“A Mile In Their Shoes”, Day 3, Jacksonville Florida

Clara White Mission, Downtown Jacksonville, Sunday morning

Today has been another wet, rainy, and windy day for the homeless of Jacksonville, Florida. We have just arrived at the library to catch up on some administrative tasks before heading back out to the mission field. After handing out all of our socks, toiletries, and other goods to the homeless Sunday morning, we ask for your help in keeping our supplies replenished. For the most part, Saved Life has been self-sufficient in financing this campaign. Mostly, through personal loans that have been taken out. We are asking for your help! We are asking you to get involved! Please join our blog if you already hadn’t done so. Over the next few weeks as we get settled into this journey we will be bringing you more footage, more often of what we are seeing on the street. Raw and uncut!

Homelessness is everyone’s problem. It is not a problem that will simply go away by ignoring it or by throwing money at it in hopes it will go away. It takes compassionate, caring, and gentle individuals who really care about these people to make a difference in their lives. We are not asking you to give up your lives and form a mission trip like we have. We are simply asking you to get involved. Someone once said “the measure of any society is based on how they treat their weakest link”. Well…the statistics, news reports, blogs, and every other media network on homelessness issues pretty much explains it! I will let you decide your own opinion and keep mine to myself. The bottom line is we need your help to help them. We need your donations of socks, toiletries, clothing, Bibles, and canned goods to help those in need. We also need your help in making our vision for a “Cities of Refuge” become reality. These “Cities of Refuge’s” will provide these men, women, and children a safe place to get back on their feet and provide the specialized treatment model suited for their needs. But, more importantly, it will give them a place to call home.

We need your help! Please go to our Get Involved page and donate $5 towards helping one of these street people we encounter. Millions of dollars have been pumped into Haiti and other third world countries. What about the men, women, and children starving here without THEIR basic needs. Some of whom fought for the very freedom we enjoy everyday. My conscience would not allow me to sit idly by and watch them suffer a slow death when there was something I could do about it! Will you join me?

See ya on the road,

Jason


Make The Miles Matter! Thank you!

Freedom From Alcoholism…Two Years Today!

” Lord, please forgive me for what I have become!” These words still ring in my ears to remind me of the morning of March 12, 2008. I had awoke that morning in a cell in the Duval County Jail in Jacksonville, Florida. My clothes were torn and dirty. I had a huge headache from all the booze I had consumed the night before. Worst of all is I could not remember any of it or how I managed to wind up in jail.  I had blacked out. My three month long drinking binge had come to an end. Any doubt about being an alcoholic was wiped clean from my mind. It is the day I finally completely surrendered myself to Jesus Christ. It is a day I will never forget!

On March 11, 1995, a Marine fresh out of boot camp on ten day leave, I married a beautiful woman named Connie. During our marriage we had two wonderful children, Kaitlin and Andrew. During our 4 year marriage, my drinking became worse and worse. I would not come home at night, had total disregard for her or my children, and barely had any respect for myself left. My inevitable decline had started. After many years of putting up with my attitudes, total disrespect, and my chronic alcoholism, we finally divorced at my request.  Something that later in life would prove to be the biggest mistake I ever made. I abandoned my children and what was left of my life. Drinking was more important to me than my own family! Alcohol was my life now. I had become what I most hated in life!

March 11th always held a special place in my heart. Besides the usual self pity, guilt, and shame that I lived with everyday, March 11th reminded me of what I gave up, something that I could never get back. My family. This is something that still holds true today. Little by little as the years go by I am able to forgive myself a little more for what I had done to my wife and my children. March 11th, 2008 was the final straw that broke the camels back. I had endured all the guilt and shame that I could bear. I had been sober for a couple years prior to this relapse in November 2008. In four short months of drinking, I had become worse than ever. I know longer cared if I lived or died. I was utterly and truly hopeless. Or so I thought!

God saw it differently. The morning I cried out to Him for help, He was there! I expressed my sorrow, my pain, and all else. I gave myself to Him. With His grace, I have learned to live a life in Him. I have learned to forgive myself for the wrongs of my past. I have learned what it truly means to love and to be loved. I have learned and felt His unconditional love and forgiveness. I have learned to live a life of freedom from the bondage alcohol had kept me in for years. I am no longer trapped in my own prison. I am grateful beyond words!

“Gratitude, thankfulness, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

I have received my freedom! Words cannot really explain this emotion I have. My passion for helping others is a direct action fueled by my gratitude. I will go to any length to help others feel this extraordinary emotion that I now possess! I feel it is only right to give back the gift of life that was so freely given to me!

Why help the homeless?

I am asked this question often. Well, Jesus had no home! Jesus walked from town to town, spending most of His time with the people on the streets. He was criticized for associating with the poor and forgotten people and often was run out of town. Jesus knew what it was to be hungry, thirsty, and tired. We want to follow His example and bring His message of hope and restoration to those who need it most. I too can say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,…”

I have been homeless numerous times from my alcoholism and the poor choices I made during my drinking days. I have felt the loneliness, despair, and utter hopelessness of addiction. It hurts. If I can help one person to fight their way out of bondage, then I did my job. We hope to help many fight their battles and enjoy the freedom that is possible. I am at a loss for words right now. This topic always stirs something inside me. I just hope that I can effect others to make a difference the same way that my deliverance has made to me. Glory be to God! See you on the road!

Jason

Blessed and Highly Favored

My name is Jason J. Day. I am a soldier in the army of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is my commanding officer. The Holy Bible is my Code of Conduct. Faith, prayer,and the Word are my weapons of warfare. I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, trained by experience, tried by adversity. I have a desire to effect a change in our society for the homeless …and all those who are lost and suffering. I have made a decision to do just that, to give the lost an opportunity to hope again! I am determined to succeed! Get involved! We are here to offer light to the lost, encouragement for the weary, and hope for the hurting. We are Saved Life. Keep us in your prayers! See ya on the road!

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

Jason J. Day Interview

Take a look at my first of many interviews for Saved Life: Coast to Coast! I was very nervous and did not think it was very good! I didn’t actually cover all of the material I had wanted too! There is a solution to all of this madness! We believe our “Cities of Refuge” model would help to alleviate the problems of alcoholism, addiction, and chronic homelessness. I am very committed to fulfilling my goals of making this a reality. Join us! Help us to make a difference! What do YOU think of the interview? Please let me know! See ya on the road!

Saved Life Chronicles: Jacksonville Beach, Day One

Wow! Here we are! The day has  finally arrived to start my mission for the homeless! For the next 7 months I will be eating, sleeping, and hanging out on the streets of America to bring you their stories. I had spent most of the weekend packing up the remainder of my apartment and moving things into storage. I experienced a lot of mixed emotions ranging from very excited and anxious to “Wow, I am really doing this.” Many people say they are gonna do a lot of things to help others. Very few actually put the action along with their words. I made a decision a few months ago to do this benefit ride. After my deliverance from alcoholism, I went back to a regular job, with a regular place to live, to a regular mediocre middle-class life.  As I would drive to work I would see the homeless and street people out on the corners and near the abandoned buildings. My heart went out to them. I knew what they felt because I had personally experienced homelessness for myself! Frequent thoughts and questions would come to mind on how I could best help them. “What can I do?” “What can I do Lord?”

Someone once told me the most powerful thing that I had to offer was my testimony. With it, I could give hope to those who suffer from the alcoholism, addiction, and chronic homelessness that keeps them trapped in their own prisons. For the last 4 years I have researched, interned, studied, networked, ministered, and everything else imaginable trying to understand more about the life of the homeless and how I can best use the gifts God has given me to help them. Somewhere along the line, Saved Life was born.

This benefit ride is not about money! I want to make that fact clear. If we raise enough money to reach our goals, fine! If we don’t, that is fine too! This ride is about bringing the much-needed awareness to how these lost, sick, and suffering “Children of God” are living in the shame, guilt, condemnation, and addiction that is destroying them. We will bring them a ray of hope. Hope for a better future. I do ask one thing! Volunteer at a local soup kitchen or rescue mission. Say a kind word to a stranger. Get involved! Tell your friends about our mission. Subscribe to the blog! Do SOMETHING! If you feel led to donate, by all means donate. Please use the ratings system and give us some feedback. We want to know what you think. Alright, that was more than a word, but you understand what I mean!

We will soon be bringing you stories from the streets. It will take me a couple of days to get used to this idea of being homeless, so bear with me. Be Blessed and I will see you again soon! See ya on the road! Or rather, see ya at the beach!

Peace be with you,

Jason

Jason and a man named Randy under the “Overpass”, January 2010