Local Businessman Still Fears Homelessness

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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Local Businessman Still Fears Homelessness
"It invades my dreams and affects the decisions I make"

By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) -- When businessman Macy FitsEmons and his family moved from New York to Albuquerque in November 2004, he planned to open his own towing company.





Macy FitsEmons
However, within a year things weren't going too well and Macy was ready to give up and go back to New York so he could support his family.

God had other plans.

Macy said, "I got down on my knees and prayed to God to help me, to guide me and give me something that would give my work meaning. Within two weeks I was working with a local non-profit developing and implementing a vehicle donation program."

After six years, Macy said, this program became the most successful auto donation program for a local nonprofit in New Mexico.

According to that group, one year, Macy's efforts allowed that nonprofit to earn over $130,000 in just nine months.

He added, reflectively, "The Lord had given me more than I had ever imagined."

Macy said he subsequently sold his towing business, although he and his wife Gina still work for the new owner, and moved on from that non profit.

What to do next? Macy said his biggest fear in life has always been that he would become homeless. He said, "It invades my dre ams and affects the decisions I make."

What Macy said next was shocking. "I wake up at about 2 in the morning worrying about being homeless. My heart races and pounds."

Macy said to help calm him down he wakes up Gina, who brings him back to reality by helping him think about how unlikely it would be for the family to become homeless.

Gina told me, "You have no idea how much it affects this man's life."

Macy said his grandparents were frequently homeless-going from house to house-as a result of his grandfather's alcohol addiction. His mother understandably worried about being homeless, and that carried onto Macy.

Macy's fear has affected his wife. Gina said, "It's extremely draining, because I have to pull him up constantly out of ... despair."

Compounding his own fears of homelessness, Macy said it seemed the homeless were constantly around him.

He said, "I always saw the homeless here in Albuquerque when driving the tow truck, when they would ask me at the store for 'a couple of bucks, ' or when they would come into my tow yard to buy an old car."

Macy said sometimes he would give them money, and sometimes not.

He added, "I would put myself in their place, thinking what I would do differently than them. Where would I stay at night, what would I do? Who would help me and my family?"

After leaving the nonprofit, Macy said he thought more than ever about being homeless himself. But there was one positive thought.

He said, "I knew about Joy Junction and the good works they do. At least I thought I knew. Once again I needed God's direction in my life and asked him to help me. This is when Joy Junction started to appear to me 'from everywhere.'"

Macy said he saw ads for Joy Junction on the radio, TV, the newspaper, "even a lunch truck giving out food down the road from the tow yard."

He said, "The more I asked the Lord, the more Joy Junction was put in front of me."

Macy said he began finding out all he could about us from the Joy Junction website, and from people i nvolved in the nonprofit world.

The signs continued.

Late one Saturday afternoon, Macy said, he stopped for a bagel on Albuquerque's East Central, and a homeless woman asked him for some money to get a room, because it was expected to be a cold night. After the exchange, Macy asked if she knew about Joy Junction.

The woman said she did, "and had nothing but praise" for Joy Junction, but that it would be full.

As a result, Macy said he gave her a few dollars toward the cost of a motel room.

Macy said these incidents prompted him and Gina to visit Joy Junction, and our thrift store (then on site).

They were greeted at the guard shack by one of the members of our life recovery program, doing his volunteer assignment. Seeing their Chihuahua, Macy said, led to the man telling them about his dogs. He then shared about how he ended up at Joy Junction.

He told Macy and Gina how different his life had become "because of the change he received from God and Joy Junction. He spoke to me in s uch a spirit of thankfulness that I know something good was going on inside this place."

Macy said he and Gina entered the thrift shop and browsed the donated items available for sale.





Jeremy Reynalds in Macy's yard.
"I immediately thought of the donors who provided this bounty and what part could I do," Macy said. "I knew that there were some old cars and trucks on the property. It looked as if they had been (there for a long time). I knew this what was the Lord was trying to show me. I knew this would be my way of helping."

Macy contacted us, and my assistant Kathy Sotelo and I gave him a tour. It made a deep impression on him.

He said, "I was amazed at what goes on there. From the big common room where three meals a day are provided from their own kitchen, to worship and spiritual guidance, to learning programs, activities, large bathrooms with showers and laundry facilities (and more)."

Macy continued, "There is so much going on there, more than I ever imagined. I wanted to help with this wonderful organization."

And help they have. Our partnership with Macy and his wife means we can now pick up vehicles, from all parts of the city, including ones that aren't working or are only good for scrap. It's a great way of turning cars and their dilapidated parts into food for the homeless.

If you have a car that's no longer of any use to you, call us at (505) 877 6967. We'll take it off your hands and use it to help continue Joy Junction. It's a win-win for everyone.

Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "A Sheltered Life."



Additional details on "A Sheltered Life" are available at http://www.ashelteredlife.net. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.
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