Stories
“I have no money, I’m living in a shelter, but I am content.”
Hope for a better tomorrow
Hundreds of homeless and hurting men, women, and children with nowhere else to turn come through the doors of The Union Mission every month. Their stories are as different as they are. A hot meal, a place to shower, clean clothing, and a safe place to lay their heads help to restore their feelings of dignity and self-respect. Most of all, they find practical help and spiritual hope for a better tomorrow.
Carlton
Carlton always put his faith and his future in football. But “looking back over everything that the Lord was taking me through, I’m excited to have a profound new outlook now!”
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Kody
If you’d never expect to find a hero living in a homeless shelter, meet Kody. “I guess security has always been my kind of work,” he says, but when he was growing up, his life was anything but secure.
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Paul
Paul’s face smiles up from our Anchors of Hope monthly giving page, but he hasn’t always looked so happy. After 67 years of twists and turns, now he’s back on the straight and narrow as part of RECLAIM.
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Darrell
Darrell’s family really didn’t want him living in a homeless shelter, but he reminds them that his temporary address doesn’t define him. “This is just a phase of life. I’m just going through the process to get myself together.”
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Kadeem
No teenager should have to live with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but Kadeem, 19, had all the symptoms. Find out how he found a better way to deal with life’s challenges and his PTSD.
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Shon
Osteogenesis imperfecta. It’s better known as Brittle Bone Disease. It’s incredibly rare: it affects only 1 in about every 15,000 people worldwide. And Union Mission shelter guest Shon, 47, is one of them.
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Dena
Dena never expected to find herself living in a homeless shelter, let alone living in a homeless shelter with her four girls and just a month from delivering her fifth. But that’s exactly what happened.
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Khalil
“My childhood was filled with ups and downs. It just had more downs than ups,” says Khalil, 27. But “The Mission gave me another chance! Ever since then, life has had more ups than downs.“
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Earl
For the first time in 25 years, Earl is living in his own apartment! The 63-year-old Bashford Men’s Shelter resident has been working toward this since 2017. That makes Earl a RECLAIM success story.
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Tim
One Wednesday in 2019, Tim no longer wanted to live. “I got up and… I just couldn’t face another day,” he says. His finances were in shambles. As he planned to kill himself, the Lord spoke to his heart.
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Connie
“If ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children,’ why not me?” young Connie wondered. From the age of 8, she was molested by her sadistic oldest brother, a teen who idolized the occult and “did all he could to turn me away from God.”
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Washington
After seven years alone in an Ohio senior living facility, Washington says, “The Lord put it in my mind to start a new life for myself in maintenance again.” He blindsided his family when he bought a bus ticket to Virginia.
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