Welcome Home. Here, Us, Now.
A space for all of us seeking what's real and sacred in a world that rushes past the soul.
Welcome Home. Here, Us, Now.
Carolyn Simmonds, Chief Housing Officer - Part 1
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Carolyn overcomes and shares how we can join her.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_05Welcome home. Here, us now, a space for all of us seeking what's real and sacred in a world that rushes past the soul. I'm Eric Engelman, and I'm a volunteer at Union Gospel Mission Terrent County, co-host of this podcast, and with me is President and CEO Charles Wolford of Union Gospel Mission Terrent County.
Carolyn’s Path To Union Gospel Mission
SPEAKER_06Eric, my brother and friend, good to see you today. Now I need I just need to unpack this. You say that you're a volunteer. Um I get voluntoled to do a lot of stuff. I don't know how I end up in all the places and spaces I do, but I think you are an amazing gift of God to UGM. So I am delighted to be here on this podcast with you and to share this space, our new space, and we have an amazing guest today. We have Carolyn Simmons, and she is our new appointed chief housing officer at Union Gospel Mission of Terran County. We have all the applause hands going out. Welcome, Miss Carolyn. Good to have you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. It's good to be here today.
SPEAKER_06Yes, it is so good to have you. So we're going to jump right into our conversations. I know, Eric, we have had some amazing guests in our podcast. And Sister Carolyn, we've had some conversations that our listeners have been able to hear and dialogue with us. Uh, but today is no different. We thank you for being here. Just to unpack the story, Sister Carolyn has been recently promoted here at Union Gospel Mission to our chief housing officer. We are grateful for her service to Union Gospel Mission. And she's going to tell you a little bit about our journey while we're talking, but she comes to us with a plethora of years of experiences here at Union Gospel Mission, has been with us, am I right, 17 years? 17. The applauses and all of that to your commitment and the grace. But this is the thing, Eric. While simultaneously being here full-time at Union Gospel Mission, Sister Carolyn's been working at MHMR as a case manager full-time as well. So just unpack that and think through that.
SPEAKER_05You're talking two full-time jobs? Two.
SPEAKER_06Dos. Uno dos. Two full-time jobs. Serving people. Serving God's people. Wow. Yeah, yeah. She's so relaxed. She is. So the audience could not see the glance that he just gave that Derek just gave to Kelly. But yes, that's who you're in the presence of. Wow. Yeah, so we believe she walks in water. So again, Sister Carolyn, welcome. Would you do this? Unpack your story for us if you don't mind. This is our living room. This is our time that we just spend and get a chance to hear from amazing, amazing, talented employees, but guests here. How did you arrive at Union Gospel Mission?
SPEAKER_00Well, I arrived at Union Gospel Mission. I was in my master's degree program at the University of Texas at Arlington, and I saw it being offered for a part-time case manager at Union Gospel Mission. So what I did is I called.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_00And it was a lady named Batty McElroy. She came out and I had knew of her because she had helped a lot of our clients at MHMR get into Union Gospel Mission. And my thoughts were, I'm gonna come here. Yeah, I'm about to graduate. Yeah. I need to pay my student loans.
Calling To Underdogs And Parolees
SPEAKER_06Of course, of course. And and can we just pause there? You mentioned a legend in this community, it's Betty McElroy. And so to the grace and peace that is provided in that space, we're grateful for her life, her lineage. I did not know that her fingerprints were all over you. I did not know that was the connection. So that's just a blessing. As we have seen her fingerprints all around UGM. So that's I did not know that connection. Continue.
SPEAKER_00And so when I got in there, she interviewed me and she said, I want you full time. Wow. I said, No.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna come part-time because I still want to work. I have a love for the underdog, I have a love for offenders, and that's what I did at MHMR. I work with mental health offenders. Okay, particularly parolees.
SPEAKER_06Okay. So you're so just so they were clear, your role and function at MHMR, what's your title there?
SPEAKER_00I was a team leader, so I was a supervisor there.
SPEAKER_06Oh wow. And your work, you're saying that you have an affinity. You work, you love working for the underdog.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_06And you were working with those who were parolees. Yes. Wow.
SPEAKER_00I loved it. You know, it's it's something beautiful because I'm one of those type of people who, if I see a horse, they can have all the legs cut off. And I'll be at the finish line saying, You can run again.
SPEAKER_06You can run again. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Sometimes I feel like that horse with no legs, but I I appreciate the cheerleading that you provide for all of us because I see you cheerleading all of our team members. So, what I just heard is you were in your master's program, you interviewed with Miss Betty, and she says, I see something in you, and we want you here at Union Gospel Mission. And here it is. 17 years later, the words and the vision of Sister Betty could not have been more prophetic because the grace of God that's been on you, starting here as a case manager, and now you are our chief housing officer at Union Gospel Mission.
SPEAKER_00So God be the glory of the great things that's done.
SPEAKER_06See, Eric, right here, this is the shouting space when we feel the Holy Spirit move in the room and we get our Holy Ghost dance on right there.
SPEAKER_05All right. He's pointing to a piece of floor that has many, many square millimeters on it. Yeah, many square millimeters. The Lord. There's there's room for a dance here. Because it sounds like there's some trials and some joy in what you've been doing, the life you've been sharing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Amen.
SPEAKER_05You have you like underdogs, huh?
Family Roots And Breaking Cycles
SPEAKER_00I love them. It's, you know, um, most people don't want to work with any type of person they feel to not be higher in the community. And with the parolees, a lot of times they had done offenses, offenses that maybe have caused their family members to be distant from them. So a lot of them didn't have anybody. So I was destined to be the one. I was like, I'm gonna be the one. I'm gonna be there for you, I'm gonna be there teaching you, I'm gonna be there praying for you. I just love the Lord and I want to just share his love with everybody because also my background is that I came from Michigan and a lot of my family went to prison. And you know how the scripture says, what good could come out of Nazareth? Now I say, what good could come out of Michigan? Because when I came to help them, they didn't want to hear it. So I felt that if I sow seeds of goodness to others, then somebody in Michigan will be able to sow seeds from my family. Yeah, so it was very close and dear to my heart because I started off in, I want to say, middle school with my brother being charged with murder. Seeing my nephew be on the most wanted in Michigan for murder. So it was a generation of curses going on there. And I prayed and I said, Lord, something has to go different for me. So early on, I decided to kind of distance myself from my family because I wanted my children to have a chance. I wanted to break those generations of curses. I refused to be on the other side of the table where I was helping others.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00And I knew if I stayed, I don't think it would have been good.
SPEAKER_06Wow. So what I just heard you say, you wanted to help change the legacy of your family generationally from what you had seen previously with your brother and your cousin, and so what where were you at in your journey when you moved from Michigan to Texas? Where were you in uh was that pre-college? Was that before then? When did you make that journey? Did you did you pack up like the Beverly Hillbillies and and decide to move to to Beverly? What how what what happened? What was that time frame?
SPEAKER_00When I was 18, okay, I was a teenage pregnant mom.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Me and my mom at one time did not get along.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We got into an argument and I left.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00So I ended up at a shelter with my baby.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow.
Leaving Home And Starting Over
SPEAKER_00I had all this family, but let alone I had no one. So I know how it feels to be disconnected from everybody you love. So at that time, I got in school and I kept going to school, and I met my husband, and we ended up getting married, and he went to the military, so I followed behind him. And we went from place to place to place to place. But my first marriage didn't work. And I had three babies from that marriage, and I saw my girls, and it was basically, I want to say, almost like a domestic violence. It was just with words, a lot of emotional abuse. And I wanted my children to know that God gives a first, he gives a second, he gives a third, he gives us as many chances as long as we take those chances. So at that time, I looked at those three babies and I said, You can do it. Don't allow anything, not anything to stop you. So I started going to school and I said, I'm going to get my degree. And when I got my degree, my first one, my undergrad, I graduated with my daughter. So she graduated from high school while I was graduating through college. And I wasn't going to walk. And they did this big surprise party for me, and they said, Mom, because you, because you believe you did. And I just praise the Lord for that because for the simple fact is that I know that something was missing. After I came back, I gave my life to Christ. And I said, Lord, I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus, Lord Jesus. Let me be able to touch those who haven't been touched. Lord, plant a seed, water it, till the soil. Lord, just use me, use me for your service. And he has. And during that time, I married another soldier. And he was sent by God. He supported me. He loved my kids. And as we was uh getting married and everything, I used to do foster care. So he just came with me. And from there, I had prayed. I said, Lord, you use me for your service. Before I had uh gotten to foster care, I was taking my daughters to school. And I saw this lady, she was on the side of the road and she had broken down, and nobody would help the lady. So I got out and got in the middle of the street and stopped traffic and said, Somebody needs to help this lady. So we took her to the nearest gas station. They pushed the car. So she talked to me. So I was like, Can I pray for you? So I started praying for her, and instantly she began to say, I've been in a trap house all night using. She said, I have two babies and I want to stop, but it's hard for me to stop. And I said, Ma'am, what do you need to stop? She said, I want to go, but I have two children. And I said, Okay, you have two children. I got a heart and I got a home. I keep your children.
SPEAKER_04Oh my.
SPEAKER_00She said, Would you keep my children? She looked at me odd. I said, Yes. So I folded up her tank and I got her address. And I went home and I told my husband, then, we're gonna keep these kids and let this lady go to wheat. He was like, okay, I said, well, come on.
SPEAKER_06So she gave So wait, let's just unpack this. That you just you I'm just like a flood that's coming to us. Did you just hear that, Eric?
SPEAKER_05I think I I think I heard that her second husband, yeah, sent by God, said, Okay, we'll take on two Yeah, I'll use a slang word, the junkies. Yeah. Kids. Kids. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it was beautiful. It was beautiful.
SPEAKER_05Wow. I agree in Jesus' name. Wow. It sounds beautiful.
SPEAKER_00So I went through there knocking on doors because she left out a number.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I was knocking on and said, ma'am, I'm here to help get your kids.
Foster Care Begins With Radical Yes
SPEAKER_06This was at the apartment or the trap house?
SPEAKER_00No, this was at the a trailer park she lived in. Oh wow. So I finally got her and I knocked on it and I saw her come and say, I'm here to get those kids. And so her and her husband looked, and I didn't know how they was going to receive me because, for the simple fact, here I was, this heavyset, joyous African-American lady, and they were two Caucasian, man and female. So I don't, I didn't know how they were gonna feel, but they instantly said, Come on in. And I said, Let me get you packed up and everything. And the uh the husband said, Well, can I pay you? I said, Jesus paid it off. He's already paid your bill. So I got those kids and I kept them for three months until the mom graduated.
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_00So I gave back the kids after that. And when I called my mom, my mom said, Carolyn, I want you to do it right. Just do foster care. So you know when you give them back a child, they're going into the right environment. I said, okay. So I said, let me start doing foster care. So we did foster care. We started getting calls. I had already set my mind, Carolyn, you just borrow on the kids. Don't get yourself attached. But love them and show them Jesus. So that was my first thing. Well, God has a different plan for me.
SPEAKER_06Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_00Because he starts sending kids that rights were severed.
SPEAKER_06The parental rights were severed.
SPEAKER_00Parental rights were severed. So it was a boy and girl off of Fort Hood, and they had been just utterly abused. And their next stop would have been an institution. Now I took the kids that had problems because I felt that God was just He can do anything. So I felt, Lord, through you, I'm gonna do anything with you. So I got both of the kids, and I had to go back, me and my husband, to become foster to adopt moms and dads. So we adopted the two kids. Then we kept fostering. So then we got another little girl. She was three days old. And they didn't even know her nationality. Her mother was a drug addict prostitute, and she had them and then got off the table and left.
SPEAKER_06She after she had the baby?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Got off the table and left. The baby was there. Thank God she had other kids that was at St. David's in Austin. Yeah. When they did the DNA, they found out it was her baby.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00So I was pregnant with my last child, and they're like three weeks apart. So they gave me a call and they said, Would you take this child? I said, Let me talk to my husband. Because I was on bed rest at that time. And my husband was in the military. He came home and I told him, so he called. He said, Baby, we need to take that child. I said, Now you know I can barely get around. He said, What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pack the bag and sit it next to you and bring the baby, and I'm gonna take care of it. Instead of getting up at 0,500 for PT, I'm gonna get up at 400. And he got up and he took care of the baby, took care of me, packed up, came home for lunch, sometimes taking the baby to the motor pool with him.
SPEAKER_06So hold on, let's pack. What's your husband's name?
SPEAKER_00Patrick.
SPEAKER_06Patrick. There's a special place in heaven for Patrick and for Miss Karen. I am just blown away.
SPEAKER_05I think I think there's a team of angels that are just making ways for Patrick to take care of it. You feel myself. Oh my God.
Adoptions And Deepening The Mission
SPEAKER_06I mean, you know, that is. I'm I'm I don't mean to interrupt your story, but I want to give Patrick kudos and to you for stepping in the lives of so many uh youth that need continue. I mean that I just want if Patrick hears this, we want to give Patrick a shout out today. So God bless you, Patrick, wherever you may be. Praise be to God for Patrick. Amen. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00So after we adopted him, yeah, we got a call from another child. He had Bluest Placement, he was a little bitty boy, and he was 18 months. And his story, his mom would carry him, she was a prior foster child that ran away and was pregnant. So in order to hide him, he lived in a gym bag. So she would keep him in the gym bag and carry him around when she had to go out because she didn't want anybody to spot her because CPS and everybody was looking for her.
SPEAKER_06So when we got to pack him around in a gym bag.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, the story, it was just something. So they said, okay, Miss Carolyn, would you they specifically pick my home? And it was like, would you take this child? Because the mom, I see she's the same age as one of your biological children. And maybe you might be able to bond with her.
SPEAKER_06So let me see if I'm math and math. So I'm counting four biological now and two adopted. That's six. Is that right? Are my numbers right? So far. So far. So I count six. I'm at six.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_06Did my is my math right, Eric? My mind is blown. Six. Okay, continue. Six.
SPEAKER_00Okay, we at six now.
SPEAKER_06Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00When I felt overwhelmed, I prayed. When I was upset, I prayed. When I was going through, I prayed. When I was happy, I prayed. You can never have enough prayer.
SPEAKER_05Could you do some of that now?
SPEAKER_00Our dear Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, how wonderful is your name in all the earth.
SPEAKER_01Yes, Ford.
SPEAKER_00Lord Jesus, even dimbles, demons tremble at the name of Jesus. Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit. Lord, you say we're two or more come and touch and agree. There you are in the midst of them. Lord, I ask you to touch my family, Lord Jesus. Lord, I ask you to touch my UGM family. And I ask you to touch my MHMR family. Lord, I ask you to just touch us. Touch us to reach people. Lord, touch us that when people come to us, they'll see Jesus in our heart. Lord Jesus, that self would die and that we will render help to anyone who needs it. Lord, we love you.
SPEAKER_01We love you, God.
SPEAKER_00We praise you. Lord, I'm in awe at the things that you do. Thank you, Jesus. In the name of Jesus, I pray.
SPEAKER_05Amen. I agree. In Jesus' name.
