Read our current newsletter. Would you like to receive our newsletter? Fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

Homeless at 16, Jeremy has finally found a real home.

Your gifts are transforming lives...

After 41 years, Jeremy has finally found a home that provides real nourishment, love and support. “It’s exciting for me to be where I am,” said Jeremy, who moved into the Kokomo Rescue Mission on Sept. 14, 2009. “I won’t make a career out of this. I’ll eventually move on. But this is my home and family for now.”

The things that make a home a home were missing from the homes Jeremy grew up in. As a baby, he was left unsupervised on a routine basis. As a young boy, he remembers verbal, emotional and physical abuse from his father and stepmother.

As an example, Jeremy describes the attempt to solve his bedwetting problem. “They thought I was too lazy to get up and go to the bathroom when actually, I just wasn’t waking up,” recalled Jeremy. “They limited how much liquid I could drink so I was always thirsty, and they would make me hang my sheets out so everyone could see and ridicule me.”

Also, when other kids were riding their bikes or swimming during the summer, Jeremy was forced to sit all day on the back step. “I used to pray for rain because then our trash can lids would fill up with water and I could drink it.”

At age 16 and with only a 7^th-grade education, Jeremy was asked to leave this home. What followed was a life in the streets, complete with drugs and alcohol. “I loved the sense of freedom,” said Jeremy . “But Dayton was like a small New York. There were no rescue missions back then. I slept on the streets. I learned to steal, fight, cheat and con.”

Two instances stick out in Jeremy’s memory. “I hadn’t eaten anything for two weeks. I was so hungry. I knew of a diner downtown where you could eat and then pay. After I ate, I asked for more onion rings. The waitress was the only one there. It broke my heart to do it, but when she left to get them, I took off.”

Another instance is a close brush with death. “I used to go through unlocked cars,” Jeremy explained. “I found some pills in one and I took two. I went into cardiac arrest. I was pronounced dead but was revived. My heart quit again and I was pronounced dead again and was revived again. I was in critical condition. When I left the hospital, they told me if I kept this up, I would die in the streets.”

Death was actually something Jeremy admits he would have relished at the time. “I would pray that God would stop my heart and take my life from me. I was too much of a coward to take my own life. I was bitter, resentful to everyone especially Christians, and I hated myself and my life.”

Jeremy’s homes alternated between the streets, the bars, homeless shelters and jail. He estimates he has spent 20 years in jail and 10 years on the streets. He made his way to Indiana in 1994 when he joined a carnival.

In August 2009, Jeremy took his last drug. A few weeks later, he had his last drink. Then, he came to the Kokomo Rescue Mission and thought this time might be different. “ I had a peace about coming this time,” he said “This time, God got a hold of me and rattled my cage.”

As a result, Jeremy has a new home where he receives physical and spiritual nourishment, as well as love and support. He has been invited into the Rescue Mission’s New Life Program, which is a minimum 9-month commitment. He finds spiritual nourishment in memorizing and studying Scripture and he prays constantly.

“I pray for my future and for what God wants done in my life. I now know that what Jeremy wants is a train wreck. I pray for other people too. The more I pray for others, the closer I get to God. It’s rewarding to see God at work in some small way.

“God brought me through the mud, which was so thick,” said Jeremy. “I would never go back to that other lifestyle. Kokomo is the one city where I haven’t been in any bars and I haven’t been to jail in. Every other city in American where I have been, those things aren’t true.”

Jeremy feels he has finally found a home.

Read Denise's or Cynthia's story. Other stories like this are in our free newsletter called The Mission Messenger. Sign up to receive our newsletter using the form below.

Give now to help men and women find freedom and victory through Jesus Christ over the destructive forces in their lives.

Home --Learn more about the Mission's shelter programs for men and women