September 2017 Newsletter

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On The Road Again

After a four week course in Umpqua Community College’s truck driving school, Steve received a Commercial Driver’s License. No less than six companies sought him for employment. He chose his new employer based on rate of pay and where the driving would be done. The western states will be his territory, giving him some balance between nights at home and away. His parents live locally.

Steve had been a truck driver for 15 years. He quit driving because he said, “I wanted to try to find a new career, because its hard to have any kind of social life.” He was married twice during those years. He said that being gone two to three weeks at a time would cause feelings of abandonment at home. The money was good, but the expenses were high.

Four years ago, he quit driving. He was single then and had no household of belongings. What money he had saved was gone quickly. That is when he went to the Mission. He has a good work ethic and immediately went about looking for a new career. The only kind of work he could find, that suited him, was mostly minimum wage and part-time. During his time at the Mission, he left to work two fishing seasons in Alaska. On his last trip there, he developed pneumonia, effectively ending that career possibility. He was on our New Life Program for a while, and the last five months he was an employee of the Mission, supervising our clients.

Steve made an interesting comparison, saying “Truck driving is similar to being homeless, never staying in one place too long, always alone, always sleeping in a truck. You go to truck stops for showers and food. You try to fix meals in the truck to hold costs down. The driver’s lounge is like a dayroom. On Sundays, volunteers do chapel services in the TV room, or some have long trailers made into a chapel. A 48 foot trailer may hold 20 seats. You do your laundry at the truck stop. And homeless people hang out there, trying to get a ride, wash trucks, or help unload at a stop down the road.”

He said of his experience at the Mission, “It has taught me a lot – patience, humility. There are a lot of people out there a lot worse off than I am. I made a lot of friends here. The Program classes made me stronger in my faith. It brings you closer to the people running this place, because you are constantly around those guys. I have been a Christian since fiveyears- old, when I went forward and made Jesus a part of my life. I knew that a Christian mission, would be more understanding of my situation of being homeless, not having anything.”

So, Steve is on the road again, back to a past career. Truck drivers provide a vital service for our society. For long haul drivers that live in a sleeper cab, that can be their only home. A traffic ticket, an unhappy employer, or just the weariness of life on the road can cause a person to be unemployed and homeless at the same time. For an independent, missing a truck payment, not having money for fuel or repairs, or not picking up enough loads from a dispatcher can have the same result. The Mission is here for truck drivers with encouragement and an opportunity to change careers or head back to the life they know.