Encountering Jesus in homeless faces at Jericho Way

Mercy, dignity, hope offered through homeless day center in Little Rock

Published: April 21, 2016

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Sister Elizabeth Greim, DC, program director at Jericho Way, stands with one-time client Isaac Wade, who is now a full-time custodian at the center. Wade is one of several success stories since Depaul USA took over the center.

Aprille Hanson

The miracle baby

The best example of faith and mercy for Jericho Way volunteers and Our Lady of the Holy Souls parishioners Shannon Callahan and Steve Hoffmann happened when Callahan spotted a pregnant woman at the center. Callahan watched her come and go for a few weeks.

“Well, if God wants me to talk to her she’ll come back in and in that moment she came back in,” Callahan said.

She found out the woman thought she was only four months pregnant, but did not know her due date.

“She said, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to get an abortion.’ I said, ‘You can’t, you’re too far along. But she said, ‘No, it’s legal, I can.’”

Callahan began taking her to doctor’s appointments for prenatal care and mental evaluations. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was in fact seven months pregnant. The woman had given birth to other children that wound up in the state foster care system.

With no family, no knowledge of who the father is and no capacity to take care of her child, the woman asked for help with adoption and Catholic Charities of Arkansas stepped in.

“She said to me, ‘Will you help me place the baby?’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’ because I wasn’t going to make any suggestions on what she should do,” Callahan said.

Throughout her pregnancy, the woman spent her nights at the Salvation Army. Her doctor’s appointment to discuss when to induce labor, for her and the baby’s safety, was on a Wednesday.

“That Tuesday night she had the baby on the floor of the Salvation Army,” a few days before Thanksgiving, Callahan said. “ … She was hiding it because she was afraid she’d lose her bed” when she walked into the hallway to give birth.

A family out of state adopted the child in December. Callahan said the baby is developmentally normal and healthy. Jericho Way continues to take care of the mother, who is currently “happy and safe” in a facility, Callahan said.

“Just a perfect, beautiful, precious baby,” Callahan said. “I did not want to give her up.”

Sister Elizabeth Greim, DC, and volunteers at Jericho Way, a Little Rock day resource center for the homeless, encounter Jesus in every person who walks through the doors.

“I feel privileged not just working with these people but spending my day with 150 Jesus Christs,” said Sister Elizabeth, program director. “He is alive in mind and body in every single one of them.”

On March 30, 2014, Jericho Way, at 3000 Springer Boulevard, was given a renewed spirit, leased under the operation of the City of Little Rock to Depaul USA, a nationwide Catholic nonprofit that offers services to the homeless. Depaul USA has homelessness programs in just six U.S. cities.

“Their lives are very tough. I’ve worked in Baltimore with the homeless, I’ve worked in Macon, Ga., in Richmond, Va., and there’s something about here that’s very raw,” Sister Elizabeth said, citing how the Benedictine and Vincentian models of “no one is a stranger, everyone is welcomed as Christ” has changed the lives of clients. “There’s a tenderness inside many of the people you meet here.”

Michael Sneed, 55, said the “quality of help is a lot better” since Depaul USA took control.

“They helped me get a job and they’re going to help me get an apartment. It means the world to me. Without them, there’s no telling where I’d be right now,” Sneed said.

Jericho Way offers several services, including breakfast and lunch, showers, laundry, access to computers and transportation. Case managers work with clients on job counseling, help with resumes and housing referrals. Some clients are also permitted to go on “field trips” to places like Heifer International and the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and are taken out to a restaurant for a meal, which helps restore their dignity, Sister Elizabeth said.

“We moved very quickly from being showers, laundry, computers to housing, jobs, transportation, an increase in income. Which is really where we want to be,” Sister Elizabeth said.

However, Jericho Way is not defined by its services, but rather the transformed lives of clients and volunteers.

Shannon Callahan and Steve Hoffmann, both parishioners and Bible study leaders at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, lead a weekly Wednesday Bible Study at the center and volunteer in a variety of ways, including with the new housing program.

“Sister calls what we do the ministry of presence, not just volunteer to do laundry or serve food but actually to sit and visit and listen to everyone,” Hoffmann said.

The Bible study uses Catholic Bibles, but no one is ever forced to attend or pressured to convert. While Depaul USA is Catholic, Sister Elizabeth explained that it’s not about pushing the faith, but rather doing this ministry “because we’re Catholic.”

“I didn’t expect God to send me to work in a homeless shelter, but it just kind of happened,” Callahan said, with Hoffmann adding, “It makes us humble also that these people are willing to let us into their lives.”

It’s that trust and respect that makes people like James McEntre, 43, come back.

“I’m manic depressive, bipolar state and they keep me happy. Sister is awesome; she gives you a hug as soon as she sees you,” he said, adding if you’re there for the right reasons, “miracles are going to happen.”

Just since February, Jericho Way has placed 15 clients into permanent housing. Tim Williams, 47, who volunteers in the kitchen, is proud to be on that list.

“I walked from North Little Rock to over here,” he said this past January. “I’ve been to a lot of homeless shelters, day centers and everything, but here I feel comfortable. I can really talk to people who have been experiencing the same thing I have been experiencing.”

Isaac Wade, 52, began as a client and then volunteer, but was quickly sought out by Sister Elizabeth for his “capability and charisma” to take over the full-time paid position as a custodian for Jericho Way.

It’s a position he’s excelled at for almost a year now, even traveling to Philadelphia to complete a Vincentian values course offered to Depaul USA staff members.

Wade now has a home, a girlfriend, a vehicle and even an iPhone for his work. It’s a far cry from his past.

“I had a cocaine addiction. That’s what kept me homeless. It was just another tool the devil used. The devil has a lot of tools; it doesn’t make me feel like I’m not as good as the next person,” Wade said. “I slept up under the bridge for two years … I did everything a homeless person could ever do and some more. I’m still here by the grace of God. I ain’t mad about it. I feel like it’s just an experience for me. I know what it’s like to be homeless, to sleep outside in the cold, to deal with the mosquitoes, to eat out of the trash. I know what it’s like.”

The hard work that Wade put into turning his life around is “beautiful, makes me want to cry,” Sister Elizabeth said.

Sister Elizabeth has told fellow Catholics, especially in this Year of Mercy, that Jericho Way is not a place to just give mercy, but a place to receive it.

“You need to ask of them for mercy and forgiveness for the ways that we’ve created systems that oppress them,” Sister Elizabeth said. “It’s not about me feeding you. It’s about Jesus has fed me in his body and blood, and I take that out to feed others so they don’t just get the food they eat but they also get food for their soul. If I can’t do both, it doesn’t work.”

For volunteer opportunities or to find out what donations are needed, contact Calandra Davis at (501) 297-0991 or or Sister Elizabeth at (501) 297-8904.