“I figured that when you go through stuff, the best thing you can do is to help others with the same problem.” -- Ron, mentor through Family and Senior Homeless Initiative
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Chaplain Steve Swihart and Ron Heard at The Crossing |
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This year, in Family and Senior Homeless Initiative newsletters, we’ve featured many families led by single moms. This might lead you to think that most families mentored through FSHI fit a particular model, or that FSHI mentees’ stories tend to follow a pattern. Not so. In Denver, a plethora of different seniors and families need caring mentors to come alongside them. The people who come to the Family and Senior Homeless Initiative for help form an incredibly diverse group.
But for mentor Ron of Centerpoint Community Church, his pairing with a particular mentee family was nothing short of a perfect match. Ron’s life circumstances helped him to reach out and encourage his mentee – a single dad -- in a unique and specific way. As a dad on his own himself, Ron knew something about the difficulty of balancing full-time work, keeping house, trying to make ends meet, and spending time with the children. So it’s no surprise that when Ron first met his mentee dad, he immediately understood some of his concerns and frustrations. Ron describes his mentee dad: “He’s six seven. He drives big equipment for a living. And he’s just trying to provide the best life he can for his children.” Ron wanted to do everything in his power to help this man and his children. “I figured that when you go through stuff, the best thing you can do is to help others with the same problem,” he says.
Ron describes his mentee dad’s situation as very dire. The family, which includes a young daughter and a son, used to live in a tiny apartment in a dangerous area. Ron says, “He needed to get out of the neighborhood, because it was affecting his children’s behavior. He needed a place they could all live comfortably, closer to the schools, closer to where he worked.” With financial assistance from the mentor team, the family moved to a safer neighborhood. Now, the father no longer has to commute long distances to work, and he can easily pick up his children from school. With this move behind them, his family is safer, and can spend more time together.
Ron says that it’s easy for those who "have it together” to assume that there’s a manual for how to live. Some people believe that those who struggle financially have brought hard times upon themselves through their own mistakes. Ron says, “People tell you, you should have saved money. But what if you can’t follow the “book?” What if you can’t save money? What if … circumstances have taken it all away from you? Now you’re stuck in the hole. That was an example of how I could listen … and help. I was able to share that I understood.” Ron and his other mentor team member, Steve, a chaplain at the Denver Rescue Mission complemented one another well; Rob connected with the mentee dad’s situation and offered a listening ear, and Steve could offer concrete advice and find needed resources.
Drawing from his own life, and the desperation he’d felt as a struggling single dad, Ron was able to suggest, “Continue to do the right thing, regardless of where you are put. Soon, you will be on the upswing.” Ron and Steve affirmed their mentee for maintaining integrity, despite huge obstacles. Ron says, “Listening to what he'd gone through, the guy's a trouper. He took responsibility and maintained it all the way through.” Ron’s own story helped him assist a family who desperately needed financial assistance and guidance. The combination of his experiences and his desire to use them for the good of others made up his most effective and powerful tool.
Just think: your own story might help you change someone’s life! Because of your life experience –the struggles you’ve gone through, the blessings you’ve been given, the hurts you’ve sustained – you can help! There are hearts that only you can touch, and hands that only you can hold. Family and Senior Homeless Initiative is connecting the people who need one another in this remarkable way! |
