EP 35: Living at Front Porch

Welcome back to the Grace Church Members Podcast.

I'm Whitney Manus and today we're continuing our series on

Front Porch Housing to celebrate their two year anniversary by

hearing stories from 2 residents.

First, I had the pleasure to talk with Nathan.

He and his 12 year old daughter have been at Front Porch for

about 8 months as we're recording here.

And then I spoke with Graham, who has been a resident for

almost two years. I'm so excited for you to hear

both of these interviews as they showcase daily life at 1433

Cleveland. St.

Nathan, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks for having me. So Nathan, tell us a little bit

about just what has your experience been like while

you've been living at Front Porch?

Yeah, I would say the first questions that came to mind were

surprising and unexpected of just coming in.

Have been in a season of a lot of stress and uncertainty and

instability. And just to be able to come in

quickly and feel welcomed with practical things of furniture

and things that needed around the apartment for myself and my

daughter, just to be at home quickly.

The hospitableness there from everybody on campus, every staff

member was just so welcoming and then just very quickly upon

moving in just to feel overwhelming gratitude and so

humbled at the opportunity to be able to to live there and

participate in the community. Yeah, and that's great.

I love, I love hearing about that.

What have been just like some of the wins and personal

celebrations that you've had while you've been at Front

Porch? Yeah, I would say in tandem with

just it being able to be a safe and stable place, but to

reconnect with what it means to be healthy and well for me

that's been to be able to express creativeness, caring,

connected with others, those are things that not necessarily been

able to express as well. So just to be able to have that

safe stable place and get out from under the the stressors and

then just practically completed the money matters class and able

to participate in the the savings match program that front

Porch offers there. Being able to help create and

roll out a fun scavenger hunt Front porch frogs project with

my daughter and that to be able to be something that the

community can can engage around. And then just connecting and

forming relationships with other residents.

Coming out of a season where can feel very lonely and then into a

fresh place where it can feel very humbling and overwhelming.

But to have so many other people around me that are coming out of

similar seasons and it just, it, it really echoed a lot of the

things I experienced in in Regen graduated that early last year

And just you know, to be able to have a place where you can be

yourself and not to always have to be in hiding so to speak,

that has been, I would say a huge, huge thing to celebrate.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's cool to see just the

partnership between Regent and just all of Money Matters, all

these other opportunities to, yeah, just pursue Wellness,

pursue healthiness and stability.

You mentioned a space to be able to pursue creativity and even a

scavenger hunt that you've done with your daughter.

Tell me a little bit about that. What did you guys do?

Yeah. So my daughter and I were just

out to lunch one day and randomly saw some birds like in

the rafters of of this restaurant.

And then we were talking about mice on Main downtown Greenville

and how that's just a really fun thing for people visiting or or

what not. And then she doesn't want to

take credit for the idea, but she came up with the idea of,

well, what if we did something similar around the front porch

campus. And so we came up with this idea

of front porch frogs over the course of a lunch.

We use ChatGPT to help us create some scavenger hunt clues and

then later that turned into a whole story that we were able to

read at story time one day. And then a creative hobby that

that I've gotten into and and my daughter as well has been 3D

printing. So we were able to go back and

create a initial prototype and then present that with with

Leanne. And then Leanne of course took

it to the next level and had reedy there from from the drive

when we launched it and was able to arrange for some ball game

tickets. And so we just really hope it's

an opportunity for kids to gather around campus, have

something healthy that they can connect together with, connect

to the staff with and just you know, really be something that

becomes somewhat of a a mascot a front porch.

The the story that we wrote is about these frogs in transition

and going through changes and uncertainty.

And that's what all of us at Front Porch are coming out of

and coming into this, this new welcoming environment.

And so we've got ideas to kind of create this Bernstein bears

sort of series of the books. And the next one would be, you

know, settling in and and making friends and then you know what

it looks like to grow once you have some of those, those basic

things provided for. What a cool thing.

Something we want to highlight about Front Porch, first of all,

is the importance of having fun, especially when you've been in a

season of instability and uncertainty.

That's just something that you know you can take for granted a

little bit. And so when you have an

opportunity to really just have fun and be creative, like that's

something that we're really able to bring to the forefront and

just the freedom of front porch housing, I think to bring your

gifts, that's something that we've talked about a lot of

whatever gifts that you have, there's a place to bring those

at front porch and to be able to use those well.

So we just really encourage anybody who's listening, like

whatever skills you have, whether it's 3D printing or

you've played around in chat, GPTA, little bit or artistic,

cars, finances, really whatever you have.

Like there is just a need. And as a community, like, we

really want to bring those to bear and use those in a way that

is honoring the Lord and being able to love others well.

Yeah, for sure. And that it was really cool

timing with the sermon series that we did last summer on using

your resources well. And that's something I've always

felt challenged on that whatever we have our our time, our money,

our talents are not just for ourselves.

And so to come into an environment and be able to have

the opportunity for those things and to see the really

disproportionate impact that those can make buying somebody a

meal or sharing your leftovers or a project that you never know

what it's going to blow up into. Yeah, and a lot of that does

come back to this idea of stewardship of light.

We're just offering up to the Lord what he's already given to

us and entrusting him to use that to build his Kingdom and to

bless others. That's awesome.

Yeah, for sure. What has been unique about just

the work that front porch is doing as as you've been around?

I think the really cool, unique opportunity at this season in

Front Porch is that it's still new.

The staff does not pretend just to have everything all figured

out. So that entrepreneurial spirit

of, well, let's figure out what story time looks like in these

children's programs. And so learning to adapt and

change has been really cool to see, even in in the short amount

of time that I've been there And that this isn't something where

you come in and it's just a regimented structure and

constrained to the exact operating procedures that

somebody's already outlined, right.

And so personally, I've experienced the uniqueness of

the care that has been shown to me.

It's incredibly generous that at Front Porch we have the care

coordinators and you have a dedicated person that's there to

help make sure that you're successful and to take the time

to understand what success means for you.

And I felt that from day one when I initially did an

interview with the staff that, you know, we're just asking

questions about where I was coming from, what my goals would

be in having this place. And then just daily of getting

off a phone call with my care coordinator an hour ago and

talking through some real time things going on.

And him to be able to be a sounding board, a safe place

that knows the reality of the circumstances and also somebody

I can trust that knows the intentions of my heart.

And so, you know, just another plug for Regen if if you have

not gone through that, whether you're in a season of stress or

not, but if you're feeling, you know, lonely or overwhelmed or

unequipped in whatever you're going through, definitely helps

to provide some some foundational building blocks to

to really help care for yourself in a in a gospel centric way.

And so I think the work of that through 2022 and then early 2023

really just revealed to me what it what it meant to be a child

of God. What it meant to be to love, to

be loved, to feel valued. And then coming in the front

porch. Now it's the hands and the feet

of what can often seem like theoretical concepts and not

really experienced by people at times, sadly.

And so just to come in and if it's just a hug that I need or

it's going for a walk, inventing to have that kind of curated

sort of care has been huge. And so, like, just experiencing

that myself and knowing that others have experienced that as

well, it's awesome. Yeah, yeah.

If y'all have been around for a little bit, just as we've talked

about front porch housing, we use this language of not

affordable housing, but supportive housing.

And I mean, that's really important to us.

Like that is key to the identity of the work that they're trying

to do that yeah, there are physical needs that need to be

met. There's emotional, mental needs.

And so we're really just trying to support the whole person,

spiritual needs as well. And care coordinators are a huge

part of that. So like you, like you just said,

all of our residents have their own care coordinators that are

checking in, seeing what they need, seeing what resources they

can provide for them. And that is a huge part of our

residents success is that they're able to be just really

personally, uniquely cared for. And then you've also talked

about being a dad. So tell us a little bit just of

how Front Porch has been able to support you specifically in that

way? Yeah.

So I think it's really been leapfrogging off of connecting

again with what it is to be healthy and well.

No pun intended on frog, right? And so you know it.

It's a challenge when when you're a parent, you know,

children don't remember what they say, what you say, they

remember what you do. And that's been weighing heavy

on me the last last few years that am I leading by example of

the things that I'm trying to challenge and grow my daughter

in. And so when I tell my daughter

you're loved, you're valuable, you're worthy.

Children are remarkably perceptive and can tell when you

might say that but not truly mean it, and if you don't mean

it authentically yourself, they can see through that.

And so I think that's been the number one way for me is being

able to to be my full self and walk in the the man, the Nathan

that God made me to be distinct from roles as you know an

employee, a father or husband whatever else it might be

because primarily we're children of God.

And so trying to model that in a in a healthier way because you

know if I can launch her into adulthood understanding that

health as a person is about so much more than just good grades

or good friends or a nice house or a good job.

And it's about having good spiritual and mental and

emotional health and then trusting God for so many of the

other things. And so out of that just, you

know, being able to overflow creativity.

And I'm an accountant working in consulting a lot of numbers and

stuff, but also was an English major and so I'm kind of a a

weird cookie but have tried to fit myself into certain molds in

a box throughout my career. And so just to have ways to

connect with the creative side of myself more in the 3D

printing or art classes or whatever it might be and helping

her to see that, you know, you can be so much more than just

whatever career you have. And so practically just the 3D

printing like we talked about has been a lot of fun Christmas.

All of our Christmas ornaments were 3D printed.

Things that she found and the front porch frogs and then some

prizes that we've we've made for that for the kids has just been

really cool. And then to see her overflow

from that, you know she enjoys just making things for her

friends. She's amazingly generous and

that's just truly what I think is, is a gifting of hers.

And so to give her opportunities for that.

And then I would say living at Front Porch gives you a unique

opportunity to have exposure to so many others that are going

through different life circumstances, people that are

going through the the residence program, but then you also have

those through United Ministries. And so I was feeling really

challenged. Listen to the church podcast

episode that talked through the Israeli conflict and so forth

and just gives a new perspective to those that might be coming

out of history as a refugee. And so makes our hearts so happy

to see some of these kids that like have a ball and that just

brings them so much joy and happiness or the way in which

the kids really you have a different sense of community

when you have that common background.

So just to even have some level of proximity to that and get out

of just the cookie cutter environment that most of us are

accustomed to has has truly been a blessing for me and and a

blessing to be able to to have that for my daughter.

Yeah, that is, that is really cool.

And it just it strikes me that like, as a church, a lot of

times we're just talking about this idea of being around people

who are not like you. And OK, where does that really

come from? Well, if we're all created in

the image of God, we're all image bearers, whether we're

believers or not. Like there's just beauty to be

gleaned from all experiences, and you certainly get that at

front porch. And it's such a blessing,

especially in a world where you know more often than not

depending on your job. Like, you're probably working

alongside people who are somewhat similar to you in many

ways. And so being in a place where

you are shoulder to shoulder playing soccer or doing an art

class next to somebody who just has a different story is really

powerful. And just exactly what you said

that especially for kids like they're developing a world view.

And so for your daughter to be exposed and just have this idea

that, OK, not everybody is living the same life that I'm

living is really valuable. And there is a lot that she will

learn about her creator and her earthly father and her heavenly

Father through that of, yeah, these are the kinds of things

that my dad was talking to me about even now.

And this is how I saw him care for himself and Percy, what it

looked like to be whole in Christ and all aspects of life.

Like, it's just really, really cool.

Yeah. Is there anything else that you

would add or that you wanted to talk about that we haven't

mentioned? Yeah, I would just say that one

of the the biggest things that I've come to realize and that I

think is really a big misconception within the church

is what it what it looks like to serve in healthy ways.

And so the the thing that I've realized is that you can't be

well for others if you're not well yourself.

And so I think there can be a a toxic kind of sacrilege at times

to where we don't care for ourselves as God's creatures

that he he has made us to be. You know, we're again, we're

just coming off Easter weekend. And you know, it's honestly

overwhelming to me when you think about that Jesus died, God

died. And he would have done that for

any one of us individually. And so if God places that worth

over my life, then nothing more is going to add to it or take

away from it. And so walking in that and

seeking to be the the fullest person that God has created us

to be intellectually, emotionally, creatively,

emotionally has been a a huge one for me to to try to digest

that our emotions, our emotions are not this evil thing from the

devil, but the, you know, they, they are God's gift to help us

to be able to connect with ourselves and connect with

others well. And so you know I would just

encourage anyone out there that that's listening to this front

porch is a place where as residents we get you know really

the unique opportunity day in, day out to be exposed to this.

But that there's so many opportunities to come in and

just meet with residents, interact with them, walk around

campus and help pick up trash for a couple hours and just see

the the culture around, find ways to to involve yourself.

You know it's you don't have to go pay thousands of dollars and

travel to a third world country to do missions.

There's so many place, front porch house is just an example.

But there's so many places around the Greenville community

to do missions and to, you know, put yourself in an opportunity

to serve others that are less fortunate than yourself and to

really appreciate the the stance that you have in life and the

giftings that you have to share with others.

I'm here today with Graham, who is a resident at Front Porch

Housing. Graham, thanks so much for

joining us today. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I was. Glad to have you.

Well, we'd really love to just hear what What has your

experience been like as you've been a resident at Front Porch?

My experience has been quite a journey.

My background has come from a lot of addiction and things like

that. But but deeper than that, most

of my life I've tried to be something that I'm not and it

has cost me every time at front porch.

I belong not just and I I don't just know that because someone

told me, but because Miss Leanne, Brian and Marcus, they

they work. Wholeheartedly, and I'm sure

they do. I I know that they do with

others, but I mean I have just experienced them showing me that

I belong day in and day out, some really critical moments in

life. Miss Leanne in particular, at A

at a funeral service one day. It's a guy that had I'd gone

through overcomers with he had overdosed and I was I was really

sad. She she was at the service.

She comes up to me and she she asked me if I want to escape.

You know, she asked me how I'm feeling in this in in that

moment. And I I don't really remember

what it was I told her, but I know she put a hand on each of

my shoulders and she looked me right in my eyes and she said, I

love you just the way you are. I said I love the the real you.

I felt the freedom to ugly cry on that woman's shoulder and

little things like that I I, which I don't really consider a

little thing, but things like that help me go from my head to

my heart and believe that I belong there, yeah.

What is just such a powerful example of what it is to be seen

and to be known? Like for her to know that?

That's the question that needs to be asked in a moment.

I love that you talked about belonging.

For those of Y'all listening, if you haven't been to front porch,

when you walk into the clubhouse, on the the wall up

there it says you belong and and and what does it mean to you to

to belong in a place like front porch?

I do I. I have a lot of baggage, things

that they have helped me with, the things like parenting.

So in my addiction, I I lost custody of my children whom I

have for the whole week this week, which is awesome.

They are at they are at Front Porch right now playing soccer

and very excited about that. And one of the cool things is I

live in an apartment with three other guys.

So that's not an environment where you can have your your

children. They would probably love it and

all that great stuff. But you know that's just that's

just not, not not how you do it And so they have a family

apartment. So we've been able to use that

this week. It's been no extra calls to me,

which is awesome. The parenting classes, Miss Beth

Drake and Josh Lufkin and his and his wife and they they

walked us through these parenting classes and seeing

that you're not alone. You're you're in there, you

know, knee deep in a common struggle with other residents.

Sometimes you see these huge problems in front of you, like

going through the courts and everything like that in the

process of getting custody back. And it just seems so

intimidating and everything and we were in the first meeting of

of our parenting class and this young lady stands up and and she

was sharing her experience. She had already completed the

family's count course. She said her husband had passed

away and and I knew this already from going through grief share

with this same person. So I knew a little bit of her

story, and as far as being a single mother goes, she makes

the statement. I have no idea how to teach my

little boy how to pee standing up.

There are so many struggles, so many smaller battles that lead

up to these, these big ones that can be dealt with and won on a

community level. And and just just in hearing one

another stories and hearing one another struggles pouring into

someone just just like a vessel. You know, it's all those things

just pouring in. And I can grow here.

I can, I can continue to recover and recover.

Well here. I'm not alone.

Call. You know, once you know you're

not alone. You you know you belong.

Yeah. No, that's great.

And I mean, I'm so glad you highlighted just some of the

different resources that are available at Front Porch.

Like for our listeners, I just don't think that y'all know how

many different resources are available to our residents at

Front Porch. So you mentioned families,

counts, parenting classes. So if you're trying to regain

custody of your kids, that's an incredible resource.

Grief share, divorce care, just whatever you have going on,

whatever you walk in the front door with, whatever your

struggles are that there are just resources that are

available to help you walk through and process a lot of

that. And that's all part of this plan

in this progress towards moving towards health, moving towards

Wellness, moving towards wholeness as we've talked about,

yes. Absolutely.

There's something that will touch each aspect of life in the

recovery world. You you hear a lot about the Tri

dimensional man, you know like like mentally, physically,

spiritually or something like that.

Yeah. But front porch does something

that's I would say that and then some.

For example, Regen, I love Regen.

I'm. I'm about to complete it.

And that's my Tuesday night. We're in step 12, which is

talking about sharing your story for the purpose of giving others

hope. Are helping helping others.

So very excited about completing it and either the opportunity to

serve after completing or just going back to ground works.

Either way, that's my Tuesday night.

That's what I'll I'll do until I can't anymore.

Or don't. Another thing would be money

matters. Money matters at I had no idea

like I I thought I did, but I had no idea how to actually

handle money. The ideas of budgets and being

financially stable have always sounded great to me, and they've

always sounded like something that was in a far off, distant

land, almost like a fairy tale to me.

But sobriety did at one point too.

So did you know, walking closely and believing that I'm forgiven,

and so walking through or going through money matters, that was

that was great. I I I love that.

From that I've been able to meet monthly, give or take with a

money mentor if you will. That has helped me with

everything from saving money and creating checking accounts.

My license was almost $7000 to get back and I was just like I'm

just again just looking at this total bill and I'm overwhelmed

and so just just simple little step that you could take.

Just open up another free checking account.

This is these are things that I learned from them that never

occurred to me. Set aside something that's

manageable don't get a debit card to the account and let it

accrue and we did that Anyhow I drove to the meeting today so in

in in a car that front porch gave me Dave.

Money matters and the the counselors have have helped me

not only just create a budget, learn how to manage credit,

which is what we're getting into now.

So I still don't know anything about that, but I know that I

have someone that's going to help me learn.

That's right. And.

That's maybe the most awesome thing about front Porch is I I I

know that. I don't know a lot of stuff, but

I know that there's someone that's going to help me learn

about all of it. Yeah, what?

A gift to be able to have someone to help and and to bring

their gifts to bear in that. I also want to say

congratulations on getting close to graduating region.

Like what a huge accomplishment. We're just sitting here and

you're just talking like all of these things that are available.

And so I think it's just this beautiful picture.

But I'd love to hear just what are some.

I mean those are huge wins being able to do money matters,

families counts, region. But yeah, what are some of these

other things in your life and your time at Front Porch that

you've been able to celebrate a financial?

One, a small one. I've been able to put over $1000

in savings accounts since coming through Money matters.

That's something that I've I've never done before and counting

and we're aim for more. The first goal was 500, the

second goal was 1000 and next goal 2000.

Some other wins that I've had at front Porch, One that was much

greater is I have never felt worthy of receiving a gift.

I've never felt worthy of of being loved.

I say never probably since my father died since a young boy.

I I've I've, I've just struggled with that.

I know that the Bible says that that I am loved.

I know that the Bible says that that God demonstrates his love

towards us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died

for us. And and I knew those things, but

I just. I struggled to believe them.

This past Christmas. I was really coming to the the

short roads on my driver's license and paying that stuff

back. We went to breakfast and we

being a group of men that serve at front porch but but also just

serve at large here at Grace Church.

Some guys are ushers. Merritt Anderson W.

Cabin J Roger, Those are the wise guys.

That's what I call them. Those are my mentors.

We had a what I thought was a year in breakfast for serving at

the Overcomers. That's where I met all these men

at when I was going through the overcomers program.

That's where I learned about Grace and Front Porch through

this group of men. And now I'm able to go in and

serve with them on Saturday mornings doing a Chapel.

We do the MRT studies with the men in the in the program.

And so I I think that we're going to breakfast and we did.

Ryan Burgess is there and some other folks from front porch and

I I thought, this is a little weird suspicious.

Yeah, but I I didn't. Really think too much about it,

really. And looking back, there was so

many, so many things. And Wes Cabin asked my opinion

about something that we're doing at overcomers.

And I was just, I was like, it's awesome.

They're asking my opinion, you know what I mean?

I was a a junkie. And now they're asking my

opinion on what we should do or what we're doing or how the

Ministry's going or how it affected my life.

And man, I was excited. I don't even remember what he

what he asked me or what I said, but I would just remember the

excitement in that moment And he shifted the conversation to

asking about my driver's license somehow And I told him that I

had X amount of dollars left to pay off and he says no you don't

and slides me a receipt and he says we understand that you have

certain amount of of fees to pay besides unpaid tickets.

And I said yeah, and they said no, you don't took care of that.

Wes Cavan says wait, there's more.

They take me outside and Brian comes pulling up in a car and

they gave me the title to it, the keys to it and everything.

That was awesome to receive that gift.

The the dollar amount is one thing and it was AI mean it was

a car and a few $1000 in in fees and stuff that that they paid on

on my behalf. But the wind that day was was

believing that I was loved. When I say that.

That people at Front Porch and people at Grace Church have

shown me that I'm loved. That's what I mean.

And it and it doesn't mean that you have to give someone or do

something like that for someone to to show them you love them.

But that's what they did. They they did do that.

They they showed me that I was loved.

They've given me an opportunity to be able to to show others

that same worth that that ministry of of you are are worth

something that you belong that you are loved.

They've given me that same opportunity to be able to to

participate in that ministry. To the men at Overcomers and to

other folks around Front Porch, that is.

That has been one of my biggest wins since living at Front Porch

is is going from knowing to believing that I belong.

Believing that I am loved, believing that that I am worth

the effort that it takes to put into an individual to help them

recover. Well, that's right.

And the core of that, like what all of that represents, is that

all of those people give to you so freely and love to you so

freely because they're so clear that Jesus Christ has done that

for all of them in the biggest way possible, you know, And it

is just, it's the gospel at work in people's lives.

And I mean, to your point, it's not about the car, it's not

about the stuff. It's not about the money.

All of that is just representing what love is and what care is.

And meeting the physical need is demonstrating that the spiritual

need is also being met, That you have people who are pursuing you

because Christ has pursued them and they're just clear on it.

And then they look at you and they're like, now you get to go

do that for somebody else. And we're just in this cycle.

Like this is what Front Porch is doing is we want to help people

heal. We want them to know that

they're loved. We want them to experience the

power of the gospel because then they are able to go and live

that out for other people. Yes, I know.

I've I've talked a lot about knowing a lot of things versus

believing a lot of things. And before I came to overcomers,

I was a pastor. I pastored a small church in

Sumter, SC. I knew that the Bible says that

God's grace is sufficient for me.

I knew that the Bible said that underneath it all are the

everlasting arms. I knew all of those things

because they're written down in the Bible.

All of those things that I now believe or because of, just like

you said, the gospel at work. I've come to a deeper

understanding of Scripture because of the gospel at work in

Merritt Anderson's life. Walking me through Scripture,

I've come to no one understand that it's OK to grieve because

of the gospel at work in Mr. Roy Jones's life.

I've come to no one understand that it's OK to confess my

faults, even to a former federal agent like Jay Roger.

It's OK to go through inventory and confession and I'll look at

what is now one of my best friends.

We had a rough start, Jay and I, but he is now one of my best

friends to know that I am unjudged and well loved and and

believe it is the gospel at work in his life.

And then Wes, Wes, Wes Cabin is I lost my father at 13.

But in the in in. The truest sense of the word I I

have not only a Heavenly Father, but I have W Cavan.

And that's because. Of the gospel at work in his

life. That's right.

I know the Bible says a lot of things.

I believe it in my heart because of the gospel at work through

the lives of the people at Front Porch and the lives of the

others that that I mentioned already.

Yeah, I. Mean thank you just for sharing,

Graham. Like this is what we want you to

know about front porch. It's not about us.

We're not just trying to put this on our resume or whatever.

This is the touch point where people get to be Jesus and

people get to know Jesus. Like, that's the power of all of

this. And I mean, our hope is that

we're just getting to show up and just be a part of it and be

available to however he wants to use us to do this work.

But like, this is, this is what it's all for.

Every opportunity we have to demonstrate Christ to somebody

and not just tell them love, not just tell them what the Bible

says about love, but to demonstrate that and show that

in super tangible ways, that is just moving people towards

Jesus. And that's the thing that's

really going to heal. That's the thing that's really

has power to change lives. And that's just what comes

through in all of your words and your whole story is it's like

the Lord has pursued Graham and he has taken his life and

changed it in such a real way. And we're just not in doubt of

that. We're so clear.

And I mean, it's just a blessing to to sit here and hear all that

with you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.