, I see here (at the Mission.) They feed us, clothe us, take care of us medically—they are here for us. I’ve been given advice in life, but now there is a scriptural background to it.”
As Steve progresses through each phase of the CLP, he depends upon his friendship with Kenny for support.
From their first introduction, Steve says he felt Kenny’s acceptance. “There is nothing I can’t tell him … nothing that will keep him from loving me,” Steve says. “He doesn’t laugh at me when I ask questions.”
This relationship of love and respect goes both ways. “Sometimes you see God’s hand in somebody’s life,” Kenny says. “Steve has such incredible communication skills, people skills. God has been preparing him for something great.”
For his 41st birthday, Kenny and his wife baked Steve a cake. It was the first time anyone had celebrated his birthday in years and a reminder of just how far he’d come.
“I was scared to death of homelessness,” Steve remembers. “I was that far from being under that bridge. I thought, ‘No one knows me. This is it. I could be dead or frozen and no one would know me.’
“It’s miraculous to think in six months,” he continues, “I have an overabundance of people who care about me! There are people in my life today who would be upset if I up and joined a carnival. I am unconditionally loved.”
*Name changed to protect privacy.
