For the privacy of those involved, names have been changed in this story.
John is 63 years old and has lived over the mountain from Union Mission in Loudendale for many years. He has been a client of the Family Services ministry and receives food boxes from the mission. He would show up from his appointment in his older chevy pickup with his faithful black lab in the passenger seat.
“I noticed one time, recently,” explains Pat Clayton, Family Services Coordinator, “John didn’t arrive in his truck. He had been dropped off by someone who gave him a ride. He told me his truck wasn’t running and that he was hoping to fix it soon.”
John continued to make it to his scheduled appointments via friends and neighbors providing rides to and from the mission. One recent appointment, however, Pat noticed John was still sitting outside of the mission with his box of food and his dog hours after the appointment had ended.
“I asked him where his ride was.” Pat said. “He explained that they must have forgotten him. Well, I wasn’t going to leave him on the bench, so I loaded him and his dog into my truck and took him home. That is when I saw the condition of his home.”
The house John was living in is owned by a family member but the house was in serious disrepair. There was no electricity or running water. The house had structural issues as well as mold.
“It wasn’t a good situation for John,” Pat says. “He told me that he and his dog almost froze to death this past winter without any heat source. I knew right then we had to find a way to get John to a better place.”
The Union Mission team mobilized to find a solution for John. They were making progress on finding him some housing options while delivering food and water to him weekly.
“John tried to walk from Loudendale to Union Mission one week to get some food,” Pat says. “That is an incredibly long distance to walk with a mountain in between. I talked to Kathy (who is director of the warehouse at UM) and she set up a delivery route to John until we could find housing for him.”
Unfortunately, tragedy struck the very next week. John’s house caught fire and was a total loss. Thankfully, he and his dog escaped unharmed but now John had absolutely nothing.
“He told me his plan was to live in a tent in the yard,” Pat says. “He said that was really the only thing he could do.”
However, the leg work that the Union Mission team was doing was starting to bear fruit. Other organizations stepped in to help John as well. The Red Cross provided John a hotel room for several nights until housing could be found. Union Mission continued to provide food. A local, low-income housing facility was able to make some adjustments and offered an apartment to John in the facility in downtown Charleston. The United Way helped cover some of John’s utility deposits. Union Mission Thrift Store provided clothing and some furniture for his new place.
“There is no doubt this was God working through people,” says Pat. “Everything came together quickly so that he could have a safe place to live. John told me that he never had air conditioning before. Can you imagine surviving this hot summer we have had without water or air? He has all the amenities now that we take for granted. He even has access to public transportation so he doesn’t have to walk to the store. This is what makes my job so edifying.”
The mission is not done working with John, however. John receives a monthly disability payment from the government. Family Services is working with him to teach him how to budget his monthly expenses. The mission is helping him set up a bank account so he can pay his utilities and manage food expenses. John is in much better living conditions now but he still needs help and direction on how to get back on his feet.
Union Mission says, “We Feed People”, but there is so much deeper meaning to that statement, however. Thanks to the support of donors, Union Mission is able to help people put their lives back together, feeding more than just the body.
