The money was not what she expected and her mortgage payments started getting behind. In addition, she had just had a traumatic ending to a relationship and was feeling very depressed. Things started to look up, she said, when she started a new job working at a meat warehouse. But then her hours got cut and she was struggling once again.

Her life was about to change in May 2002, when out of the blue, her supervisor asked her out on a date.

A New Relationship

Jamie explained, “I had been a self-proclaimed ‘man-hater’ for almost eight months, and the last thing on my mind was dating. He also broke all my ‘rules.’ He was married, younger than me, and I worked with him. It was not a situation I wanted to get involved in. However, I knew his marriage was in bad shape and after some coaxing from friends, I decided to go out with him. We’ve been together ever since. Needless to say, his ex-wife hates me, but Jasson will tell you that I saved his life.”

Jamie told me that Jasson had been married since he was 18 to a woman with three children from a previous marriage.

Jamie said the relationship had been seven years of drinking and partying and working very hard but with nothing to show for it. She said that while Jasson wanted out of the relationship, he didn’t have the heart to leave the kids. However, while he loved the kids very much and didn’t want to hurt them, Jamie said that Jasson knew he had to do something for his own emotional health.

She said, Jasson had been drinking his problems away for some time and it wasn’t helping. He wanted and needed out. In a way, I gave him that out. He tried to keep a relationship with the kids for as long as he could, but after the marriage was dissolved, so were his visits.”

Struggling

In order to keep their head above water, Jamie and Jasson decided to get different jobs to try to make ends meet. Jamie started working at a call center while Jasson went to another warehouse. However, Jamie said, the bills were still not getting paid on time and Jasson’s drinking was still excessive.

“At the time, it was not that big of a deal to me until one night we got into a huge fight about it. He decided to quit, then and there,” Jamie said. “We got married in June 2004 in Las Vegas. It was great! Everything was wonderful between us, but we were living hand to mouth because the mortgage was still behind.”

As a result of all the pressure, Jasson started drinking again and Jamie was rapidly getting to the point where she didn’t care about anything anymore.

Jamie had a miscarriage in March 2005, and said that both she and Jasson were hit hard by the tragedy. However, they worked through the issues and Jamie found out that she was pregnant again. While she had a lot of problems during the pregnancy and their son Jaydon was born a month earlier than expected, he was still healthy.

Jamie said, “He was a blessing from the start.”

However, the Joneses were still on the verge of losing their home, and with a newborn to take care of they started reassessing their situation. They realized they had to do something soon. Jamie had been talking to a friend of hers living in Albuquerque, and she said that she could get them a job with her. Jamie said she even offered to let the entire Jones family stay with her in Edgewood until they could find their own place.

“It sounded perfect,” Jamie said. “We broke the news to our families, had a gigantic garage sale, packed up our stuff in a van and a truck and headed down the road. It was the beginning of August and very hot. Jasson kept Jaydon with him in the air conditioned truck, and I had the cat with me in the van. It took us three days to drive 1300 miles, but we made it! We thought everything was going to be okay now. We could make a fresh start and leave the bad days behind.”

Bad News

However, the really bad news was just around the corner.

When Jamie, Jasson and Jaydon finally arrived in Edgewood, they found out that Jamie’s friend had neglected to tell her husband about the new house guests.

“He was not very happy about it.” Jamie said. “We stayed there for about a week, but felt like we were not very welcome the entire time. We found out that the jobs that were supposed to be a sure thing were not at all. The company had been put on a hiring freeze the day after we got there. We scoured the newspapers for employment and Jasson put in at least ten applications at various warehouses. He had three call him back the next day.”

Meanwhile, Jamie was looking for a place in which the family could stay. She found a woman who was looking for a live-in housekeeper. Jamie said they went to her home in Alb. to talk to her and explained that Jasson would be working soon and she would be the one keeping house. Jamie said the woman seemed fine with the situation and she didn’t even mind the cat coming, too. It looked like everything was going to be alright. They had a place to live; Jamie could stay home and take care of Jaydon, and Jasson could go to work and not have to worry about his family.

However, that wasn’t to be, Jamie said. “Two days after we moved in with her, she told us that it wasn’t going to work out and that we needed to go. No other explanation but that. This was on Sunday. We had no money, a five month old, a cat, and the vehicles were almost out of gas. She told us we could have one more day and she gave us $100 “for our trouble.” We were at wits end. We decided that we may have to break down and borrow money from our parents to get a place, so we started looking. Needless to say, the only places we could find were in the War Zone (a troubled area in South East Albuquerque).”

Jamie said it was at that point she finally “lost it.” She said, “I broke down crying and I felt my knees buckle. I just couldn’t keep it together anymore. What were we doing? We had a little baby that we brought into this world and what could we offer him? Nothing, absolutely nothing. We told the lady our tale of woe, not for sympathy, but because we needed to vent. She called her son, who was a minister, and he suggested Joy Junction. I also called my friend in Edgewood. Her husband said we could not come back there. She had made some calls and also mentioned Joy Junction.”

Joy Junction

Jamie, Jasson and Jaydon arrived at Joy Junction on Aug. 21 2006.

Jamie said, “We were scared to death, with no where else to turn. The first thing I found out was that the cat couldn’t stay. I was heartbroken. She and I had been through a lot together. I called my friend in Edgewood and begged her to take the cat. Her husband gave in and they came and picked her up. She ended up going to a friend of her daughter’s and I haven’t seen her since. This may sound silly, but Tigger was part of the family and I miss her terribly.”

Soon after Jamie and Jasson arrived at Joy Junction, our staff told them about the shelter’s life recovery program. They were initially reticent, as Jasson was waiting on call backs from a couple of jobs. However, the young couple talked about where they lives were going and what they wanted out of life.

Jamie said, “We wanted a better life for ourselves and our son. Jasson decided that it was time to quit drinking once and for all. He has not had a drink since the day we got here. We joined the program on Aug. 24 and our lives have done nothing but get better ever since.”

Jamie said that Jasson was not raised with religion in his life and her family had been away from the church for many years. However, being members of a life recovery program in a faith based rescue mission meant that the Joneses were now hearing a lot about Jesus Christ.

Jamie said that being at Joy Junction has opened their eyes and our hearts to Jesus.

“We know that He is the way and without His help and the help of all of those here at Joy Junction, there is no telling where we would be right now,” Jamie said.

Jasson Tells How He Felt When He Came to Joy Junction

Jasson said, “They call it a hand up and not a hand out – at least that was what I was told when my wife and I walked through the doors of Joy Junction. What a place to end up when everything you try to do fails. You walk in here with fear in your eyes and nothing to fall back on. You ask yourself, ‘How did I get here? Maybe I deserve to be here. It’s all my fault.’ You look around and everybody is happy. How is that possible? I’m here and I want to break down in tears.”

He added, “The first thing I noticed when I was walking up to the building was the cross on the front. I was never raised around religion or God. I didn’t even know if I believed in God. So I talked to a staff member about my struggles with religion.”

Jasson said he will never forgot what he was told. He said, “The staff member told me, ‘If you don’t know if you believe in God or not, just think about this.’ He said the words, ‘What if?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘What if there is a hell and what if there is a heaven?’”

Jasson said he went to bed that night thinking about what he had been told. “It started to scare me, to tell you the truth, because as of right then I don’t think I would have made it to heaven.”

Those words that Jasson heard penetrated His heart. He committed his life to Jesus Christ and the results were dramatic.

“Joy Junction loves success stories about the lives that have been changed through the ministry,” Jasson said. “If they want a new one, I’ve got one for them. They took a ten-year drunk with long hair dressed like a punk who didn’t know if he believed in God. They took that man and completely transformed his life. He grew up, cut his hair and now he dresses like an everyday adult. Now he’s going back to school for his GED, and then he’s going to take classes to one day become a drug and alcohol counselor. That sounds like a success story to me.”

Jasson added, “Joy Junction helps as many people as possible. All kinds of people come in here. You have no idea how many tears I’ve seen or caught with Kleenex, but I now know what God has put me on this earth for. I take my recovery program at Joy Junction – which includes helping other people who were just like I was – very seriously, because I know how it feels walking through those doors. Every tear our new guests shed as they come in, I have done the same. There is no shame in crying.”

He concluded, “No one should talk about a homeless person if they have never been in their place. I know that I never will again.”

What Lies Ahead?

Jamie said, “We both feel that God called us here to help others and in the process, help ourselves. Jasson and I now have an incredible relationship. We lean on each other whenever needed and always look to Jesus for guidance. We have graduated the program and are now employees of Joy Junction. It's a good feeling knowing that our bills are paid on time and we still sometimes have enough to spoil our son and ourselves. We are getting back on our feet and it's all thanks to Jesus and Joy Junction.”

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City: A Call to Service." Additional details about "Homeless" are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.