Not Home. Come Home.
2025 Lenten Reflections
ANGLICANS ON THE STREETS
Illustration by Eunice Sunmie Derksen
ANGLICANS ON THE STREETS
Throughout Lent, we will highlight Anglicans across North America who are doing the work of bringing HOME to those who need it most. At the Matthew 25 Initiative, we regularly tell the stories of these practitioners through a video series called "Anglicans on the Streets." If you would like to learn more about this series and how Anglicans are serving as Jesus' hands and feet among the vulnerable, you can watch these videos here.
Meet Joel Siebersma
At just under six-foot-three, bespectacled, and with a graying beard, Joel Siebersma is a quiet man whose appearance and demeanor belies the fact that every day he is helping bring HOME to countless men and women experiencing homelessness. For almost 17 years, Joel has served at Springs Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs, where the unhoused of the city can seek shelter, food, and other resources, including job training and addiction recovery services.
In addition to being a deacon at International Anglican Church, Joel serves the vulnerable through behavioral health
Left: Beds ready to welcome guests. Right: Part of the Springs Rescue Mission campus. services at the mission, focusing particularly on addiction recovery – which is one small part of a bigger and very complicated puzzle. “The causes of homelessness are really complex.” Joel explains, “There is no one solitary cause where, if we fix this thing, then homelessness will be solved. Many of the guests we serve have complex needs, from physical and mental health issues, to addiction. Many have childhood trauma. They are also struggling with being under-resourced, whether that means housing affordability or vocational training. There isn’t a ‘one-size-fits-all’ or ‘quick fix’ solution.”
Joel Learned by Listening
When Joel started his work with the homeless, he was, admittedly, “clueless.”
“I got into this work because no one else would hire me,” Joel says matter-of-factly. “I was freshly out of grad school with a master's degree in counseling and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with that. This job was open, so I thought, why not apply?”
What may have seemed like happenstance turned out to be a divine path, and his lack of training was actually a gift. “Since I didn't know the textbook and official ways of doing things – I hadn't been educated in addiction – I had to learn it from the people who were right in front of me. I just kept asking [the people in recovery] to tell me, ‘How is this working? What do you do? What do you need?’ I learned directly from them a lot of the foundations.”
Like many of us, Joel started with the assumption that it’s as simple as “just saying no,” as the popular anti-drug slogan of the 80s and 90s told us. “But recovery is actually very daunting,” Joel says. “It takes an incredible amount of work and courage.” Just like the problem of homelessness itself is multifaceted, addiction recovery isn’t a simple, “just say no” kind of solution.
A guest checks in for services at Springs Rescue Mission The Challenges of Homeless Ministry
Working with men and women who come to the Rescue Mission requires Joel to be completely unguarded and fully present. “The hardest part, in any ministry work, is engaging in relationships,” Joel explains, “Because relationships with people will break your heart. Period.”
In his day to day work, Joel experiences the reality of human relationships. The ups and downs, the disappointments. “It hurts when someone you’re invested in takes a turn, or stops showing up. Choosing the road of connection will always result in struggles and hurts.”
The Joys of Homeless Ministry
As Joel reflects on the hundreds of people he’s served over the years – from professional actors to former sea captains – he observes how “joy shows up in so many different ways.”
He shares how the Rescue Mission hosts a foot-care-clinic several times a year. “You know, when you’re homeless, your feet don’t do well,” Joel explains. “There are a lot of foot injuries and other problems.”
Medical students come to the mission to wash the guest’s feet, treat injuries and infections, and supply them with properly-fitting shoes. “People leave that event walking normally for the first time in a long time,” says Joel. “It’s astounding to see, and it always brings to mind John 13, of course, when Jesus washes all the disciples' feet. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.”
A guest receives a hot meal at Springs Rescue Mission God Created Us for HOME
Being without a “HOME” is a tangible reality that Joel sees every single day at the Rescue Mission. And every day he is reminded of Jesus’ invitation to “COME HOME.”
For Joel’s clients and guests, HOME is more than just four walls. “I think HOME is the place where you can be the person Christ meant for you to be,” he reflects. “Addiction is not what Jesus had in mind when he built these folks. When He designed who they were supposed to be, the pain and suffering, the abuse… that wasn’t part of it. So as they learn who they are supposed to be – who Jesus designed them to be – HOME is where they can live like that person.”
Give
Your Lenten almsgiving helps bring HOME to the “not home” by supporting the work of practitioners like Joel Siebersma. Would you consider a gift this Lent to the Matthew 25 Initiative? Your gifts mean that more men and women can leave addiction behind and find HOME.