“All my needs were met when I got here. The food, the shelter, and the fellowship. … I tried to do it on my own, and I couldn’t do it.” - Mike

Mike Baker is a self-described mountain man who, for a lot of years, preferred the company of trees to people. When he found himself living in his car in North Idaho, the thought of coming to the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane scared him, but the support and fellowship he found surprised and changed him.

As you read Mike’s story, you’ll see some themes common among people experiencing homelessness.

What better phrase to describe one’s life than the one God used to describe David, “a man after my own heart.”

What do we know about God’s heart? How can we be people who pursue what is dear to Him? One of my favorite Bible verses is Jeremiah 22:16: “‘He helped those who were poor and needy, so everything went well for him. That is what it means to know God,’ says the Lord.”

UGM makes it a priority to maintain a safe and healing environment throughout the ministry. The newest UGM medical clinic, which opened early in 2017 to serve the women and children at the new Crisis Shelter facility, is a place of safety and healing in every sense.

“You get somebody that comes in that is just at the bottom, and just to have somebody treat them like they matter is a big deal,” says Pam Ubaldo, a registered nurse who volunteers in the clinic, which is open nearly every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

Most of the people finishing the UGM LIFE Recovery Program this month experienced trauma as young children: Abuse. Neglect. Abandonment. Homelessness.

Those experiences left emotional wounds that were covered up and left to fester. The children became adults and sometimes looked fine for years, but the wounds were still there.

Left alone, that pain grew until it couldn’t be ignored and they’d do anything to make it go away.

That’s why people who have gone through multiple traumas as children are 7-10 times more at risk for alcohol and drug abuse, with all its destructive consequences.

The following stories are hard to hear – even harder for them to tell – but only by listening to the stories can we begin to understand how those wounds can be healed.

I had a teacher in sixth grade who thought she’d motivate me to try harder in school by giving me straight Ds. It didn’t motivate me. Quite the opposite, I began to believe I was stupid. The memory still stings.

I carried that false belief for nearly 14 years. It wasn’t until I was working on my master’s degree and one of my professors told my wife I was a sharp student that I began to believe I had academic potential. It took a university professor, speaking words of truth and encouragement, to remove that label and bring healing.

For people who come from broken or dysfunctional families like those in our cover story, plugging into a local church provides the healthy “family” they need to continue to thrive. Church involvement is one of the most important keys to ongoing recovery after moving out of UGM.

Jolene is beautiful. Her cheerful countenance overflows with love, especially for her two children.

Two years ago, she was sleeping in abandoned buildings and couch-surfing at drug houses. No home. No contact with her kids. No hope.

The Jolene we know today is a miraculous work of God. 

“If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand?”

This is the Gospel.

All of humanity is under a curse. No matter how hard we try, we can never be truly pure, kind and good. We are blind to the goodness of God. We rebel against His authority in our lives, and we care more about our own self-interest than the interests of others. The Bible calls us wicked, evil, lovers of darkness and describes our hearts as hard and our necks as stiff. And because of all this, we are separated from God, the author of love, beauty, truth and all good things.

Still, amazingly, He loves us. And, so, He created a way back into relationship with Himself. He became man, lived a perfect life, modeled faithfulness and obedience, and allowed Himself to be sacrificed in our place. He suffered the consequences of our wrongdoing, so that we might be forgiven, and in that place – where our sins are separated as far as the east is from the west – we fall into His arms, loved and treasured.

The chapel in the new Crisis Shelter for Women and Children is pretty humble. No organ or pews. No windows, stained-glass or otherwise. No elaborate altar or pulpit.

Thousands of individuals, churches and businesses came together to be part of God’s miracles of provision and transformation, big and small, in 2017. Here are just a few of the highlights – including a few bonus items we didn’t have room for in the print edition!