My work as the Veterans Housing Coordinator at Operation Road Home (ORH) at OIM is very fulfilling. I get to work with so many pious and devout fellow Christian staff and volunteers who are all so devoted to spreading the Good News of Christ’s unconditional love for humanity by being friendly to our clients and showing them, through concrete acts of kindness and mercy, how much we care about what happens to them.
Recently, I just had my first major ‘win’ in housing a homeless Veteran here in Ottawa for ORH. So far, I’ve been supporting a lot of precariously housed Vets and helping them with bridging rent money to prevent them from becoming homeless or paying rent arrears or utilities arrears. But this Veteran was truly different. We’ll call him JC, which is not his real name. JC had been unsheltered since I started here at OIM on July 2, 2024. I had been supporting him through his journey as he struggled to take shelter in the woods on the outskirts of Ottawa, underneath the overpasses of the Queensway (where he would regularly get ousted by the Police, often in the pouring rain, with his shopping cart full of possessions), then finally he wound up in a respite centre on the outskirts of the city, where he could recover from the exhaustion of being unsheltered and constantly being hypervigilant, night and day, against being assaulted, robbed, stabbed, even killed by other street people. And this for a man who served his country for 15 years and was now approaching retirement age, with the prospect of certain death if he spent the upcoming winter on the street again, unsheltered.
But through concerted efforts to support JC in his journey towards stable housing, along with the unswerving support of those who continually pray day after day thanks to our prayer warriors, this Veteran found a suitable roommate to share a two-bedroom apartment with. ORH provided JC with his first and last month’s rent, along with a kitchen starter kit, to get him started on cooking some warm and nutritious food again. And I will be supplying JC with some clean bedsheets from our supply of bedding so graciously donated that he can sleep comfortably in his brand-new double bed.
So God be praised for these small but significant wins in our efforts to show the love of Jesus through concrete gestures of compassion and mercy, which, in the case of JC, have definitely impacted his life for the better, motivating him to bear witness to me saying, "finally I will be able to live out the last years of my life in this world in a dignified manner." I call that a WIN!
~ Peter, Veterans Housing Coordinator
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