A Blessing from God

My name is Chef and I would like to tell you a little story on how God works. I am the skinny guy on the right..In October of 2009 I was laid off from the job I had at Ft. Irwin in California. I moved back to Florida the end of October to work at Mc Dill Air force base. In the 4 days it took me to get from California to Florida the Government put a freeze on any new hires.

After living in my truck outside of a bar in Homosassa for almost a month and not having any of my medications I started looking for a place to live. I called two of the homeless shelters that a friend told me about and I was turned down because of the medications I needed to take. The third place I called was The Mission in Citrus and they told me I could have a tent to stay in. I still remember the first day I arrived at The Mission.

I walked onto the back porch and there were several people there but the person that stuck out the most, at first sight was the cross between a sumo wrestler and King Kong except for the small feet he had. This man is the director of The Mission in Citrus. The first words out of his mouth were, “My name is Jim, and have a seat. What’s your name, and would you like something to eat or drink?” It was a strange calmness that came over me that day, like that’s where I was meant to be.

After several weeks of getting to know Jim, I went to him and we sat down a talked. I told him that I believed God had brought me here and that I would like to volunteer at The Mission. I told Jim about all of my education and experience as a chef as well as my other education and my military and Government status.

Jim told me about another Mission he wanted to open. A very special place and I asked if he would like for me to help out there. That special Mission did open on the first of March and Jim has made me the Director of this mission called The Mission in Citrus homeless shelter for Veterans.

Since then, some wonderful things have happened to me. The number one thing that has happened is my relationship with God. Life is funny, we plan our lives out and never know where we are going until God lets us know. It’s hard for me to believe that one minute I was ready to put a bullet in my brain and the next I am praying to him for every breath I take.

   I would like to tell you about the Veteran’s Shelter. We have a beautiful home with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, food pantry, office, game room, and a smoke room. Our residents always pitch in together to our home better every day. We have started a garden that the guys dug up by hand, we may only have three tomato plants but they are doing well. I think the reason why they are doing so well is because of Juan, Juan, and their other brother Juan serenaded the plants when the moon was full in Spanish! Then there is Craig who is our master carpenter,and worm farm builder. We have about 500 worms now. The worm farm is under Will’s care, and I really do think he names every single one of them. Anthony is the only Navy man we have here and he is still tone death, for some reason the song YMCA will never sound the same. Joseph is not a vet but we need him for night watch as he is a licensed Florida Security Guard.. Now we come down to Shelia and her favorite phrase is “boy that conversation went downhill fast.” Sheila is also one of my assistants and the wife of Craig and I wouldn’t know what to do without her. Then last , we have Robert .He is my assistant.We also call him Radar. He even reminds me when to take my meds. Robert couldn’t believe that there was a veteran’s shelter in Citrus County.

  Since March first we have accomplished more with the veterans shelter then people can believe. God has blessed us in so many ways and we only have a few more things to do for the county to pass inspection. For all of you that help us I thank you personally.

                                              God bless!

                                                                                           Chef