Blog Post 4

 In the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of getting to know a man at sub zero mission who has been truly inspiring.

The backstory of his presence at SZM is less than happy but it is still truly amazing. In Lake county, there is an option for veterans who commit misdemeanors or other low level nonviolent crimes to go to veterans court rather than the regular civilian court. In veteran’s court, the sentences for offenses that can be easily connected to their previous military service, like drug use for example, are much more lightened. Oftentimes they are assigned counseling or community service and weekly drug testing.

SZM is one of the locations these veterans can be assigned. They work doing everyday tasks at the mission like sorting or small construction projects.

During my time at SZM there has been on man assigned to SZM whom we will simply call J for privacy purposes. J has been an absolute shining light during our time. Each morning he arrives early before the doors are even unlocked. As we walk into the door he enthusiastically greets us with some variation of “ready for a great day?” As SZM transitions to a new phase that I will write about in my next post, he has been in charge of putting in new ceiling tiles to make the building look more professional and put together. 


More than anything, my conversations with him have been impactful. He told me about how he is now 3 months clean from all drugs. He now attends church regularly and has more responsibly used his social security checks. The only thing left for him to do is to get into a more comfortable living situation away from the people that propelled him into a bad state. 

Seeing people like James has really solidified the importance of organizations like SZM in my mind.

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