TERRE HAUTE —
Amanda Koerner got angry a few months ago when she saw a For Sale sign outside the red brick church at the corner of Sixth and Washington streets.
“I didn’t know people owned churches,” Amanda said Thursday, sitting on a comfy couch inside the lounge of that same church, which is now in the process of being transformed into a faith-based recovery community called Next Step.
Little did she know on the day she saw that sign, but Amanda was on the same journey as another group of people who also wanted to help women in recovery to find a safe place to live as they rebuild their lives. Amanda was, and is, a recovering addict, and she had been journaling about opening a women’s recovery center to help others like herself.
“God kept telling me, ‘The sign’s on the side of the road,’” she said.
She just never dreamed the sign would say “For Sale.”
“I asked the guy mowing the grass how it could be for sale,” Amanda continued about her indignant episode in which she found herself yelling at the man cutting the grass. That man directed her to the offices of the former Washington Street Presbyterian Church, most recently home to the Terre Haute Reformed Presbyterian Church.
“I came in, and I could see the women in here. I could see how they could recover in here. I could see them laughing,” said Amanda, who was homeless herself at the time. “I couldn’t even buy lunch that day, but I knew this was the place.”
Her positive energy was the catalyst for Dana and Ron Simon, who were operating a telephone ministry in association with Harvest Prayer Ministry in the church building.
Incredible
God Story
The Simons had relocated to Indiana from California four years ago as part of what Dana calls an “incredible God story.”
Dana worked in the software industry in the Bay area of California. She was raised in the Jewish faith, but became a Christian with her husband Ron during a process that also involved the development of Greater Calling Ministry, a phone prayer conference call service.
In 2005, they met the people behind Harvest Prayer Ministry, based in Terre Haute in a former Presbyterian church, and became guides in setting up a phone ministry. Then in 2006 during a meeting in Terre Haute, Ron and Dana walked into the church sanctuary and felt “called” to be in that place.
On that same trip, they also met a college student with an addiction to oxycontin, who told the couple that she wanted to be free from addiction. Dana and Ron drew on their personal experience of helping Ron’s high school-age daughter overcome an addition to alcohol, and they stayed in touch with that college student to counsel her through her troubles.
Eventually, the couple left behind their five adult children in California to move to the Wabash Valley, where they have found the people friendly and willing to help others. That’s different than life in California, Dana said, where no one says hello to strangers or waves at random people as they walk or drive by.
“We love it in Terre Haute,” said Dana, a native Californian. “Yes, it’s been a culture change. But for us, it’s a very good one.”
Just three months after the couple moved to Terre Haute in 2007, Ron’s son got into trouble with drugs. He went through a rehabilitation program in Arizona, but he wasn’t ready to return to California to be among the same influences that got him into trouble. So, Ron’s son came to Terre Haute for a while, and Dana said that was just more preparation for the couple’s future path.
“We have been personally touched by drug and alcohol issues in our lives,” Dana said, so the idea of helping others overcome their addictions was not foreign to them. They also found some like-minded folks at the church they attend — Agape Christian Church.
Running with God
Heather Rollins, who now works with the Next Step Foundation, started a running ministry for women at the Conner Center homeless shelter.
Heather told her Agape church family about two years ago that she felt called to offer the running ministry, and she met success at Conner Center when she had 14 people sign up for the running program. Ron Simons also started to help with the group.
Dana, however, was rather reluctant to go running. But in another twist in her life, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Part of her recovery from that disease was to add exercise to her life, so Dana also joined the running group at Conner Center, which by then had been joined by Linc and Cathy Hobbs, also members of Agape Christian Church.
At the Conner Center, which is operated by Lighthouse Mission, the Agape runners met a young woman with four children who wanted to attend Indiana State University. She had earned a scholarship and was working two jobs, and she needed better housing.
“Those are the people you want to help,” Dana said.
They also met a woman who had an addiction, but could not find sober living arrangements to help her through her recovery. They eventually found a shelter to accept her in Greencastle, but it became increasingly clear to the Simons and their friends that Terre Haute needed some kind of housing that would accept women in recovery who were not ready to live on their own.
“We saw women at the Conner Center who had no positive place to go when they left,” Dana said. “Even if they desired to make the right choice, there’s no place for women to go.”
She had watched the success of the sober living facility for men, founded by Club Soda, and felt called to do something to help the women wanting to make a positive change.
Seeing the vision
In the meantime, the struggling economy had taken its toll on Harvest Prayer Ministry, which was looking to sell its building at Sixth and Washington because of deficiencies in the aging structure.
So as the Simons tried to figure out how to help the women in need that they were meeting, they realized that they were already working out of a building that was for sale. Sure, the old church has an aging sanctuary and needed some electrical and brick work, but it also has a newer classroom/office addition, a large kitchen and pantry area, and a large meeting space that is still hosting Sunday services for the Reformed Presbyterian Church.
That was about the time that Amanda Koerner walked into the church and envisioned the sober living environment.
Ironically, Dana did not realize that she already knew Amanda’s son Jordan from having taught him in Bible study two years prior to meeting his mother. When that connection was pointed out to Dana, it made Amanda’s vision for the church believable for the Next Step group.
“We totally believe this is God orchestrating this,” Dana said. “There is a need in this community for women to come together. To have job skills. To get away from the drug culture.”
Another “sign” that Dana points to was revealed late one night as she was watching a television program about a similar women’s recovery house in Georgia. Dana said she got in contact with that group in Georgia, and she has since contacted similar organizations to find out how to set up house rules and financial plans for a residential facility.
Amanda had also been doing research. She was spending what little money she had going to the public library to print out grant information about recovery programs and residential facilities.
She tried meeting with people at the Vigo County jail about getting more recovery programs available to women there, but found that space limitations worked against her. It was frustrating, but it also made her more determined.
Over the Edge
“I’ve been an addict my whole life,” Amanda said quietly. “The first time I used drugs I was 12. My parents also had addictions. I have had periods of sobriety, but never recovery.
“I got into some legal trouble when I was 29. I lost everything, including my children, and I realized I couldn’t continue.”
That was two years ago. Amanda has been successful in her recovery, and for now, she has a place to live. Her children are with her mother, and she works full time and goes to school full time. She does have some housing assistance, but it runs out at the end of November.
“I am a convicted felon, so I can’t get low-income housing,” Amanda said.
Her situation became the catalyst to take the “next step” in getting the residential facility established. Amanda will likely be the first woman to live there.
“The thing that tipped us all over the edge,” Dana recalls, “was when Amanda looked into our eyes and said, ‘This is life or death for me.’”
Stepping out
on faith
The Next Step Foundation has been incorporated and has purchased the church property at Sixth and Washington streets.
Linc Hobbs, a certified public accountant, is president of the new non-profit organization. Amanda is also a founding member, along with Dana and Ron Simons, Cathy Hobbs, and Heather Rollins.
“Even in recovery, I tell people to take the first step, and it leads them to the next step,” Amanda said. “It was so simple for me to think ‘the next step’ and then it happens.”
To share their plans with the public. Next Step is hosting an open house from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday.
Members of the community can get a tour of the building and learn more about the non-profit organization and its plans for assisting those looking to get out of the drug culture.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
News
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis At home: Ron and Dana Simons are California transplants, happy to be living and ministering in Terre Haute. Their Next Step Recovery House holds an open house next week.
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Amanda Koerner
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Here to serve: Ron and Dana Simons, along with Heather Rollins and Amanda Koerner, will hold an open house next week for Next Step Recovery.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis On a mission: Dana Simons and her husband Ron hope to open a sober living residence for women by this coming March.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Room to grow: The exterior of Next Step Recovery House shows some of the repair work already done to the structure.
Discussion
Rebuilding Lives: Former church being transformed into faith-based recovery facility
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