“I found myself homeless July of 2013 when we lost our place in Spotsylvania and I started living in my van. I was moving all the furniture and stuff by myself and working 3rd shift at work while sleeping in the van in the daytime in the boiling heat of the summer. I hurt my back at work and so I lost my job and then everything just started gradually tapering downhill. I’ve been homeless since then until Friday when I got in my place. I was in the tents about a block away from where I live now…in fact, I can see my old campsite from my front porch!”
“One day I got thermal underwear here at Micah and I had some more at the tent- they were still in the package and a guy that was on the street… I gave him the thermal underwear because I already had some and I didn’t know if he did. It started snowing one day and I had a couple dollars in my pocket so I took him to a pizza place and I bought him some pizza and something warm to drink. That way he had something warm in his stomach instead of eating whatever cold lunch he had in his bag.”
“I want to be known just for being me. I want to be known that I’m a good dad, and that I love my kids. I want them to know that when I was a working I was a hard worker and I still try to do what I can. I want to be remembered for if I only had one dollar and somebody asked for it I would give it to him. That’s the truth. Because if it was in my pocket and I didn’t spend it, then I didn’t need it.”
BJ is now working towards getting his back fixed and spends a lot of his time helping out at Micah’s Hospitality Center.