Brian: Finding Serenity

‘This had to be God’ 

A voice yelled out offering mercy, and suddenly Brian stopped walking toward a bridge where he intended to end his life. He turned around and chose to walk a narrower path that has led him to having his own home again. 

The years-long journey wasn’t easy, said Kolb, but he has been rewarded with a new life filled with dignity and hope. He was among the first people to be welcomed into “The Promised Land,” City Gospel Mission’s new affordable housing initiative. This is another important chapter in City Gospel Mission’s 100-year history, said Lucretia Bowman, Executive Vice President of Community Engagement. Bowman oversees the initiative and matches people with housing whom City Gospel Mission already has a relationship with to see if they can pay housing fees and fulfill the promises they have already made. 

“My hope is that we at City Gospel Mission as a whole and with this affordable housing program The Promised Land community, that we’ll be the example of what it looks like to have a safe place to call home that is your sanctuary,” she said. Today, Kolb has his own apartment and a steady job as a shelter facilitator for City Gospel Mission. More than four years ago, he almost didn’t make it out of addiction. The Clermont County native said he was fresh out of a mental health ward, and living in an alley waiting to see if a bed would become available. 

 “I was suicidal, and I just got so tired of being homeless.” 

A woman who works at City Gospel Mission, whom Kolb describes as a guardian angel who wishes to remain nameless, urged other staff to get him into the homeless shelter. But he was already walking away – ready to give up. “As I was walking toward the bridge to commit that suicide, they came to the door and this had to be God. They said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a bed for you.’ ” The 60-year-old decided to turn away from 40 years of substance abuse and spent seven months in the shelter. He opened up. “That’s when my life I started to change. I mean, I knew who God was, but I didn’t know him that well.” 

He said he was coming off drugs, and he had a hard time speaking in clear sentences. Kolb was in the midst of healing when he noticed recovery program participants come in to the shelter’s Diner for lunch.“There was something about them, there was something I wanted, I just didn’t know what it was.” 

Program participants were always happy and smiling, he said. When he asked to join the program, it was only then he found out that it was faith-based. “God just wasn’t in my life at all.” A trained machinist prior to experiencing homelessness, Kolb’s return to work started with volunteering to work the front desk at the shelter.

He later worked in Recovery, and he now helps ensure shelter rules are followed at night. “I have my own apartment now. It makes me real proud of myself. And City Gospel, I mean, that’s my whole life. If it wasn’t for City Gospel, I’d probably be dead right now.” 

Author: Chris Mayhew