Hidden Heroes - Aimmie Jenkins
"When we take care of ourselves first, we are so much more effective at helping our husbands. Caring for us is easily forgotten; but it is essential! It is not selfish, but it is scary."
Veteran Marries After Finding Hope at Shepherd's House
Written By: Jamie Duffy
Date: April 24, 2016
The weather was perfect Sunday when the bride, Samantha Hicks, walked down the aisle and up the steps with her stepfather, Jimy Crouse.
Guests were seated in front of the stone railing draped in white tulle, blue ribbon and flowers at The Shepherd's House on Tennessee Avenue. They watched as the groom, Brandon Krontz, 31, stood on the flag-draped porch, awaiting his bride.
Nearly 100 family members, friends and veterans, many of whom reside at the Shepherd's House, were there to watch as Tracey Barr, house manager and ordained minister, officiated with her husband, Kenny, also a house manager.
A full buffet waited inside complete with hummingbird cakes iced in turquoise and purple, the wedding colors.
It was a much different scene when Krontz arrived at the Shepherd's House in October, 2014. Ordered there by Noble County Superior Court Judge Michael Kramer, the Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran had lost everything to methamphetamine.
"If you looked at his eyes, they looked black," said Barb Cox, Shepherd's House co-founder with her husband, Lonnie, and executive director. "It took about seven months before we saw their beautiful blue. He was just in a dark place."
Krontz had been living in a trailer with no utilities, manufacturing meth, Cox said. "He did several tours that really messed up his head. He turned to drugs. He lost everything - his wife, his children, his home."
Krontz arrived at Shepherd's House with "anxiety, depression and major PTSD," Cox said. But during his stay, "he did a complete 180."
Krontz said the turnaround came with "a really powerful spiritual moment."
Krontz is now working on an associate's degree in criminal justice at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast. He hopes to be a peer counselor for veterans when he completes his degree.
Krontz said he had been arrested before and didn't think any program could help him.
But it was at the Shepherd House where his salvation took place.
"If it weren't for the Shepherd's House and Jesus Christ, I would have never been able to find Jesus like I have," Krontz said in front of staff and Kramer who attended the wedding.
"You look great," Kramer told him, glad that Krontz "had stuck with it. He's a remarkable young man."
Someone else who thinks he is remarkable is his bride. The former Miss Hicks, 24, said she had known him before and didn't really like him. Then he became a different person, she said.
"The Shepherd's House changed him," she said. Some readers may remember a few months ago when Krontz went down on bended knee at a Komets game in front of 12,000 people and asked her to marry him.
She will stay home to watch the children who, altogether, number seven. That includes Natalia born three weeks ago to the couple.
"I feel blessed," the new Mrs. Krontz said. "I never thought I was getting married."
Posted with permission from The Journal Gazette
Shepherd's House was a life-changer for Keeler
Written By: Joe Shouse
Date: November 09, 2016
FORT WAYNE – We live in a world where drugs are prevalent in all directions and places. It’s not just large cities or far away lands but it is near – very near. No town, no community, no family is exempt from the horror of drugs, drug addiction, and even alcohol abuse.
Talk to any law enforcement group and they will tell you drugs is life’s detour that will destroy. In the sleepy communities of Paulding County, the pain that drug and alcohol abuse brings is very much alive.
In the midst of destruction, whether it be hooked on heroin or drinking “one more” in order to sleep at night, there is always hope. For military men and women who have enlisted for a period of time, the memory and hardship of what they may have witnessed has led many of them down that same road that simply detours and for many the turn they make is a wrong turn.
Recently the Paulding Progress received an email from Joshua Keeler. I contacted Keeler, who identified himself as the late Paul Keeler’s son. Paul was a former Paulding Police Chief from 1983-95 and was tragically killed in June 2012 while attempting to repair a tire on his pickup truck along U.S. 127 near Ohio 613.
That’s about all I knew of Joshua but as we talked, I learned much more about who this young man is and who he has become.
He wanted me to know of a place where he worked called the Shepherd’s House located in Fort Wayne because of the drug problems in the surrounding area including Paulding County.
Joshua simply told me in my initial call with him that he worked at the Shepherd’s House, a transitional living center for homeless and disabled veterans that specializes in drug and alcohol addiction as well as other addictions.
“I am aware of the growing number of veterans, some homeless, who are dealing with drug abuse and it’s not only here in Fort Wayne but its all around us, even in Paulding County. Our facility is a 41-bed facility and normally we are maxed out but currently we have eight open beds and would like to pass the word on to those in Paulding County that we exist to help those even in Ohio,” said Keeler.
After our conversation I contacted the CEO/owner of the Shepherd’s House, Barb Cox. She, along with her husband Lonnie, are co-founders of the 30,000 square foot converted house.
“By operating and maintaining a facility to help fallen heroes get back up on their feet we are able to help do our part in maintaining a stable society by people who can contribute to society as a whole. Statistics show by using our facility that 83% of people who have been in Shepherd’s House have successfully completed the program and have become working citizens in the community. We believe in the power of positive thinking and are true providers for those who need and seek our help,” Cox said.
Cox, an energetic individual who believes strongly in what she and Lonnie are doing, feels that no honorably discharged veteran should be homeless regardless of their situation.
“We help those who need help and give them a comfortable warm place to stay. Rehabilitation is in our hands through the work of God and through him we are blessing those who need blessed.
“By providing a safe warm place to live and showing that there are people who care, we are able to help those veterans back on their feet in time of need. After all, they were there for us when we were in need and this is just our way of giving back to those who need us and maintain a mainstay in our community,” continued Cox.
Vets with drug additions or alcohol problems can come to Shepherd’s House and they don’t have to bring anything. They are given toiletries, a welcome kit, bedding, clothing and food. They don’t have to do anything but come in and make a commitment to stay clean and sober and work a recovery program.
Shepherd’s House is like a giant home with a lot of structure for a multitude of people who find themselves feeling hopeless because they’re addicted to drugs or have alcohol problems; 99 percent of them are veterans.
Shepherd’s House is a long term, residential/transitional housing center for individuals who are alcohol and/or chemically addicted men, 18 years or older. The facility is located on the northeast side of Fort Wayne.
Participants are asked to make a personal commitment to the recovery program. The program offers education and therapy regarding alcoholism and/or chemical dependency and recovery. Participants attend daily recovery sessions and have access to spiritual counselors and caring staff who assist them with the creation of an effective support system.
The structured approach is designed to help the individual develop a solid foundation of sobriety. They are held accountable to the rehabilitation community for behavior as well as for the completion of daily work assignments. Dignity and a healthy self-image are viewed as basic to recovery.
There is an intake process and a lot of rules and a lot of surveillance cameras. The beautiful facility that houses those being helped allow them to live there free for up to two years. There is no cost for their stay but there is one hitch; they must stay sober.
According to Cox, Shepherd’s House works with social workers and a lot of recovery meetings and classes while in collaboration with the Veterans’ Affairs, WorkOne and veterans’ centers. The minimum stay here is six months and the maximum is two years, or longer if they need it.
Clients start out in an eight-man bedroom and if they do well they go into a four-man room, then a two-man room and then they’re on their own in the rooms on the second floor. It’s all incentive-based.
Shepherd’s House believes that the bondage of addiction, whether alcoholism, chemical dependence, gambling or other dependence, can and will be broken by the power of Jesus Christ.
“Experience has shown us that those who successfully complete the program, bond with the twelve-step communities, develop a strong spiritual foundation, and stay clean and sober for the first year, three out of four will have lasting sobriety,” said Cox.
Essentially the goal at Shepherd’s House is to rebuild the lives of those who society views as hopeless into sober, productive assets to the community, relieving the welfare roles and putting the “unemployable” back into society, employed and empowered with a vision of hope for the future.
That brings me back to my second call to Joshua. After talking to Barb Cox, I wanted to talk to Joshua again. After all, he was instrumental in this story and getting the word out that hope is available.
Joshua told me initially that he worked at the Shepherd’s House but what he didn’t tell me was that he volunteered at the house. He also told me during our second conversation that at one time he was one of those veterans that hit rock bottom and went seeking help.
“I was a part of the program for three years. It’s not a super easy program but it helped me. It was a great program. If it wasn’t for Shepherd’s House I probably wouldn’t be alive,” Keeler said.
The mission statement for the Shepherd’s House is to rebuild those who society views as the hopeless into sober, employed, responsible assets to the community and to their families.
Today, Keeler has been out on his own for five months and has his own apartment in Fort Wayne. A success story thanks to the Shepherd’s House.
“I wish my dad could see me now. I think he would be proud of me and what I have been able to achieve,” Keeler said.
If there is a veteran who fits the description of what this story is about, give Barb Cox a call at 260-705-7642. It will be the best call you can make. A life changer. Just ask Joshua.
Original Article
Posted with permission from Progress
Shepherd's House wins praise for makeover
Written By: Jeff Wiehe
Date: June 18, 2010
The chairman of the local GOP spoke, offering some heartfelt words about his own family, and the governor offered praise about what’s being done at Shepherd’s House, a transitional living facility for veterans just north of downtown.
But the newspaper reporters and television cameramen on Tuesday all wanted to speak to Barbara Cox.
"I am beyond excited," said Cox, the co-founder of the facility. "This is the best day in the history of Shepherd’s House."
What brought Steve Shine, head of the Allen County Republican Party, and Gov. Mike Pence to the front porch of the Tennessee Avenue former-hospital-turned-home was the unveiling of a new handicapped-accessible kitchen, full dining room and the completion of a serenity garden.
Those new amenities were just what the 17-year-old facility, which helps veterans with post traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction, among other ailments, needed. And for so long, too.
"Seventeen years ago, we didn’t know how we were going to feed 15 people at a time," Cox said. "Now we’re feeding 50."
She did not have exact numbers, but Cox said she thought the additions cost about $300,000, 65 percent of which was paid for through a federal grant.
During a facility tour she gave The Journal Gazette two years ago, the kitchen was tight and shared a sink with the laundry room, while the dining area was sparse.
The serenity garden, where the veterans staying at the home would go for some quiet time or counseling sessions, was incomplete.
During an open house Tuesday, anyone who wanted to could catch a glimpse of the now sprawling serenity garden, complete with neatly trimmed shrubbery, statues and seats and tables.
The kitchen was remodeled and the dining area was decked out in Americana artwork.
Before people went inside, Shine offered his praise to Cox and her husband, Lonnie, the facility’s other founder, noting that a close family member had a life-threatening drug addiction that was stamped out with help from a rehabilitation facility.
Pence, for his part, has been touring the state for various reasons in recent weeks, including making the rounds to tout his newly created drug task force designed to help stem the heroin problem that has been sweeping across the nation.
“It’s a great day in Fort Wayne,” Pence said. “This makes this an even more welcoming place for those who wore the uniform for our state and this nation.”
Posted with permission from The Journal Gazette
Shepherd’s House: A respite for veterans
Written By: KPC News Service
Date: August 16, 2016
FORT WAYNE — Gov. Mike Pence, state Rep. Dennis Zent and judges Frances Gull, Tom Felts and John Surbeck recently visited Shepherd’s House, a transitional living center for homeless veterans struggling with addictions. The visitors were there presumably to tour the facility at 519 Tennessee Ave. The real reason, it turned out, was to present the Sagamore of the Wabash award to founders Lonnie and Barb Cox.
Taken completely by surprise, Barb Cox said “we were in shock.” She added, “We were very pleased that the work we’ve been doing here in helping homeless veterans reclaim their lives and become productive citizens for the past 18 years is appreciated in the community. And, it makes us even more determined to serve those who fought for our freedom.”
Over the years, Shepherd’s House has helped more than 2,000 honorably discharged veterans by giving them a faith-based home with a beautiful serenity garden for relaxing and playing corn-hole. With that comes free room and board, daily therapies, nightly recovery meetings, case management, classes tailored to their individual needs, educational and budgeting classes and medical care. In addition, they receive help in getting jobs.
Shepherd’s House, which is a long-term residential/transitional housing center, provides a strong support environment that encourages healthy self-image, which is basic to recovery from addiction. The structured approach is designed to help participants develop a solid foundation of sobriety and holds them accountable to the rehabilitation community for their behavior as well as for completion of daily work assignments. Participants make a six-month personal commitment to the recovery program and can stay up to two years.
The facility has 41 beds at the Tennessee Avenue house and another six in a house just two doors away on Spy Run Avenue, where graduates of the program can stay while getting established in the community. They are still welcome to avail themselves of the services at the main house, including meals. A couple residents are presently enrolled at Ivy Tech Community College, and at one time 23 were attending classes at local colleges.
A dedicated staff of experienced and highly motivated people, some of whom are veterans themselves, work with the residents. Their goal is to get them to the point of being able to handle the problem that made them homeless in the first place, become addiction-free, help them hold a job and down the road own housing with the assistance of HUD and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing.
The Coxes spend 18 months preparing the old St. Andrews Convent on Schele Avenue in the Harvester neighborhood to accommodate homeless people. When that lease ran out, the Coxes stumbled across the Landmark Building on Tennessee Avenue. In the 1850s it was owned by the grandparents of actress Carol Lombard and her parents were married in the office. It was known then as the Knight Mansion. It later became the Fort Wayne Sanitarium, and was an office building before becoming Shepherd’s House.
Developing Shepherd’s House to be the efficient program that it is today was a long, frustrating struggle. It was not set up to house people and required a great deal of work to get it up to code. “Even though we were the only place in the area taking in veterans,” Barb said, “we were turned down twice by the Veterans Administration. I began sending emails to the local VA office and worked my way up the chain until I finally got someone to give us a second look.
“We put in a sprinkling system, made adjustments to individual rooms and added a restaurant-style kitchen in order to meet their standards. It took 4 years to get recognized and established with the VA,” she added. “We did everything ourselves because we didn’t have the money to hire it done.”
Thanks to that hard work, residents now are eligible for dental work, psychiatric help, medications, disabilities assistance and a pension. Shepherd’s House provides a shuttle to take them to and from the VA Hospital.
“The Lord has continued to make the ‘impossible’ happen on a daily basis,” Barb said. “We got a grant for the sprinkler system, a furniture dealer donated new furniture, the owner of Rustic Hutch whose son served in Iraq gave us leather couches and Sweetwater Sound donated guitars and amplifiers. Lonnie, who plays keyboard and guitar in a local band, gives music lessons to interested residents. We were able to give 11 cars to program graduates through the kindness of area dealers. We’re particularly thankful to 10 local churches that are big supporters of the program. Some have even hired residents.
“One of the most gratifying parts of our job,” Lonnie said, “is when the veterans who have stayed with us drop in from time to time to say hello and fill us in on how they’re doing. Some keep in touch through Facebook and a few come back to lead classes.”
Shepherd’s house is open to all veterans who meet the criteria. Persons who know of a homeless veteran or one who needs assistance are urged to call 424-2500 any time of the day or night. More information can be found at shepherdshouse.org.
Posted with permission from KPC News
Shepherd's House founders awarded Sagamores
Written By: Jamie Duffy
Date: June 23, 2016
As judges and other dignitaries arrived Wednesday, Barb Cox started to wonder what was going on as she waited for Gov. Mike Pence to visit the Shepherd’s House.
“This doesn’t feel like a tour,” she said while her husband, Lonnie, chatted with Allen Superior Court judges John Surbeck and Fran Gull, State Rep. Dennis Zent, R-Angola, and Shepherd’s House board president Jane Surbeck.
However, this wasn’t just a tour.
Both Barb and Lonnie Cox, founders of Shepherd’s House, a faith-based rehabilitation center for veterans, were about to receive the Sagamore of the Wabash. It is the highest civilian award given in the state, Pence said.
Everyone else there was in on the secret.
As the governor pulled out the framed honors, he mentioned the life skills, Alcoholics Anonymous and computer classes offered at the facility, along with “an environment that rewards that progress.”
A sagamore was an adviser who was of the greatest value to the chief in Native American tribes, Pence said, comparing the Coxes to the sagamores.
Pence had visited Shepherd’s House in September to tour the new kitchen and dining room area.
The facility, which opened in 1998, treats veterans suffering from PTSD, anxiety, depression, and addiction to drugs and alcohol.
The Coxes are now eyeing the adjacent used car lot on Spy Run Avenue, hoping to acquire it and expand services. The entire project will cost close to $400,000, they estimate.
Posted with permission from The Journal Gazette
Governor honors Shepherd’s House founders
Written By: WANE Staff Reports
Date: June 23, 2016
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) Governor Mike Pence visited a home for men recovering from addiction to award its founders with the Sagamore of the Wabash award. Co-founders of the Shepherd’s House, Lonnie and Barbara Cox, were surprised with the honor on Wednesday afternoon.
The governor toured the Tennessee Avenue facility and visited with people staying there.
"To those who find themselves struggling with addictions a place like Shepherd’s House is truly remarkable and special," Pence said. "And it’s just inspiring to be around."
The Shepherd's House is a residential and transitional home for men, especially veterans, who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. The men are helped through their recovery and transition to sobriety by using faith.
The Sagamore of the Wabash is the highest honor the governor can present to a citizen. It was first created in the 1940s.
Posted with permission from wane.com