Changed Lives

Life hasn’t been easy for Jenny.

First, her father died of cancer when she was pregnant. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she and her husband split up … leaving Jenny to parent solo. After she and her son moved in with her ailing mother, Jenny “took over fixing things around the house like my dad used to do,” she says. “I was also a nurse, so I helped my mom with her health issues.”

But Jenny had health problems of her own. And due to her degenerative discs and rheumatoid arthritis, “I ended up having a bad fall and dislocating my right kneecap severely,” she remembers. “I was in a leg cast for four months.”

Things only got worse from there. “One week after that injury, my mom was in the hospital. She had heart failure on top of her other health issues. I ended up taking care of her full time until she passed away.”

Even after downsizing, the medical bills wiped Jenny out so she couldn’t even pay rent. Her son moved in with his dad, but Jenny had nowhere to go — until she found Crossroads and your kindness.

Here, Jenny found warmth and acceptance and rediscovered her love of cooking that she’d learned from her dad! “He always wanted to bottle his barbecue sauce recipe,” she says. “I’m going to call it, My Dad and Me Gourmet Barbecue Sauce.”

Jenny knows without your support of Crossroads, “I could have ended up on the street. I didn’t have anybody else to turn to.”

Your kind support helps neighbors like Jenny discover a new zest for life and the sweet taste of success!

Nicole remembers the day she and her four children became homeless very well.

Overnight, they went from having a comfortable home to being on the streets, not knowing what to do next. Nicole had heard about Crossroads and decided to see if they could provide help.

There, they received the support they needed to get through that difficult period and emerge on the other side ready for a fresh start. Nicole worked overnights as a nurse’s assistant at the time, which meant taking the children to school and child care during the day. The staff at Crossroads worked with her to ensure this process was smooth and easy.

Also, coming to the Mission meant leaving behind a dangerous neighborhood. “My kids would find drug needles,” she remembers. “It just wasn’t safe for my children to even go outside and play.”

At Crossroads, she and her children got rooms to themselves where they could live and recover together. While here, Nicole also helped with cooking meals from time to time, which she greatly enjoyed. She fondly remembers one night when she put together a special meal. “It was Mexican food … I remember cooking a big meal for everybody and everybody loved it, so that was a plus!”

Because you care, neighbors like Nicole and her family are able to receive the help they need at Crossroads!

Justin has always been searching for purpose in his life. Finally, after coming to Crossroads Mission Avenue, he found it.

Growing up in Columbus, he got in trouble a lot, using drugs, and making reckless decisions. Ultimately, it landed him in prison. While there, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

Upon release, Justin returned to a life of drugs and homelessness — but deep down, he knew something had changed. After he had a pulmonary episode, the hospital sent him to Crossroads to recover and get clean. He learned he had experienced heart failure. Since, he has gotten sober, begun attending worship and focusing on his relationship with God, all with the help of the Mission.

Because of the heart failure, Justin was told he didn’t have much time to live. Nevertheless, he decided to embrace his purpose: to spend time with loved ones and trust in the Lord to show him the way.

“Crossroads was not just accommodating of me staying there with my limited ability to do things, but also with the emotional stuff that I was going through with that diagnosis,” Justin says. “My diagnosis is terminal. But it reminded me that I had to trust God and know that’s part of his plan.”

Thanks to you, people like Justin receive the help and hope they need — and a fresh start!

Late last year, Darin wondered if his young sons would even have a Christmas, much less anything to celebrate. The three of them – Darin and his sons, ages 3 and 1 – had just fled a domestic abuse situation. Darin’s wife, a recovering alcoholic, had relapsed and become violent. She ended up going to jail. Darin also had a history of addictions, but was working to turn things around, especially when his wife – now his ex – became abusive around their children.

And those kids needed a devoted parent. Landon, the 3-year-old, has severe autism and is nonverbal. Elijah, 1, was born 10 weeks premature and spent his first four months in the hospital. Both boys need special attention, and it takes a special parent to give it. Darin wanted to be that Dad. So he went to Crossroads Mission Avenue in search of help and hope. And he found plenty of both.

“Ever since the day I arrived, my life has gotten better,” says Darin, who lives in the Lodge Apartments with his boys. “I had my own space. And my boys were safe.”

With some financial challenges of his own, Darin worried that he wouldn’t be able to provide much of a Christmas for his kids. But thanks to friends like you, he didn’t have to worry. The team at Crossroads made sure that Landon and Elijah got Christmas presents, and that the whole family was well fed and cared for.

Darins says that kind of love and support has been a hallmark all along. “Everybody at Crossroads has been nothing but open-armed and caring,” he says. “They love me and my boys like we’re their own.”

Darin, who recently celebrated a year of sobriety, also says Crossroads has been instrumental in his recovery. “It has not been an easy journey,” he says, “but I’ve worked really hard. I’m thankful for Crossroads and all their resources and support. They worked with me when I’ve gone through a rough patch. They help hold me accountable. I can’t tell you how much they’ve helped me.”

And not just in his recovery. Darin says Crossroads has also helped restore his self-image. “My sense of self, my sense of being a man, my sense of being a father,” he says. “They loved me when I didn’t feel like loving myself.”

His self-confidence restores, Darin is looking forward to the day when he can live independently again – “just a little home for me and my boys,” he says. It’s a next step he says wouldn’t have been possible without your support. “If it weren’f for Crossroads, my life would be miserable,” he says. “But thanks to you, my future looks very bright.”

Thank you for giving families help, hope, and a bright future!

It was the day after Thanksgiving. And Kim, her longtime partner, Travis, and their 12-year-old grandson, Tegan, had no place to go. They had lost their housing after a conflict with another family member, and now, with winter fast approaching, they needed a place. They worried about having to sleep in their car.

Fortunately, thanks to your support, it didn’t come to that. They came to Crossroad Mission Avenue and got the help – and the housing – they needed. Travis stayed in the men’s part of the facility, and Kim and Tegan stayed in the women’s/family section, sharing a room with bunk beds. (Tegan more than happily sleeps in the top bunk!)

In a move from another state, Kim had lost her Medicaid, SNAP benefits and assistance for Tegan. Crossroads staff helped her get it all back.

But now there was another problem: Finances were tight, and Christmas was just around the corner. Twelve-year-old boys don’t want to be disappointed at the most wonderful time of year.

Tegan wasn’t disappointed! Crossroads’ Giving Tree program made sure of that. He received a football, basketball, soccer ball, jeans and shirts as gifts. He was pretty thrilled about that. Kim was too. “Crossroads has been a blessing to our family,” she says. “They’re kind people.”

Kim and her family recently moved into their own independent housing. Thank you for helping them land on their feet!

This Thanksgiving, Alayna is grateful for friends like you who made it possible for her to land on her feet while at Crossroads.

A little over a year ago, her life started unraveling. She was a single mom trying to balance multiple jobs while also pursuing a nursing degree. Things got so overwhelming that she turned to meth to help her cope, and to make it through the day.

“Everything spiraled out of control relatively fast,” Alayna says. “My life was out of control.”

A possession charge landed her in jail for two weeks. Then the drug court program sent her to Crossroads to continue her rehab.

“I had hit rock bottom, and this was a ground zero moment,” she says. “But I knew I needed to do something. I had to completely surrender to the program, and to God. Coming here to Crossroads was all part of a divine intervention.”

Alayna says the love, support and encouragement from the Crossroads team helped her find hope and healing. She ended up working full time in one of our thrift stores, and is now that store’s manager.

“The thrift store has helped me be in a position to turn my life around,” she says. “I’ve regained the manageability that I had lost so quickly.”

During her almost yearlong stay at Crossroads, Alayna’s mother cared for her three children. She has since moved out of the shelter and into her own place, reunited with her boys, ages 10, 14 and 15.

“My oldest one told me that he couldn’t be more proud of me,” Alayna says. “He said he’s glad he can have somebody like me to look up to. That made me cry like a baby!”

We couldn’t be more proud of the way you help men, women and families find a fresh start. Thank you!

Mohamed knows what it’s like to be homeless with no place to go. After all, he was born that way.

He was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, where his family had landed after fleeing war-torn Somalia, where several families members had been killed. When Mohamed was about a year old, his family came to the United States, seeking safety and opportunity.

Mohamed’s father deserted the family almost right away, leaving the little boy to grow up without a dad. “I never really knew him,” Mohamed says. “I had no guidance, no role model.”

As Mohamed grew into his teens, he started getting into mischief and minor trouble. By the time he was 17, he was into drugs and frequent brushes with the law. At 20, he was convicted for theft and failure to appear in court, and sentenced to two years in prison.

When he was released early this year, once more he was like a refugee with no place to go … till someone pointed him to Crossroads.

“I came here with nothing but the clothes on my back,” Mohamed says. “But once I got here, they were a big help.”

In addition to providing food, shelter and clothes, the Mission helped Mohamed land a job as a butcher at the JBS Meat Plant in Grand Island.

Mohamed says without Crossroads, “I probably would’ve died, or went back to prison. I’m definitely on the right path now.”

Thank you for helping people who are lost find the right path!

Sonny had a dark past. The downhill spiral started when he was 12. He began walking away from being a “pretty good boy,” drinking and smoking cigarettes. Freshman year of high school brought many changes to Sonny’s life; his family moved, his brother graduated and moved away, and Sonny felt alone. His new friends were involved with drugs, and by Sonny’s junior year in high school he was a heavy user himself. Then Sonny was taught to use a needle, and for the next 7 years his life revolved around sticking a needle in his arm. Drugs became the only thing he wanted. He could no longer keep a job, was sleeping in his car, closets and grain bins, and started stealing. He was repeatedly arrested and eventually ended up in prison for 2 1/2 years.

Sonny started hearing about God’s love from a jailer, and he spent his time in jail and prison learning all he could about God. That jailer heard a radio ad about Crossroads Mission Avenue, and encouraged him to call when the time came for him to leave. After 2 1/2 years in prison, Sonny came to Crossroads Mission Avenue.

Sonny felt loved and cared for at Crossroads Mission Avenue. “We started every day with devotions, and it was so encouraging and uplifting to start every day that way – in praise to God. Through classes we learned how to take care of ourselves, eat well, live on a budget, interview for jobs, save money, and slowly ease back into the community – how to restart life. I needed that help. It prepared me for a better life.”

Since leaving Crossroads Mission Avenue he attended college and obtained his ASE-certification to be an auto technician, married the woman of his dreams and purchased a home. Sonny is now a youth pastor, an auto mechanic, husband to his wife Kristen and father to their son Josiah and daughter Taylor.

“I don’t know where I would be today without the help of Crossroads Mission Avenue. All the help they gave me, everything they taught me, it allowed me a fresh start in life.”

Rolland’s father was murdered when he was three years old, and that memory haunted him throughout his childhood.

He rebelled as a teen, and went to prison at 17 on a breaking-and-entering charge. When he was released six years later, Rolland managed to turn his life around — working as an electrician, getting married and even having kids.

“Everything was good until my little brother died,” he says. Rolland was 43 when a heart attack took his brother’s life. Shortly after, his mother and his grandparents died as well. “And then I just fell off the deep end. I really lost my mind,” he recalls.

The next decade was a blur of drinking and drugs until Rolland ended up living under a bridge for three years. One day, seeing his plight, a woman gave him $20 and a book of daily devotions.

“I read the passage for that day,” Rolland says. “And it said don’t let go of Jesus’ hand.”

Rolland didn’t let go, and he eventually ended up at Crossroads, where he’s turning things around. “I’m really grateful for Crossroads,” he says. “I know Jesus led me here, and he’s going to help me through.”

You can help people like Rolland find a new life!

When it rains, it pours. Just ask Carmon. She was living in a basement apartment when the Great Flood of 2019 arrived. The waters rushed in, and she lost everything.

She found another place, but her hours at work were being cut, and it became cost prohibitive. She left that behind and moved into an extended-stay hotel, but it was infested with bedbugs.

Then the pandemic hit, and a couple of her adult children lost their jobs. Carmon depleted all of her savings trying to help them stay afloat. Out of money and options, Carmon turned to Crossroads for help.

“At first I was like, Why am I here?,” she says. “I felt like I had failed. I couldn’t imagine what I had done to deserve this, because I was trying to do the right things.” But life had hit hard, and Carmon was grateful to have a safe place to land.

“The staff here is amazing and so supportive,” she says. “And I know The Man Upstairs is going to take care of me. I know that. I’m just trying to learn to turn it all over to him, which is hard for me, because I’m one of those control people.”

Carmon was about to lose control of one more thing: Her company eliminated her job last summer, while she was at the Mission. But it wasn’t long before God provided her with a new job, even closer to home.

She’s renting one of the reduced-rate apartments at Crossroads until she can save up some money, buy a car and get back out on her own again. Till then, she’s thankful for the Mission.

“I’m excited about the future,” she says. “I’m glad Crossroads is here.”

She’s glad for the support of friends like you, too. Thank you for being there!