A PLACE TO STAY
Serving the Homeless with Alternative Lodging Of Middletown (SHALOM) will begin its church-based homeless shelter tonight. This is the 13th year for SHALOM, which provides winter shelter for the homeless and less fortunate throughout the community.
Every Sunday, area churches take turns hosting the homeless for one week.
In takes start every day at 4 p.m. and the van leaves First United Methodist Church, 120 S. Broad St., at 5 p.m. Call 513-423-7821.
Here is the schedule:
Tonight: First United Methodist
Dec. 7: Spring Hill Church of Christ
Dec. 14: First Baptist Church/New Era Baptist
Dec. 21: Breiel Boulevard First Church of God
Dec. 28: Christ United Methodist/First Christian Church
Jan. 4: Crosspointe Church of Christ
Jan. 11: Holy Family Church
Jan. 18: Holy Family Church
Jan. 25: First Presbyterian Church
Feb. 1: Spring Hill Church of Christ
Feb. 8: Yankee Road First Church of God
Feb. 15: Christ United Methodist/First Christian Church
Feb. 22: First Baptist Church/New Era Baptist
March 1: United Methodist Gathering
March 8: Breiel Boulevard First Church of God
March 15: Healing Word Assembly of God
March 22: First United Methodist
SOURCE: SHALOM
Roger Bush’s journey from Louisville to Middletown couldn’t be measured in miles. No map could track his trip from drug-addicted homeless man to God-fearing husband with a roof over his head.
Just eight years ago, his mother, Chasteen Bush, passed away and he inherited $68,000 and her home in Louisville. In six months, he was broke and couldn’t afford the mortgage payments. He lost his mother’s home.
How did he blow more than $11,000 a month?
“Man,” he said, “I had a lot of friends back then.”
Friends who fueled his addiction to alcohol and drugs, two costly habits.
With no place to live, Bush worked at a bar, and bounced from friends’ couches to homeless shelters to empty buildings.
Every day was the same: Wake up, work, get stoned. Repeat.
Then one night, Bush, now 50, had a dream where his mother appeared on the back of a motorcycle ridden by a man who resembled Jesus. He was told to quit drinking, quit smoking pot, quit popping pills or he’d die.
He didn’t believe the vision. So the next day, his goal was to get ripped. Some weed and a 12-pack later, nothing.
“No matter what I did,” he said, “I couldn’t get high.”
Then in May 2012, Bush figured the only way to deal with his lost life was to commit suicide. During one 24-hour frenzy, he put a gun inside his mouth, pulled the trigger but the weapon jammed; drank one gallon of cleaner that only left him sick; and slashed his wrists, but he passed out before he died.
When he became responsive, there was a paramedic and Bush asked him: “I’m not dead, right?”
Actually, in the days, weeks, months and years that followed, Bush never has been more alive.
He moved to Middletown, lived with his brother for about one month, stayed at Hope House, the city’s homeless shelter; spent two years at SHALOM, the city’s church-based homeless shelter that begins operating tonight; and now he’s married and regularly attending and serving at The Gathering, a downtown church.
Bush has become part of the family at The Gathering. He serves as the church’s coordinator for SHALOM, attends weekly services, takes up the collection, and has a key to the building.
That may not seem like much, but as Bush said when he was drinking and drugging “people wouldn’t trust me with a dime.”
In September, Bush attended his family reunion — an event he hadn’t been seen at in years — and married Brittnanny, a woman he met in Middletown. He also introduced Brittnanny and her son to The Gathering.
Bush sometimes addresses the congregation there about his addictions. He has been sober for 1,168 days, and counting.
There seems to be two Roger Bushes: one from birth to 2011, the other from sobriety to today.
“I don’t even know that other guy,” he said recently while sitting in the SHALOM offices at First United Methodist Church. “All I can say is I’m glad I have God in my life and thankful for the difference He has made.”
Others have witnessed a difference, too.
Bill Fugate, one of the SHALOM coordinators, said he has seen “great growth” in Bush’s life and that “we’ve been a blessing to him and he’s been a blessing to us.”
When dealing with “at risk” people such as the homeless, there aren’t many success stories, said Walker Williamson, another SHALOM coordinator. That comes with the territory, he said.
“There is just no way you can do much follow-up,” he said. “They just drift away, but when something positive happens like with Roger, you say, ‘This is our paycheck.’”
The Rev. Carrie Jena, pastor at The Gathering, said Bush is the “perfect example” of the person the church serves and why it opened its doors downtown.
“It’s amazing to me what he has been through and where he is today,” Jena said. “It shows the power of God.”
About the Author