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Resident Stories
Read the stories of some of the people you help us serve.
“I Didn’t Know What to Expect”
Marjorie knows it could happen to anyone. She’s grateful for your help.
Not many people know what it’s like to lose their job and their home on the same day. Marjorie does.
“I was property manager for a storage facility,” she says. Why was Marjorie let go? “No valid driver’s license. I’d been in that position for about a year. That’s how I ended up losing my apartment — because it was attached to the facility.”
Suddenly homeless with nowhere to go, Marjorie was so grateful to find the open doors of Watered Garden, the Kokomo Rescue Mission’s shelter for single women. “Everybody was welcoming,” she says. “Especially the first night, because you are nervous. I didn’t know what to expect.”
The encouragement and community Marjorie discovered here has been life-changing. She’s grown by such leaps and bounds that she was recently moved up to resident leader! “Ever since she’s come, she’s been extremely helpful and proactive,” her case manager says.
Marjorie hopes friends like you understand just what your support of the Mission means. “It’s people helping people through Christ,” she says. “The staff and everybody here, they encourage you to make the changes you want to make. They don’t push. They nudge, but they’re very patient.”
Watered Garden has helped Marjorie rediscover her own faith, too, which has become “a much more concentrated part of my life. I guess God never really left me.”
As for the future? “My goal is to go into the Peace Corps,” Marjorie says. “As long as I keep learning, I’m going to enjoy where I am on the way to where I’m going.”
Thank you for helping your neighbors find their way!
“Everything That I Could Ask For”
Angela never saw her crisis coming. She’s grateful for your help.
Angela is a survivor.
But sadly, like many women who find refuge at the Kokomo Rescue Mission, her story begins with an escape. “I came to Open Arms due to losing my home to an abusive ex-boyfriend,” she says. “It was a very terrible experience.”
Even more heartbreaking, Angela wasn’t alone. Her two little kids also needed a safe place to sleep. So, when the Department of Child Services told Angela about Open Arms — our women’s shelter for mothers — she made the move.
At first, it was hard on the kids. “They were scared, crying, telling me that they didn’t want to be here,” Angela recalls. But now? “They feel like they’re home.”
Angela has found the support and resources she needed, too: “I really enjoy the staff here. They’ve encouraged me to move forward. They’re helpful in all types of ways. Just everything that I could ask for.”
Most important was the moment Angela learned where to put her trust. “I went to church, and I got right with God,” she remembers. “Me and my kids, we pray every night before bed. I could see a big change in them.”
Angela says her whole perspective has changed through this experience. “Almost losing my kids opened up my eyes and made me realize you got to just keep pushing and leave all that behind you. The abuse, it’s done. The homelessness, it’s done. And me and my kids can just be here.”
Angela also hopes her story inspires and helps others. “I just want people to know that they’re not alone and to be kind,” she says.
What’s next for Angela? “My happy ending is mainly to see my kids go through high school, go through college, something that I never got to do,” she says. “I want to lead them in the right direction and make sure they don’t end up where I’ve been.”
Thank you for helping to lead your struggling neighbors in the right direction!
"I Feel OK Again"
How your support helped Deanna find new life.
Deanna knows she’s a changed woman after a year at the Kokomo Rescue Mission. She’s at peace. She’s confident. She’s happy.
But Deanna has another objective measure of how much she’s changed. And it has something to do with her language skills.
“I cussed like a sailor when I first got here,” she says, laughing. But not anymore.
Deanna, 56, says that’s partly because of following the rules, but it’s mostly due to what she calls “a deep change inside.” And she says that’s because she feels deeply loved at Open Arms.
“Having people around me going through what I’ve gone through is a blessing,” she says. “Being here has made me feel OK again.”
Deanna hadn’t been okay for a while, due to a meth addiction that started in her mid-40s — partly because she liked the buzz, and partly because it relieved chronic back pain. But the drugs ended up costing her her job, her home and most of her belongings.
She found a safe, healing place to land at Open Arms, and has had no desire to do drugs since. But she’d only been here a couple of months when she was diagnosed with cancer and went into a round of chemo and radiation.
Whatever comes next, Deanna is facing it with courage. Her housemates bought her a T-shirt that says, “This is not the journey I would’ve chosen for myself, but I love life and I choose to fight.”
“It made me feel wanted,” Deanna says. “And needed.”
"I Feel OK Again"
How your support helped Deanna find new life.
Deanna knows she’s a changed woman after a year at the Kokomo Rescue Mission. She’s at peace. She’s confident. She’s happy.
But Deanna has another objective measure of how much she’s changed. And it has something to do with her language skills.
“I cussed like a sailor when I first got here,” she says, laughing. But not anymore.
Deanna, 56, says that’s partly because of following the rules, but it’s mostly due to
what she calls “a deep change inside.” And she says that’s because she feels deeply loved at Open Arms.
“Having people around me going through what I’ve gone through is a blessing,” she says. “Being here has made me feel OK again.”
Deanna hadn’t been okay for a while, due to a meth addiction that started in her mid-40s — partly because she liked the buzz, and partly because it relieved chronic back pain. But the drugs ended up costing her her job, her home and most of her belongings.
She found a safe, healing place to land at Open Arms, and has had no desire to do drugs since. But she’d only been here a couple of months when she was diagnosed with cancer and went into a round of chemo and radiation.
Whatever comes next, Deanna is facing it with courage. Her housemates bought her a T-shirt that says, “This is not the journey I would’ve chosen for myself, but I love life and I choose to fight.”
“It made me feel wanted,” Deanna says. “And needed.”
"The Homeless Are People Too"
Mary knows it could happen to anyone. She’s grateful for your help.
This Thanksgiving, Mary is grateful for the Kokomo Rescue Mission, where she found a place to land, to rebuild and to find hope and peace.
For Mary, homelessness — brought about by joblessness — looked a little different than the stereotype. She wasn’t sleeping on the streets and sidewalks. But she was crashing on couches of family members. And she didn’t like it.
“I felt like a leech,” she says. “It made me feel beholden to them.”
When one family member downsized, there was no more couch for Mary, and she had no place to go. But thanks to your kindness, the Mission was ready and waiting with open arms.
A spinal issue causes chronic pain in her back and leg, which makes it difficult to work. But the Mission has helped her apply for disability benefits. She says when she gets her first check, she’s definitely making a donation to the Mission.
“Homelessness teaches you a lesson,” she says. “People have all these bad misconceptions about homeless people, especially the ones on the street. But they’re people too. They’ve just fallen on hard times.”
Mary says that once she’s able, she hopes to get a desk job — to keep her off her feet — find her own place and restore relationships with some family members. In the meantime, she’s grateful for the Mission.
“I really appreciate everything they’ve done for me,” she says. “Thank you.”
"The Homeless Are People Too"
Mary knows it could happen to anyone. She’s grateful for your help.
This Thanksgiving, Mary is grateful for the Kokomo Rescue Mission, where she found a place to land, to rebuild and to find hope and peace.
For Mary, homelessness — brought about by joblessness — looked a little different than the stereotype. She wasn’t sleeping on the streets and sidewalks. But she was crashing on couches of family members. And she didn’t like it.
“I felt like a leech,” she says. “It made me feel beholden to them.”
When one family member downsized, there was no more couch for Mary, and she had no place to go. But thanks to your kindness, the Mission was ready and waiting with open arms.
A spinal issue causes chronic pain in her back and leg, which makes it difficult to work. But the Mission has helped her apply for disability benefits. She says when she gets her first check, she’s definitely making a donation to the Mission.
“Homelessness teaches you a lesson,” she says. “People have all these bad misconceptions about homeless people, especially the ones on the street. But they’re people too. They’ve just fallen on hard times.”
Mary says that once she’s able, she hopes to get a desk job — to keep her off her feet — find her own place and restore relationships with some family members. In the meantime, she’s grateful for the Mission.
“I really appreciate everything they’ve done for me,” she says. “Thank you.”