Ten years ago, Don was preparing to take a job with the U.S. Postal Service. 

After years in ministry, including 15 years with Teen Challenge and Jubilee Ministries, Don sensed that season of his life was coming to an end. He had applied for a position at Bethesda Mission, but when the postal service opportunity came along, it seemed his next step had been decided.

Then, on the day he planned to accept the job, Don received a call from Bill Christian, the new Director of Bethesda Mission’s Men’s Mission. Bill offered him the position of Assistant Director.

Don joined Bethesda Mission in June 2016. Ten years later, it’s difficult to separate the work he does today from the journey that brought him here.

Don knows what it feels like to need hope.

A Journey That Shaped His Calling

Growing up in an abusive and neglectful home, he was often forced out of the house as a young boy and left to spend his days on the streets. By the time he was 12, drugs and alcohol had become a way to numb the pain. It was also around that age that Don attended his first Vacation Bible School and heard about Jesus.

The years that followed weren’t easy. Addiction continued to take its toll until, in 1996, Don saw something different in the life of a friend who invited him to church. During the service, the pastor stopped his sermon and said he believed someone there needed to come home to Jesus. Don knew he was talking to him.

That day, Don surrendered his life to Christ and cried out for help. His life began to change, and so did its direction. Don eventually found himself serving others who were struggling with many of the same things he had experienced. Through Teen Challenge, evangelism, and reentry ministry, he spent years walking alongside men seeking freedom, stability and a different future.

By the time Bill called in 2016, Don had lived much of what he would eventually ask the men at Bethesda Mission to believe: Your past doesn’t have to determine your future.

Building a Path to Lifelong Transformation

During the past decade, Don has helped shape the Men’s Mission into a place where men find more than a safe place to sleep. They find hope, healing and a path toward lasting transformation.

As Assistant Director, Don oversees the daily operations of the Men’s Mission, supervises life coaches and supervisors, coordinates programming and manages a caseload of approximately 20 men. He also frequently walks alongside guests facing some of the most significant mental health challenges. While his responsibilities are wide-ranging, his focus remains remarkably simple: helping each man experience the hope, healing and restoration found in the love of Jesus Christ and move toward lasting stability.

Don’s own journey matters in that work. He understands that changing someone’s circumstances doesn’t necessarily change what’s happening inside him. A bed can provide safety for the night, but lasting change requires addressing the struggles, wounds and barriers that brought a person to that point.

Soon after Don arrived at Bethesda Mission, he and Bill recognized that emergency shelter alone could not break the cycle of homelessness. Together, they began changing the way the Men’s Mission served its guests, developing a more comprehensive approach that cared for each man as a whole person—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Don played a key role in turning that vision into everyday practice. He helped develop the processes for assessing each man’s individual needs and establishing a plan to address them. He established standards for the life coaches who walk alongside guests as they work toward their goals, and he developed a discipleship curriculum focused on helping men grow in the freedom they have in Christ.

Those changes weren’t simply about creating better programming. Don and Bill wanted to give each man a better opportunity for enduring change.

Over the years, they have seen the difference. The recidivism rate, which Don recalls being around 70 percent when he arrived, has fallen to approximately 15 percent as men leave the Mission better equipped to build stable lives.

But Don doesn’t measure the success of the Men’s Mission by a statistic alone.

What Success Looks Like

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he says.

For Don, caring for people begins with loving them as Christ loves them. That belief influences the way he works with guests and the way he leads his staff. He wants the men at the Mission to encounter the unconditional love of Jesus, but he also wants the life coaches and supervisors serving them to demonstrate that love in the way they listen, encourage, challenge and walk alongside each person.

After ten years, Don says he is especially proud of the comprehensive programming he and Bill have helped develop and the unity of the staff serving at the Men’s Mission today. He loves investing in people, whether that means helping a guest take another step toward stability or encouraging a staff member to grow as a leader.

And when Don talks about what success really looks like, he doesn’t point first to the curriculum he developed, the processes he helped establish or even the dramatic change in recidivism.

He thinks about the men.

Success is seeing a man who once came to Bethesda Mission needing help come to know Jesus, build a stable, self-sustaining life and then begin caring for and encouraging others.

In many ways, it’s the same journey Don has taken himself.

Ten years after answering Bill’s unexpected phone call, Don continues to offer others what someone once offered him: the opportunity to know the love of Jesus and the hope that their story can change.