Dumpster Diving for Donuts, Ants Literally in His Pants, and Grateful to Never Go Back to That Life! Kier's Story (Part 3)

Keir wraps up his story and shares how amazing his life is now because of the redemptive love and grace of God!  He also recalls and shares some of the craziest memories he has about living homeless and in the woods.

Transcript

Phil Shuler: 0:00

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: 1:12

Don't be discouraged. Life's tough. Life is tough. It's real. Yeah. We make mistakes, but God will put us right back on track. He'll bless us. He'll give us grace every time He will. Yeah. His love is never ending. It's constant. The peace that I have. I, I've had peace before and it's left. You know, growing up through all the, you know, my teens, my twenties, early thirties, uh, I've had, it's never stayed with me like it has now. It's not left yet. Yeah. You know, the piece that I've been given in everything that I do. So, um, I worked for, uh, signs Inc. Here in Columbus. Yeah. Um, in sales. You, I'm, yeah. I'm his outside sales guy. Okay. Going around to just get new clients who need signs that, that's right. All right. And then some of them that are existing already, you prove, uh, Richie's a great guy. Uh, he's on the board over at the Valley. Does wonderful work in awesome Columbus community, the Harris County area, Hamilton. He, he's a great guy, a great family to be around. The people that I affiliate myself with now are, are the people that are doing the same thing that I'm doing, and that's praising God, staying clean, staying on the right track, have a better perspective about things in life on a day-to-day basis. And it's working for me. Awesome. It's working for God's, working for me. And all of the people that I affiliate myself with they're to lift us up, uh, not bring us down. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's what's amazing. That's good. Columbus has a heck of a community really does that, that they continually pick people up. Yeah. It really does. It's Columbus is a wonderful place. It is. Everyone that I've met and that I affiliate myself with now are on the same path that I am. Awesome. Yeah. Safe House Ministries couldn't do the work that we do, nor Couldd Valley without the help of so many other people in the community. It's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing just to see the outpour. Firsthand. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. From the type of people that this community has. Uh, it's wonderful. That's good. There's churches everywhere. I love it. You know, there are a lot of our clients, you know, and, uh, yeah. Just because we're a, we're connected, so I'm so glad to hear that things are going well now. And you've got a good relationship with your daughters as well. Oh, every relationship that I've ever had has been restored. Oh, praise Lord Co. Lord. Awesome. When God starts a work in you, he completely, he finishes it. I go to visit, once or twice a month of Northeast Georgia, visit my kids. I'm welcomed at my ex-wife's house and stuff like, you know, sometimes I stay there and, uh, or the kids or wherever, but, uh, we do different things. All of the holidays are spent up with my kids, and, uh, phone calls, daily text message, not like it never happened. It's just in a whole lot better way. Yeah. A healthier way. Wow. Wow, God's involved. Take a minute and pull out some of the key lessons that you feel like you learned along the way that you'd like to share with others. I'll have to go back to that motel room. Yeah. In the moment that I sat back in the, in the back of that car, patrol car. Yeah. And the relief and the weight that was pulled off of me at that moment that I was carrying around, I'd like to say that for real, anybody who's listening, God is real hands down. And as I mentioned, if you are in a tough spot of any sort. Of any sort. There's nothing that if you ask in his son's name that he will not pull you out of or help you with. I've learned that. Awesome. First and foremost. That's at the front of my mind when I wake up in the morning, very first thing. Yeah. How old were you when you trusted Jesus as your savior? 51 man. 51 before. I knew, and I have prayed before I had been in all the places that we'd went to. I've known that God is my, um, savior all about Jesus. But I had never applied it to me. Yeah. I had never, you had a head knowledge, but not, it wasn't in your heart. You hadn't received Jesus into your heart at that point. Sure. So. This vessel that I live in, my soul lives in. Yeah, this vessel. Yeah. I never looked at it that way. And then when he came into this vessel to reside, I knew it immediately. That peace came over. The peace came over me. The warm feelings that, you know, the room getting cool. You know? I mean, the fire wow. Unreal. if you feel defeated, if you feel there's no way out, if you're in full blown addiction, and there's ever a moment, because we all have a moment of clarity, God will put on us in our daily routine, maybe next week, and it may have happened last night, someone shaking their head at you, you know? Yeah. That moment of just ask God at that moment to help you and be sincere about it. He loves you and he wants nothing more for you to knock on the door and ask for his help. He's there, he's everywhere. He's never left me. He's always been there. I'm grateful today. Gratitude. Yeah. That's awesome. It's unreal. Yeah. You know, going from my children passing, me walking down the street with a bag over my shoulder and shaking their head at me and not stopping. Yeah. To, to now like the excitement in their voice when we talk to each other daily, my son, I said, we've had some trouble. My oldest daughter was on the phone with him the other night. First time in a while they had talked. She said, dad put it on speakerphone. She said in there talking, she said, cross. I, I just want you to know you're 14 years old right now. You've got the dad that I wanted when I was 14, 15, 16. You've got the dad that I wanted. And I, I couldn't believe Wow. I, wow. Kinda giving him heads up, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, that was real helpful. So many times it's the perspective that we have that needs to be fixed. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Hmm. Any other key lessons? Don't give up. Don't give up. Yeah. When you feel hopeless, helpless, busted, disgusted. God will help you. I keep going back to that because if it was not for God, I wouldn't be setting here right now. I, I mean, I know I wouldn't. Yeah. Well, the timing of so many things, it's just too many things with perfect timing. It just could not be anything other than God. That's right. That's absolutely right. His timing. I don't wear a watch anymore, uh, you know, I, I, I just don't see any need in it. Wow. So this fourth quarter I'm gonna be the Peter in my story, awesome. I'm gonna be awesome. That's my plans. Thinking back for a second, is there any, uh, maybe one of the craziest things that ever happened, kind of a story that you could share, just like crazy unexpected situation that you found yourself in? Anything come to mind? Yeah, so I got these donuts out of a dumpster. I was hungry, cut out through the woods, and couldn't find my tent because I had camouflaged it. This is the middle of the night, and I was just so tired. Been up several days, you know? Yeah. Hungry. Wow. Wanted to sleep. Couldn't find my tent. I finally stumbled across it, unzipped it, got in there, fell asleep. I passed out. Basically, I passed out, fall asleep. When you're doing that, Steve. Yeah. You're passing out and coming too, I guess. I rolled around in them donuts, and the ants were all over'em. Oh, wow. Yeah. And they tore me up. Wow. So you woke up. I'm in the middle of the, I'm in the middle of the woods. I, and once that happened, I, I had, I got outta the tent and I didn't even know which direction to run, wow. They were just crawling and biting you No water. Yeah. Right. Just, oh, that's horrible. Way to wake up in the middle of the night. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. If you asked for a crazy story, wow. You know, so you're, there are other crazy stories, but that one, you know, I, I look back on it now and I'm like, oh my God. Screaming, running through the woods, just like, I guess trying to everywhere brush everything off and everywhere. And they, you finally, I finally, I, I, I ran the correct direction. I made it out to the sidewalk. There was a girl up at the, uh, gas station spraying off the parking lot, and I grabbed her hose and went around back and, sprayed yourself down. That's right. Yeah. It was terrible. It was terrible. Yeah. Wow. That's, that was maybe a month or two before that motel room. I'm sure you had the floor some, yeah. Some pretty bad pain with all the bites. Sure. From that too. That was, that was no fun at all. You had, he asked about a crack. Wow. That is a crazy story. There. There are. And, and, and you got another one that comes to mind. I was in a laundromat. The both of these stories, that story, and then this one, and I'm doing laundry and I'm sitting up on the, uh, there's a table where you fold your clothes. I'm sitting there, I'm the only one there. And, uh, I don't think I've told this to anybody. The front door opens. A guy didn't walk in, he just held the door open, and I'm trying to remember verbatim, exactly what his words were. He said, your kids will forgive you, your kid. And pointed at me. I said, excuse me. And he walked out and he left. It was dark outside. Yeah. You know, probably they closed at 11, so this was probably 10 o'clock. No, I was the only one there. No cars out front, nothing. It's in a shopping strip. I walked out and looked and there wasn't nobody walking down either way across the street. No bushes. Clear. Yeah. Kids will forgive you. Wow. That's your kid. Your kids will forgive you. That's pretty amazing. Just. A glimmer of hope that the Lord wanted to give you in that moment. Yeah. I thought about this maybe a month ago. Wow. And I, I hadn't told nobody about that. I, I had never, I've never told anybody. Wow. Not kidding you. That's pretty amazing. It just, just an indicator of God's love and mercy. And one more, real quick. Yeah. I met the Hamilton end treatment. I had gotten a letter from the oldest peer, my sister. Okay. She has eight children. One more Wow. One more than you. All of them have already went on their missions and stuff, you know? Yeah. All successful. She wrote me a letter and she was the only one that sent anything to me while I was going through all of this and got a letter from her, and I walked out the back door, a wind hit my hands, took my letter, and went tumbling over my letter. Yeah. And I'm, I'm walking after it. It literally goes around the corner of the building down there. And when I went down to pick it up, there was, there's the big cross right in. It's always been there. Yeah. I've just never noticed it. Never paid attention to it. Yeah. And the sun was on the other side of it, and it was almost blinding to my eyes, but it was perfectly clear right there. I, I'd never seen a letter go, it's almost comic, it was almost like movies only. Yeah. Like something you'd see in a movie theater or something. Yeah. And you're chasing, chasing a letter down there, flipping head overhead. It maybe about 15 feet this way. And then just about a foot this way. Just enough to get I can get around that corner. Yeah. And see that big wooden cross with the sun behind it that morning. Yeah. That was really weird. That was really weird. But I, I'm safe. I don't I don't. I don't have any pay, I don't have to pay Georgia no more of my money. I, I don't have to go to court. I go to sleep at night on nice soft pillow and I have a really nice place. Yeah. I wake up in the morning, go to work. It's the first time I've ever had a Monday through Friday, 40 hour a week job in my life. I've been there a little over a year. That's okay. Where you're at now? Yeah. Salary and commission. Wow. God provides everything I need. E everything that I need, he's provided for me and my son. Everything I need. That's awesome. I, I don't need anything. Yeah. Some of my brothers, sometimes I get, I really don't, you know, we've got food, we've got a nice place, we've got a roof over our head. Transportation, job, food, love. I don't need anything else of this world. I, I don't, uh, it's kind of like, look at the birds, they do nothing. God takes Keir of them. You know? They do not, yeah. They don't put up, or they don't store up nothing, but, but they're taken Keir of, if if one falls, he knows it, you know? any funniest thing that ever happened? Funny. Oh wow. Funniest thing that ever happened. Uh, this was pretty funny. I met the valley when I graduated. I come back to the valley over here. Yeah. I got an Uber and went to the, I went and got some socks and some stuff, you know, I got it. An Uber, I hadn't taken an Uber, up in northeast Georgia where I'm from, there wasn't no Ubers up there when I came down here. There's Ubers, what I can get a pay for a ride. So I get all the way back to the valley and uh, I've got a picture of this on my phone, but I, and no kidding, a lot of people probably wouldn't believe this. I, I realized that I left my wallet in the backseat of the Uber after he'd gotten out, right? I went inside, went all the way back to the third phase where I was staying in the room and my buddy Chu was back there and I'm then realized it

none: 13:32

chu

Phil: 13:32

I got in a scurry and I ran outside and the guy was gone and I tried to call that it was gone. I come back in and. Ketchum and I prayed real quick and I said, I said Ketchum, I, I gotta have, you know, I've just gotten my license, I guess. Got, you know what I mean? All this stuff. Yeah. You know, um, ID not license yet, but Id card, my debit card, my, you know, yeah. Everything that I had gathered back, social security card, we prayed, me and Ketchum did that. If anyone found my license that they would kindly mail it back to me or just drop it off here or that I would get it back. Four days went by, Ketchum says mail. I've got the envelope where it has written on there. If you get this, let me know. On social media, no name, nothing. Wow. So I went on social media and said I got my license back, or I got my wallet back. It was mailed back to me at four or five days. That's pretty amazing. With that letter on the back of it. Yeah. I thought that was kind of funny, but I, there are a lot of funny things, you know, we do laugh now and have a good time. Yeah. I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore, look in the rear view mirror. Wow. Yeah, that happened. I've got a picture of that envelope with my wallet hanging, hanging out of it. That's I wanted to make sure to keep That's awesome. With that handwritten Yeah. That person, whoever, whatever, let me know that you got it back with no money in it. But yeah, it's like 27 bucks in there to be no big deal. But I got all my stuff back, you know, that was kind I, I don't know. I it's humorous in a way that, that it's also really touching. You know, things like that are, I find, find just amazing. Yeah. You know, today I agree. Stuff like that happens all the time. It's just unreal. Praise the Lord. Amen. Uh, any other last comment you wanna make? When you'd called, I, I didn't, uh, I wasn't sure what was going on there. I was, come on now. Really, you know, I would like to, uh, just give all thanks to God. Amen. All of this that I do now and anything that I'm involved in is to his glory, every bit of it. Safe House Ministries I know that they've recently closed that location. The Day center. Yeah, the day, the day center. Right, right. The ministry continues with the shelters and the case management. All of the people there, Stephanie on down, all of them and Up. Thank you so much. From the bottom of my heart when I received that phone call, it wasn't 25 steps out of the pastor's office, which said that I had about nine days, to figure out something to do with for me and my son. Yeah. I was, I sweated that for maybe three seconds, then just a few more steps. That phone call told me that I needed to come down to the safe house and fill out some paperwork. Wow.'cause they had a place for me. That's pretty amazing. That is that, that there are no, wow, there are no words to explain that, you know, God. Yeah. That's it. You know. And there again, just anybody who, uh, who might hear this or, uh, just believe that I believe, yeah. You got any doubts? That's all you gotta do right now. Just believe that. I believe that's fantastic. Yeah. Wow. Praise the Lord. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you. Thank you also for that donut story. Oh my gosh. I think it's stories like that help others who haven't experienced homelessness to have a glimpse into what it really looks like. I mean, that's. That's hard. And, um, I think sometimes people become, I dunno, maybe apathetic. Or calloused or we just, if it's not directly impacting our life, then we just, sometimes we just don't Keir and we just kind of ignore. But sure to think of what you went through even just that one night, like, I mean, you so many other things, but even just that one night, just that one. Something that maybe can touch someone's heart. And, um, if there's anybody listening that you don't already partner with Safe House Ministries, either as a volunteer or as a financial partner, We invite you to partner with us Because the work that we do in helping others to go from being homeless to being in their own home now, it makes a huge difference in their lives. And when you partner with us. That fruit is also on your account. Um, it it is the difference. Yeah, it is the difference. Praise the Lord. Wow. Thank you. Keir you mind if I close this in a word of prayer? Please. Father, I love you and I thank you for your grace and your mercy. I thank you for the just perfect and sovereign way that you are so directly involved in our lives. Lord, how could we not recognize that? Lord, help us to love you. Help us to walk with you. Help Keir Lord, just bless him as he's trying to raise his son. Cross Lord working, cross his heart Other if he has not already trusted in Jesus as his savior. I pray that you would. Put your spirit to work in his heart so deeply that he would come to that place to make that decision. And if he already has made that decision, then let your spirit work in his life to get him away from many darkness and walking in the light. I just pray you'd bless him. Lord, bless his future. Thank you for the relationships that you have restored in Keir's life, in, in just a miraculous and amazing way. Bless him, help him and use him as he endeavors to to help others, Lord. And those that are listening, bless them, father, work in hearts. Help us to hear and receive your wisdom, to make better choices in our own lives and to work more, to do things that we can, that we can do to help others. I pray. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2: 19:12

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.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2: 19:50

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.