Most people are aware the Gospel Rescue Mission provides shelter and services to help people lift themselves out of chronic homelessness, addiction, and unemployment.
Less understood, perhaps, is that those same services can be brought to bear to prevent critical homelessness in the first place. Those at risk of ending up on the street need only ask for that help.
Cathy Eldred asked.
She came to GRM last fall during the Mission’s public open house. She had lost her stable housing with the end of a relationship, and then spent weeks couch surfing. Cathy has developmental disabilities and spent more than four decades competing as a Special Olympian in volleyball, basketball, track and field and other events. She has the mental toughness that kind of competitive environment breeds in a person. But she was feeling a vulnerability she had never experienced before. The friend who was then hosting her suggested she look into the Mission, so Cathy, 53, came and sat down with Women’s Coordinator Monica Conley, and found she was eligible for the Mission’s services.
“I had no issues with any of the rules,” Cathy explained. She was not burdened by any kind of addictions, and says she keeps her room clean as a matter of habit. “I was a little nervous when I came in, but Monica walked me through everything, and Tara [one of the resident assistants] was there for me too.”
She spent that night in a warm bed.
“Cathy has had a little trouble, just a little, with some of her social skills,” says Monica, “but whenever something like that has come up, making inappropriate comments or the like, I’ve spoken with her, and she has corrected the behavior. She accepts criticism well and adjusts accordingly.”
“I learn from my mistakes,” Cathy says.
Cathy was given a work assignment at the Booth Thrift store, which supports the Mission’s work. She’s part of the clothing processing team, where her initiative and attention to detail have elevated the standards for the whole team. There is a lot of turn-over in that team, but Cathy has made herself a rock of consistency, while showing the flexibility to do new things, as needed.
“She’s a quick learner and if I put her on a task, she keeps after it until its done,” says Greg Conley, manager of the store. “She becomes a success at whatever I put her on.”
Cathy appreciates the position at the store and says it will ultimately make her more employable both on a skills basis and socially.
“I like it because it keeps both my hands and my mind busy. I’m learning inventory management, and I like having leaders I can respect. It helps prevent my mouth from getting me in trouble,” she laughs.
Another important help Cathy has found in the Mission and at work is support for her blossoming Christianity. Though she has long been a believer, she hasn’t always included God in her life as she does today, and that has made all the difference. Cathy has found a church home with First Christian Church, where she says the members are down to earth, and greet her with respect and hugs.And Cathy says she appreciates how Christ is integrated into all the Mission activity.
“I get to go to chapel daily, and I get there on time. I’m just grateful to be here, because I’m changing my attitudes toward others, opening the Bible more,” she says. “I feel like Christ is walking with me every day. He knows my thinking, and I hear Him as that little voice inside.”
