Jerome was running around at 5 years old on the playground with cocaine in his shorts as an unwitting accomplice to his Dad's drug dealing endeavors. He progressed to armed robbery at the age of 16 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison...But God had other plans for Jerome's life. God turned Jerome's world upside down, saved his soul, and set his life on a path to do great things to combat crime rather than contribute to it. After being released from prison and having a new purpose in his life Jerome took bold steps to begin rebuilding his life and set out to help others rebuild their lives as well. He met Neil Richardson while SafeHouse Ministries was in its infancy, and he began working with Neil in the work of helping others achieve victory after prison. Jerome shares some powerful insight into the dark world of poverty and crime that many people are born into without ever having a choice, this is a longer than usual episode, but well worth the time to hear what Jerome has to say!
Jerome was running around at 5 years old on the playground with cocaine in his shorts as an unwitting accomplice to his Dad's drug dealing endeavors. He progressed to armed robbery at the age of 16 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison...But God had other plans for Jerome's life. God turned Jerome's world upside down, saved his soul, and set his life on a path to do great things to combat crime rather than contribute to it. After being released from prison and having a new purpose in his life Jerome took bold steps to begin rebuilding his life and set out to help others rebuild their lives as well. He met Neil Richardson while SafeHouse Ministries was in its infancy, and he began working with Neil in the work of helping others achieve victory after prison. Jerome shares some powerful insight into the dark world of poverty and crime that many people are born into without ever having a choice, this is a longer than usual episode, but well worth the time to hear what Jerome has to say!
Back then we had jump out boys and Bakerville department, a lot of the older guys in Georgia, Louisville. And my dad used to give me the crack and I would have it in my drawers, my underwear. And when the police would come, they wouldn't bother the kids over there playing on the playground. And so he would never have nothing on him. And when they would leave, he would, if he'd make a sale or something, he would call me.
Phil Shuler:HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.
Phil:Good morning. This morning on the podcast, we've got Jerome Lawson and I've been able to get to know Jerome a little bit over the past few years. He's doing some great things right now for the Lord. And, he is on a very different path now than what he used to be. And Jerome was willing to come on the podcast and share his story, share his testimony from where he was in the darkness and now what he's doing in the light. And How he got to know Neil Richardson, the founder of Safe House and just how the Lord used Neil and what the Lord did to turn him back into a life of doing some really amazing things now. But Jerome, it's good to have you.
Jerome:I'm glad to be here. Yeah it's amazing that, you called me to come on and talk about my story because I've been reliving my story in a sense. When you asked me about something that describes me, I would say it's like a surgery that happens that it was a successful surgery, but it's a progressive recovery. Yeah. Because the Bible says that we've all fallen short and We have to stay in the race until it's done. It's won, but it's not done. Yeah, our part's still going. Yeah, our part. I was explaining to some friends of mine. You know, My life is like, you know, you only get one house. And like, a fire was a set of blades on my house. And the part of it that wasn't damaged, that was salvaged. That kind of that's me. Yeah. I had to find life and I had to figure out how to live in a part of the house that wasn't torn down and taken away because of the damage. Yeah. And I speak to that because I have an amazing family and sometimes we attach how somebody is based on what they've accomplished and that's not always true. Yeah. Yeah, because my mom, that was my queen, but she was an addict, strong, phenomenal woman, but she had her problems. And my dad, an amazing guy, but he had his problems. He was a, he sold drugs. He came from a broken home. My family has a history of just coming from that adverse environment and those conditions, the brokenness. And sometimes people waste time trying to move. become wholesome again, not knowing that sometimes, situations can affect the broken pieces to where they, they don't come back together like they, they could. Oh, yeah. I came up, man, seeing a lot of stuff in the community from the south side of Columbus, 31903 area. And I had a problem with school, I learned how to read by reading the captions on the TV. Yeah. My dad used to always like, who keep putting words on the TV? And I used to sneak and put the captions on. So that as I hear the words and I see them, I just had it. I don't know what it. So
Phil:did you just want to learn? Like you, when you was a kid, you was little, you wanted to
Jerome:learn. I wanted to learn because it's you get this intuition. Intuition in children is dangerous. Cause they're, cause you need certain constructs to help you develop them. And when you don't have those things you tend to try to figure them out. But what happened was, I knew that my dad beating my mama wasn't, it didn't feel right. I knew that only eating certain things. And you can see on TV, you can see certain meals and not saying we was food deprived, but we had our moments. So my environment I was always an inquisitive child. So certain things didn't sit right, even though I didn't understand it. So you know, I would just do stuff. I was real adventurous or clumsy and my dad was never that encouraging type. So what you don't get at home in that home setting innately, you reach out to that when you outside of the home. And that's so when I was at school, instead of learning from a teacher, I just wanted to connect with her because she was like that mother that I needed home. And then, how you look at authority figures, all that stuff played a part in retrospect, I think now. Yeah. And I remember them telling me, man, you stealing stuff in school, you're doing this petty stuff, at least to bigger stuff. And I didn't get it. And what happened was I had the pattern of doing things that I shouldn't have been doing and it just, it evolved into different things because now I'm getting old. I'm in the community. I want the money. I like the girls. I want to do those things that got that. And so here I am, stealing cars, selling fake drugs. We used to make fake crack. Oh yeah, it's coming up. Yeah, we used to make it. They call it flicks. aNd yeah. Being in that street life, man, just, I started stealing cars, and then I started selling drugs. I ran heavily with the gang culture. It wasn't big as, it wasn't like it is now, but I, because of the area of what I grew up with, I was affiliated with those particular people. I started getting a gun, and I, ultimately I robbed a store, and had to go to prison for 10 years. They gave me 2013. fRom 16 to 26. Another adverse environment Wow. As a child. Yeah. And I tell people, I'm just telling my wife this, I became an abyss while I was in prison. I dug a hole and went into a darkness because I didn't, I had to protect myself. I had to become dark. It's a dark environment. Wow. So the hole that I dug to run from things that I didn't know how to face or was scared to face. I stayed there and I interpreted life from that darkness. And so while being in that place, I didn't know how far I detached myself from what I couldn't handle or what I wasn't ready for. But when it was time to handle things, I handled them like people with a dark mind would handle them. It was always fight. It was always something. I was always protecting myself. And when you're an adolescent, when you're a teenager Your social development, your emotional health, your emotional intelligence, your mental health, those things aren't Registered. You don't know none of those things, right? Yeah, so and now we're in a world where we see that all those things are imperative to development of any person So me not having those things just being in survival mode. It was whatever it took. So what I did was I basically started to face my fears I started to go back to that little boy, that inquisitive boy, to why are things like this? Why am I feeling like this? And as I began to face my fears, I came out of that abyss. And I started connecting with people. I got my GED. Went to culinary school. I was on the debate team. I started doing constructive stuff. Yeah. And in the process of that, I started to learn myself. But I had to replace darkness with light. Mis education with education. I had a speech impediment. A lot of things that I had to overcome. But the thing is, I had to do it myself. With minimal resources and minimal help. There in prison? That's when I knew that there was a divine component to life. And that, and ultimately that's Yahuwah, God. And, man, I went through so much, man, like I was stabbed, I got in fights, but I got to a point where one day I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing and I looked at myself in the mirror and I didn't recognize what I saw. I didn't even recognize me. Me like I've seen myself in the mirror all my life, but in this setting at this time I did not recognize that person and most people don't recognize themselves until you begin to try to grow into yourself so when I Looked at myself and didn't recognize myself. I immediately went on a fast. I ain't know nothing about fasting or anything, but something in me said Don't eat anything or drink anything. I did it for three days And I prayed, I was like, Father I don't know you, but I've heard it when I went to foster care when I was young, I skipped a lot of that, but I did go to foster care because I got my grandma, I'm old school. We got whoopings coming up. So I had a couple of bruises on me. And I was going to Blanchard Elementary, and the teacher saw it and held me back and put, and the D FACS got involved. So I was taken away from my family for a year and a half, two years. Tried to commit suicide playing the system. I was like one of the first children they ever put on the 10th floor at the medical center at the time. They had a place called the 10th floor that was like the site ward. I did six, seven months up there. And so all these things happening to me and it's it didn't seem real because what reality seems real to a child, you can't get it. So while in prison, man, I did Tony Stark on Iron Man and the Avengers, I just sat back and through and projected everything about myself on the wall. And I just had to, I had to depict my whole, I had to break down my whole story as far back as I can remember. I can remember my mom being beat by my dad. She holding me in her lap. heR tears falling on the side of my face. Singing her favorite songs. And in my mind, I'm reliving my life so I can understand it. So I know what I need to change, what I need to become strong in, what I need to be smart in, and now I'm replaying traumatic moments, because at the end of the day, most, I realize this, most people lie to themselves when they're shameful about their past experiences, and then you go into denial, and sometimes you're not careful, You could put yourself into that abyss to where you can't come out. Because even though you know you don't need to be there, you've created a safety environment there. So it's better to stay there, rather than face certain things and really live your life. When I started to break down my life, then I started getting into the Word. to see how that can become something that I can use to help change my life. When I read about being saved, you become a new creature, renewing of your mind, all these things, I'm like, huh, I gotta be renewed. I gotta be born again. I gotta, the blood, all these things are coming into play. So how did you,
Phil:how did that piece come into it? Had you learned a little bit about God and you said, I need to start reading the Bible or did someone like, how did that, like, how'd you come to the recognition that you needed the Lord, you needed to be born again with Jesus, like, how'd that piece come into it?
Jerome:It was divine because you think about the child in the, I don't think it was Chronicles or Kings or something, I think it was Samuel when he was a child. And he kept waking up going to Eli. He's did you call me? He's no. YEah. Did you call me? He's no. He, again, as the elder, he's next time you hear that, say, I hear you, father. What, speak to me or whatever. So I heard that voice in me. And I know that, that divine genetic. Makeup is in all of us, right? Yeah. Cause we all ultimately were created in his image and likeness. Yeah. But our lifestyle, our choices separates us from that connection. It severs that. So by grace, I'll, I was grabbed and that's why I'm the way I am now. And I tell somebody, I just did a funeral service. You don't have to be perfect or flawless, but you gotta be sincere. You gotta be real about it. Yeah, so that changed my life Because it wasn't a man like paul, hey, so why do you kick up against it? Oh lord, but he knew I didn't know I had to be taught so immediately The spirit was like you have to get in this word and study anchor yourself right here So I started getting concordances and commentaries Instead of hearing different translations. I would take the words out of one KJV version Right or a 1611 version and I would translate it with the concordance Because I wanted an authentic Relationship based on seeking the truth knocking and finding type of thing Yeah, so the spirit putting me heavily that if I don't anchor myself in this if I'm not cleansed by water and truth You know the Bible says With spirit and fire I think but I had to be born again. Yeah, and the word represents relearning based on what you're interpreting and connecting to and reading and discovering now. So I made it a point that I would apply literally everything in that word to my life. So everything I pulled out, I attached some out of the word in and I was led through from Genesis, all the way to revelation. And I started going to Bible study. And all hell broke loose. No. Because here it is, this young guy like in the book of Job, excuse me, I know I'm younger but if you permit me to speak and these guys like no, that ain't with the god and that ain't with God too and here it is 6 months later, everybody's apologizing. Hey, man, where did you learn that? Because what I learned is no matter how saved you are, you can be, you can be in a place where There's a way to sing right into a man, but the end area there is there. Yeah. You can think, but you not know. Yeah. So that journey, when it started, people started gravitating to me. I ain't know what we're going on. And, but the Lord would just just be yourself. Speak what's spoken to you. Don't go outside his word. And that's when my relationship and my journey started, it was up and down now, but within that setting, And that lion's den, and that belly of the well, God, he said, I'm picking you. I ran a couple times, because life will do that to you. Yeah. And so now, I got on that, I got on I started getting trades and everything, because I didn't want to come home with it empty. I didn't want to come home with
Phil:it empty. This was all while you were in prison.
Jerome:Yep. And finally, one pastor came and said, hey man, next Sunday I want you to do the service. I want you to
Phil:do the service. In the prison service. Yeah. Yeah.
Jerome:I want you to do the service. I was at Willow Correctional Facility. I'll never forget and he said I want you to do the service before that. He always watched me. He preached. He looked straight at me. I'm like, what is the man doing? So when he said that I want you to do the service, I forgot what the topic was. But I talked about renewing your mind. And how being in prison sometimes can discourage you from having hope that the Lord can still use you. And when we got finished, he said, you're going to be a preacher and a shepherd. I said, don't do that. I was like, that ain't, cause most people, when they get a relationship, the first thing they want to do is lead and not serve. I went to Smith State Prison with that same energy, and God really protected me there. There was a, people were getting stabbed and beat up, financing cuts, and God protected me so much, and I met the most valuable person that I could meet at that time, and it was an old guy named Larry. He was a pastor. Was locked up for some bad stuff and never was coming home. Had a lot of two licenses. Wow. And he, we had a Bible study and he heard me asking questions and he, the look he gave me, I was like, man, I hope I don't have to fight no old man. Cuz the look was like, I didn't know how to take it. And we got seen, let me talk to you son. I said son? I said, okay. So we talked, he said, I don't talk to people for real. He said, but I know God is using you. And he said, I'm going to pour into you as much as I can before you leave here. That's what he did. Wow. He said, but if you don't receive what I'm pouring into you out of love, our relationship would be meaningless. He told me now you familiar with first Corinthians. It's crazy. They asked me that because first Corinthians was the first chapter I ever remembered. Out of the Bible when I first got converted, that was the first chapter that I ever memorized. Period. Wow. And when I went to Bible study and I recited that whole chapter because this is the thing. Love is too powerful for us to handle. Or interpret. But it's not too powerful for us to receive though. We can't. If we really knew what love was, the world would be different. Yeah, it would be. So now, me being in the place that I am, coming home with this mentality, I knew that the biggest challenge that I was going to face was dealing with people who don't understand what love is. Love says that I know you gay or I know you whatever you choose to be. Love says still see the person though. Still see the child, the creation that God made, right? And the spirit showed me that it's if you can get on your knees and pray for forgiveness and all these things, I need you to be able to give what you're asking of me. I need you to be able to give and extend that to the people. And when I started, I said, okay, but he said, it's not going to be easy though. I came home and went to city council. I basically said, I prayed for a couple of months. I went, got out in 2008, went to city council thinking like beginning 2009 or end of 2008 and I basically said, listen, the same city that I was condemned in, I need you all to take that same power to help me be productive as a citizen. I can't work no mediocre job. My record won't let me, I need somebody to help me. Be that productive person that you say we should model ourselves to be. I went to prison when I was 16. I'm an adult now. Help me. Pop Barnes connected. I got I got connected with all the city council. Pop Barnes stood out. And he watched me for a while and finally he took me to the Department of Labor. I met with a guy down there. And lo and behold, within a month I had a job at Columbus Foundry. And that's when my life truly changed because I started making decent money, not living wage paying money, but decent money. So what happened was before that happened, though, I had tried to get into the county jail to minister and they turned me down. But Pop Barnes made a call, talked to Neal, and he basically said, Hey, just interview him, see what he's saying. And I think the sheriff at the time was Dar, I think.
Phil:So did you know Neal before that? I didn't know Neal. Okay. So Neal Richardson was the chaplain at the jail at the time? Yes.
Jerome:Okay. And I didn't know Neal. And so basically, Sheriff just told Neal, you handle this. If you like him or not, it's up to you. Talked to Neil, went in and set up a meeting, talked to Neil, like three minutes. He said, Hey, stop. You're in. I'm good. I don't need nothing else from you. He was like, cause we started talking about the word and this is the thing. I use like Yeshua, the Mashiach. Certain people say Jesus, right? I may say Yah the way. Some people say God, that's fine. That's fine. I know what you mean. You know what I mean, right? I know what's here somebody not to me not how to worship the spirit does that right? So we connect spiritually and we stayed that way So when I got in that jail I hit the ground running. The guys and it was amazing because guys like, I'm like, man, I need some water. Go put some water in your cup for me and I would drink out the same cup they had. People were looking. What did Christ do? Paul put his hand in five and eight last time so he shook it off. At some point we gotta either believe it or not. We apply it or we don't. But it don't work if we don't apply it, right? Faith to faith. Coming out of jail, coming down the elevator, out of the jail one day, there's a probation officer in the elevator, unbeknownst to myself. And I'm talking, telling him about my experience in prison. He said, hey you been to prison? I said, yes, sir. He said, you on probation? I said, yes, sir. Right now, coming in jail, you on probation? I said, yes, sir. He's man, come see me Tuesday, next week. I went and seen him Tuesday. Wasn't even my probation officer. He put the paperwork in for my sentence to be terminated early. I had 20 served here. I had been on probation for 2 years and approved of going to jail. He got those additional 8 years. He submitted the paperwork for that time. Those remain 8 years to be enclosed in my case. So I actually, he put his neck on the line for me. I And I'm thankful that I've been able to stay in this race and endure and persevere and now he brags on me because he got reprimanded for making that decision to help me. But I knew that a man's gift maketh room for him and bring him before great men, right? It enlarges your territory. However, we can't lose sight in glorifying who gave us that gift. So now I've been out and a lot of people know me because of my commitment to trying to change and help the community. I went to culinary school, I was incarcerated, and I got my GED when I was like 17, because what happened was, My grandmama died at 16 in RYDC on Chautauqua road. I blew up about it. They reprimanded me and sent me to Columbus County Jail and put me in a cell at the bottom of the jail because I was a juvenile still. Put me in there with an adult, a white guy. I seen he had a GED prep book, so once they seen that I was underage, they moved us and separated us. And I was like, hey man, I'll buy that GED book for two packs of cookies. So we fished it we call it fishing, you know You throw a little line out and they free somebody pull the line in you can tie your socks up or sheet up And he I gave him the two packs of cookie. He attached the book. I pulled it back in Because of the complexity of the book I just went straight to the back and start studying the answers how the solutions and stuff And when I went to prison in eight months, I got my GD 17 Because you couldn't get into trade school unless you got a GD first And in prison, they prioritize education. So if you got 10, 15 years, they won't put you in a trade quicker than they will a guy that got 5 years or less. Lo and behold, I was blessed. And I got in culinary, auto maintenance and detailing, the debate team again customer service, computer applications. I just tried to give myself as much as possible. So when I came home, my desire was to have a food truck. I didn't know how. I didn't know about credit or anything. I just knew I had a passion for it. So I got hurt at the Golden Foundry. And when I got the settlement, I went and bought my first food trailer. I had to close twice because I went through a divorce and I went through just bad planning because I didn't know. But those two experiences made me revamp. And that's when I ultimately reopened again and I got an erect. I bought a food truck in total my truck. I Couldn't pull my trailer. I went and took that money and bought me an actual food truck, converted everything, started to a skillet and so that became my business. Wow. And still working in the community, still doing things in the community. Went to college but I had to drop out because my mom health problems. I lost about 2 years ago. But it still gave me an awesome level of education. And what happened was when we came up with the Cure Violence piece fast forward a little bit. I was invited by a guy I used to do security with to go to Piedmont to sit down. And we went to Piedmont and I shared my story. And they was like, I looked back, people were crying and everything. So Reggie and Cedric, Reggie Lewis, Cedric, he approached me. And we went to Flewell and Rec Center and we did another event. And we just started having meetings and developing a relationship. And finally they was like, hey, we're about to kick it off. Do you want to be hired on? And they gave me an offer and I was like I would, I've already been doing this type of work. And we started from there. Wow.
Phil:Wow. So growing up as a kid, I know, I think I've heard some of the stories that you've told over the years, but I think there was one story that you were sharing about being a little kid. I don't know how old you were at the time, but like the police came around and your dad had put all the drugs on you
Jerome:because they would. Yeah. Back then we had jump out boys and Bakerville department, a lot of the older guys in Georgia, Louisville. And my dad used to give me the crack and I would have it in my drawers, my underwear. And when the police would come, they wouldn't bother the kids over there playing on the playground. And so he would never have nothing on him. And when they would leave, he would, if he'd make a sale or something, he would call me. That's And I look back at that, man, and it speaks to You only do what you know. Yeah. Sometimes we find ourselves faulting people for what they done without trying to understand why they did it. You know what I'm saying? We have to peel back layers to see the underlying contributors of what the behavior is. Yeah. Yeah. We see, oh, they smoke a drug. Oh, they doing this. What led up to that? We see the action but we don't see the preliminary part of it. Yeah. When I look, when I sat in prison I reviewed all that and what I knew is that in his mind, it wasn't that I was giving a child drugs to hold. In his mind, I'm just beating the system. I'm outsmarting the system and I'm trying to hustle and make money. Wrong, yes, but you can't tell a person that they're wrong if their way of thinking don't acknowledge wrong. Yeah.
Phil:That's true. Yeah.
Jerome:Yeah, that's how that went and I and we have a great relationship now.
Phil:You and your dad.
Jerome:Yeah. Yeah. I don't I could be wrong but I don't remember a time him telling me when I was young that he loved me cuz he was my stepdad. My real dad left when I was born. I was born in Baker Village Home Delivery. My mama was five. to deliver me and my grandma was like, come on down to your step. I know you in labor and she came down on steps and my grandmama who's died when I went all the way to sea. She brought me into this world. Wow. And cut that umbilical cord and I was born in Baker Village, 103C, home delivery. Wow.
Phil:Was that common at that time? Like a lot of home deliveries or was that rare?
Jerome:The thing about that was And it still speaks true now. Most black people, I hate to see it, in certain demographics, they don't have adequate health care. And I don't say black because we're just identifying the numbers and the data for what it is. But most people in that area, we need to have adequate access to health care, mental health, or anything, counseling or whatever. So You know, it just speaks to how the issues we're still dealing with now. Most mothers don't teach their daughters and most fathers don't teach their sons because they're not there in the first place. You work eight hours, they're in daycare, then you gotta do this. By the time you get home, life done happened and now it's eat, shower, back in the bed, repeat. And 18, you done spent millions of hours working trying to survive, minimal hours trying to develop your child. So that was the scenario with me. My mom was an amazing woman. She just had a fast life at a young age and being pregnant and having children while you're a child yourself is just the territory of that type of environment. And when I was born. When my dad embraced my mom, my dad, both his parents were killed when he was young. So he went through the foster system and adopted by extended family. A lot of stuff happened to him. And what happens is when things happen to you and you don't get help, you internalize it to the point where it narrates your life. Because what we got to understand at this point in time, everything you do, Consciously or subconsciously affects the development of who you become. Yeah. That's why when people sit down and they go to counsel and their counsel brain goes suddenly I never knew that affected me like that. So imagine when you can start doing it yourself. When I was in prison, I was reading books and literature about how to find me, how to help me because if I don't know what's wrong with me, I can't convey that message to you for you to help me with what's wrong with me. I started this individual counseling, then I started doing this peer to peer counseling because we counsel each other whether we know it or not, because the takeaway is that even counselors have counselors, therapists have therapists, because we don't all, we don't have it all the way right, so it's imperative that as humans, as people, we're designed to connect to each other because we're all family, really. So we have to bounce off each other. We have to reflect each other, but it's important to be truthful so we can hold each other accountable in such a way to where what I reflect to you helps you develop into the person that you should be. You look at Christ and the disciples, they were reflections of each other. He was an illuminating truth that helped them to become disciples and they was able in return because he was a man. Reflect to him who he was so that together and you think about it, we deal with situations when we don't have to go through the storms ourselves. And I told my wife the other day, I realized why I would think this lord knows that I speak without trying to offend the word of the spirit. I believe he gave man to help me not so that she could hold his hand. But rather so that man would understand that while you go through things based on the assignment and responsibility, you're not by yourself. They say it's not good if man should be alone. Alone in what? You know what I'm saying? I see the bear, he got a bear in it. I see the lion, he got a lion in it. I see the cheetah. Everybody got a companion to deal with what they were naturally designed to do, except for man. So now I have a wife, we have a wife, not to hold our hand, but to be just there to help me. Sometimes help is just simply being in the presence of somebody and not dealing with something yourself.
Phil:Yeah, that's true. What did your I know you talked a little bit about. How you met Neil and initially, did you guys begin to work together in ministry? We worked,
Jerome:I'm glad you brought it up. We did a lot of stuff. I started Bridge the Gap. The, where Safe House is right now, I was an intrequisite, did I say that right? Intrequisite? Intricate. Intricate. So I was an intricate part of that.
Phil:Of how the beginnings of Safe House Ministries and how it started with Neil in the
Jerome:prison. Because what I started doing is after going to the jail for a moment. I developed a program called Bridge the Gap, and we did it at the safe house by the bonding company. I had a
Phil:That was the original business. So when Neal had the burden from the Lord to open the safe house, it was a little shack right across from prison. So that's what you're referring
Jerome:to. Yep, shotgun house. And what we did was, I developed a relationship with the probation office, community supervision office, that guys coming out of prison was mandated to go through Bridge the Gap program for six to eight weeks. And these six to eight weeks, I kept the data I helped guys get jobs, according to the resources that Safe House had, we developed a structure. So I showed them a game plan that I used for myself. For them to navigate through the challenges and obstacles of getting released. So in this program I, we did coping skills, we talked about the process of getting your license the information you need, proof of residency, all these things that they didn't know I was addressing these things, all the while talking about, The importance of having positive support groups around yourself, the ins and outs of not violating, to go back to prison because a lot of people don't know when you get out on parole and probation, one of the stipulations is you can't be around other people who are on parole and probation. That's hard to do. Yeah. I can't move on the north side when I get out of prison. I have to go back until I can get to a place where I can change. oR promote or facilitate change for myself. So I was just showing them ways of, to stay free, for one and the tools needed to give yourself the things that will help you stay free. Getting jobs, how to conduct yourself on interviews, resumes, everything, and dealing with the emotional and mental trauma that you experience as a result of going to prison, because most people who go to prison isn't. 90% is 99.99. 9 9 9 9 9% of the time is not a positive experience. We promote change and reform. Prison is not the place for that. It's punishment. Punishment enforces a behavior, but when you're enforcing a behavior to somebody who hasn't been taught how to behave how to be that person, you're solidifying that behavior rather than reforming it. That's why you got a lot of people who got out of prison. They go back. Yeah. yOu go back because the three things that contribute to violence in prison, poverty, education, or jobs go over to poverty. So you say Economics, education, and what is the other one? Housing. Like poverty, rather. If you don't have a place to stay, you're gonna do what you gotta do to survive. So with that safe house program, man, I did bridge the gap for a long time, free. Just, I wasn't paid for it or nothing. It was all voluntary. Yeah.
Phil:Was it, so how, was there much of a staff at that time? It was me, Neil. It
Jerome:was me, Neil. I think a guy named Chris came on at the time, a black bald headed guy, or I only say it like that because if I say it like that it'll help me remember names, I think his name was Jackson, he started working for New Horizons though, but we only had no more than 5, 4, 5 people that was, we dealt with the Chattahoochee Valley Ministries, but that particular part of Safe House, It would start literally, it started literally from Neil's vision and then collaboration and then it grew.
Phil:Wow. That was in, what year was that?
Jerome:I think that had to be like 2010. Okay. I think 2010, late 2009, 10, 11, 12 and it just Cause I remember specifically when they first got computers and started doing resume builds, I remember him feeding the coffee, they still do the same thing, just at a bigger a bigger scale, but the same idea and mission has been going on my biggest thing is I was trying to keep people accountable because when you're an ex offender and you're getting out of prison You have to tread in such a way because when you mess up, it affects everybody else. If we already deal with a biased mindset towards people, I tell people it's okay. It's okay to feel how you feel. It's natural. Oh, he'd been to prison. It's natural, but don't let it dictate how you respond and how you want to help people. That's when you begin to let that's when it begins to be wrong to me. Yeah. Getting out of prison. A lot of people face a lot of obstacles and I knew that's why I wanted to get in to be proactive about it to educate them about the things that they would experience. Wow.
Phil:That's good, man. Yeah, Safe House has grown so much, but it's so true that those core principles and philosophies of trying to help people, give them the tools they need, help them with their needs, the food, the coffee, the, the place to stay and live and just yeah, that's so neat. That's so neat. And now you're just, you're continuing to grow, to expand, to, to minister and help people. Your main role right now is with Cure Violence, right? Leading that initiative here in
Jerome:Columbus. Yes. We it started with me by myself for a year. And we just finalized a portion of our training from Cure Violence Global, which brought a lot of stuff into perspective. Because we got three, four zip codes that are experiencing violence. And what we're starting to do now is instead of trying to spread six people and do all these zip codes, we're going to concentrate on a hot spot area and create this concentricity of effort. And we're going to work that particular place and do like how the disciples did. 12 people changed the world. Yeah. So it's not the numbers. It's just the consistency and sticking to a model or a structure that works. So we got a lot of direction, a lot of what's a good word. We got a lot of direction and we got a lot of input in, in education. And what we're doing, because the goal is to end gun violence. That's the goal, but the focus has to be on what causes gun violence. That's why they're treating it as it is from an epidemiologist's perspective. They're treating violence as a disease. With a disease, you look at and you investigate what caused that disease, the contributors that make that happen. So what the first thing is to we want to interfere and interrupt the transmission of violence, right? And then we want to move to to, to changing the behavior and the mindset of people. Contributing to violence or causing violence, ultimately changing the community norm. And you do that by a process of things. You can't bake a cake if you don't have the ingredients to bake it. Because if the cake is baked then that means So, we eliminated eggs, flour, and sugar, all the components that can create the recipe, or create the product of the recipe. We won't have a recipe. Now we have to proactively, get in our schools and connect with the youth, get in our communities, be a grassroots relationship with the right people, the right participants, the right community. We have to facilitate the model. aNd make sure that we're putting everything to where the community can see what we're doing. Yeah, and narrow down so we won't be so spread thin and make the changes necessary. I think the parable says that you could take one tree and make millions of matches. But you also could take one match And destroy force with it. Yeah. So we just have to be strategic and methodical about what we're doing.
Phil:Yeah. Last week's podcast really, I think it was last week or might have been the week before. Just the person was sharing that just growing up in the gangs and just talking about what that's and maybe the mindset that a person has who's there in that life and we were trying to Talk about what can other people do, maybe who are on the outside or who not in that, but maybe have a heart that wants to help. And so I'd love to get your perspective. What people that are in the community working at Safe House Ministries or other ministries or just a person that wants to help some other people, what advice would you give on maybe how they could. Reach out and connect and maybe be able to have a positive influence on someone's life to help maybe turn them away from some of the darkness and start to see the light.
Jerome:I think like the scripture says, in all our getting, get an understanding. If we can't commit to trying to understand somebody else, we lose the component of compatibility. Because most people stop being compatible when they're not able to learn from each other or communicate or understand each other anymore. aNd we were just talking about this in the meeting this morning, you can never truly understand being in prison. You can't. That's just a fact. If you say I understand where you're coming from, that may not weigh with me. But if you give your energy trying to, to understanding me and trying to support the change that you saying I need, then you leverage that, that, that comment of you trying to understand, because you say you understand, but if you don't commit to what I need, a relationship with you, and as we grow in that relationship, of course, you can get a better understanding. Because to get to know my situation is, and to understand my situation, you got to get to know me. So people who want to get involved, they have to separate, they have, they can't let their bias and ignorance ruin the opportunity to get understanding about the people who need help. We have to develop concrete relationships that has a level of integrity that want that warrants a further of a relationship or more broadly that connects you to more than just that person now you're connected to the community that person comes from, because all you got to do is help and get credibility with one, and then they become the ambassador for you. Most of a lot of the issues that we experienced in Columbus. You have a group of audience of people who are like, I never knew that was going on. I didn't know that was happening over there. That was a detachment. Because you're normally not concerned about something that you're not willing to understand. Or even hear. So if you want to help, if anybody want to help. And I told the churches this. If you don't want to come out of the church to go in the community, fine. Support the people who are willing to do it though. Yeah. You hear what I'm saying? I'm not mad because it's ultimately God who holds us accountable for all our actions. But sometimes we could be a support by supporting the people who are doing the work or wanting to have a relationship with the people who we're helping and trying to come to the table and have an understanding to hear what these people are experiencing. Yeah. And if you have resources, not money, but if you know a job that's hiring and you can make a call to get somebody hired, Do it. Yeah, you're right. So it's not rocket science It's just basic math that we need to come back to the board and start and the pluses and the minuses
Phil:Yeah, I love how you talked about Building a relationship with one person Understanding one person and in being able to begin to help one person and then that person goes back and they're the ambassador It makes me think about The time when Jesus was at the well, Samaria and he understood her and he made such an impact on her. And then she went back to the city and brought everybody out to come see this man
Jerome:who knows me, who understands it, who
Phil:told me. And yeah, and that's, it's
Jerome:one by one. And that's what she said, this man who knows me. She said, what did you say, where's your husband? She said, talking about her husband. It's the right story, right? Yeah, he said, yeah. And she was like, he was like, yeah, you didn't have five. It astonished her that somebody was able to get her to understand her because we don't know her story. Yeah. But when we can take the time to hear people show our faces, be available, and I'll give you a good example. In the wintertime, what if every church opened their door and provided one, right? We hear people say we do a food drive and we do all this. It's not what you do. The Bible says he desires mercy and not sacrifice. You can be merciful, but what are you sacrificing? What are you doing to, if a man says he's hungry, but give him food, but give me your coat too. Are you going the extra mile? Put ourselves in empathy. I hate the word, but I love the word. Because some people use it to avoid being accountable. Yeah. But when you're truly empathetic, it breaks down that barrier that stops you from seeing that this is still a creation of God in front of you. Yeah. I'm going to open my door. I'mma believe it. I'mma pour out so and make room for him to pour in if you believe it and cheer for giving. Not about squandering money and not being a good steward, but being led spiritually. So you know you're doing the right thing. Yeah.
Phil:JErome, what advice would you give or what encouragement would you give to someone who's Still in the darkness maybe just searching for acceptance, searching for love, maybe in a gang, maybe just they don't have parents that are teaching them right and wrong. What would be the, a kernel of advice that you might give to encourage them to begin taking some steps in the right direction?
Jerome:It's never like a direct thing. Because I've truly, my method is I'm always spiritually led when I go into situations. But I look at it like the parable of the Bible, it talks about seed. Some fell on stony, some fell on soil that wasn't tilled. We have to not be afraid of sowing the seeds, right? Whatever's good, whatever's pure, whatever's holy, whatever. The advice would be to be unafraid to reach out to someone, even if they reject you. Most people reject help because they never had it and they don't know what it is or it always came with a price. Yeah. So just be unafraid to make the initial approach because although you may meet something that you didn't expect, you never know what that seed is going to produce. If you don't plant it. Yeah. Plant the seed cuz one water, one plant, one water, but God gives the increase. That's so
Phil:true. Yeah. And you never know that you may think that it doesn't not does nothing. Yeah. But maybe even years down the road, the Lord takes hold of that seed that's in that person's heart and mind and he uses it. Had a person that was sharing. Just. About his grandmama and she took him to church every week and taught him just the truth of right and wrong and tried to raise him, but she died when he was seven and he didn't have a mom or dad that that cared to teach him right and wrong. And it's just a really hard time from early on. And then he went through the darkness, drugs and selling and addiction and incarceration. But he said. I don't know if he was 30, 40 years old that seed of truth that his grandma had put in him. The Lord began to use that and guide him back.
Jerome:Yeah. Yeah. And then that's what we have to see you write about that. I was, when you was talking, I was having a conversation with my wife the other day and I said, the sun has never been late rising up. You never heard about a complaint, man. It's late this morning. It's it's always because when we operate in was natural things flow. And I learned a long time ago, we may be able to say. That this see a sunflower may grow at this rate because we studied, but the one thing we are clear on, nothing grows at the same pace. Everything grows when it's within its own means. Yeah. But we know that it won't grow if we don't plant the seed. Yeah. That's what we're certain about. Yeah. We don't plant it. We know nothing's going to grow. And water it. And water it. Yeah. Yeah. So if we don't do that. That's so good
Phil:man. Huh? That's so good because that's that's good because it helps me to recognize and be aware of not judging people. Yeah. Because that it's easy for us to look at someone's life and to say Look at what they're doing. Look at where they're at. They should really be way farther down the road. They shouldn't be doing that. They should be doing this but where they're at now Is way farther down the right road than where they used to be and they're growing and we don't all grow at the same pace We don't all grow at the same speed we don't even all have the same tools to be able to use in our toolkit to build and to grow and It's the Lord's job to grow people. It's the Lord's job to do the work. We just plant the seeds we do the watering and we Let the
Jerome:Lord do the work because at the end of the day He's our creator is not looking for people to interpret his plan, but rather people who are willing to carry out the directive of it. We waste so much time trying to, what's my purpose? What is God when it's like just be available to be purposeful. Yeah. Be available. What do he want? A broken hearted country spirit be available to be used. Cause we know that if you're not available to be used, we know that the main thing that we can take away is that nothing will be done. So we have to be available and understand that that the true power, the world will know that you all are his disciples by how you love one another. And if you love me, you will obey my commandment. His commandments were lived out. Everything that he commanded, he lived out. Yeah. We have to carry out those through our life by living them out and when they when I walk up on people smelling like urine and teeth gone and whatever, we can allow the thoughts of the world to come and pluck that from us or we can see this person. Hey, man, here you go. Take these three, four dollars. I don't care if you don't buy a bill with it. Does God say to us, okay, I'm going to give you this salvation. I'm going to give you this healing, but don't go, he's going to, he's not going to affect what you choose to do, how he gracefully helps you. Because at the end of the day, it, you lose, he don't. So we have to stay in a position of grace and be willing to extend that grace and that love and that mercy, man, and just pee the people that we were created to be and not let. Our bias, our natural and innate, our both natural and innately and subconscious perspectives or preferences, affect how we interact and treat other people. Yeah, it does.
Phil:WE've talked through a lot of things and you've shared a good bit. I know there's so much more, but is there any little story or anecdote or anything from your past that maybe you hadn't talked about that you think is just a neat illustration or something that maybe be good to, to just mention,
Jerome:I'd be 42 this month. I'm not a perfect person. I made some horrible decisions in my life. But, I never got a chance to be that little boy. I used to ask myself man, what could have life been if I would have had a dad and a mom that sat at the table and we ate together as a family. Brothers and sisters that, we didn't have to become close because of our struggle, but because of genuine love. We didn't have to burn through trauma. And sometimes when I look back at that, I relive a certain portion of my life every day. And people look at the smile and they'll look at your actions and be like, Oh, you guys together. You're doing great. But when people cry, I said to my wife, this tears are the most concentrated. You can't take drops of liquid because you cannot gauge the level of pain or happiness in each one that falls. And I and if we could take a drop. And put it somewhere. We can't handle that. You get what I'm saying like your emotions are so strong to where your body responds to them. You didn't happen. It's a sadness. T is come and when I think about my life, I'm at a point now where sometimes I still cry. Sometimes it's pain. It's sometimes still a little boy crying. But then sometimes it's that man that I've become this crime for joy because I know that at this point I can't let that little boy down. I have to do it. And I have to now, as a result of knowing that, make sure that the next man or boy to be a man misses, don't miss the opportunity to be a boy and not be robbed of that experience. Yeah. To everybody, embrace your inner child, right? And do homage to that inner child by making sure you help somebody so they won't have to go through that same experience.
Phil:Yeah. And you're investing in a lot of people just a lot of people that aren't biologically related to you. But you're raising some kids yourself too, right? Yeah,
Jerome:I got two daughters. I got a four. She'll be five next month. I got a three year old. They I believe in this. You become you become a, there's three things to a man, right? You realize who you are as a male, right? And then you become a man who's suitable to become a husband. And when you become a husband, you solidify that position by becoming a father. Cause then you understand those different levels. And then you get to relive everything when you become a grandmother, you know what I'm saying? So it's transcendent put progress to at every level because you have to know who you are. I'm a I'm a male. That's a man because I believe a man is a mindset that, that's shaped by how you're brought up. So if you don't see men, you can't become a man. YOu have to see it. But being a man is a mindset that's reinforced and established by connected to other men, grandfathers great grandfathers, the standard. And then you consistently commit to that perspective for the rest of your life and you constantly improve it every opportunity that you get. Yeah. Because we're compasses to those who come behind us. Yeah.
Phil:So true. In wrapping up Any last thing, maybe something I didn't ask you, or any last bit of advice, or just last thought that you want to share?
Jerome:It's going to take all of us to really address what we're dealing with in our city of Columbus. And I pray that everybody who's willing and able to help will get involved. I got our Save Our Communities Stat Card for Kid Violence. It has some of the things that we want to do. And we got, all our information on the back so that people can reach out because this is what we're dealing with. It's an effort that we almost all must have our hands on. So whoever hears this podcast, please reach out to you and myself so that we can really turn the city around and give our children the opportunity to have a life. Our elders have the opportunity to have some relief as a result of living life, protect our women, establish our schools and our communities, because everybody deserves that level of equality.
Phil:Yeah, that's good. As always, I know Safe House Ministries welcomes all volunteers, all people that want to be a part of the work we're doing, and I know that Cure Violence is the same way. You welcome all volunteers, anybody that wants to either go into the community with you or support you in the work that you're doing. It's needed, and there's a lot of work to do, a lot of people that Need help. A lot of people that are looking for help and yeah, so reach out, reach out and if anybody wants to be involved in the work you're doing, Jerome, I'll send them your way and yeah, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for being here on the podcast. Thank you for sharing just your testimony, your story and God is good. All
Jerome:the time. Amen. All the time. God. Yes, he is.
Phil:You mind if I close us in a word of prayer?
Jerome:No, sure. I don't mind at
Phil:all. All right. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. We love you. Thank you for Jerome. Thank you for his wife and his kids and for the regenerative work that you did in his heart when he was in prison, Lord. Just thank you for speaking to him and thank you that he, as a young man, Heard and listened and allowed you to work in his heart and his life and thank you for teaching him of the love that you have for him and how Jesus died for him and just using him now to be an ambassador for you to share your love and show your love to others. There's a great need. Here in Columbus, so many are in darkness, so many are in the midst of gangs and violence and dealing with addictions and homelessness and just so many things, Lord. Help us to be vessels of your love, to do your work, to do your will, so that you can do some amazing miracles here in Columbus, I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
Phil Shuler:We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.