Josh and Sammie Brueggeman - How Homeless Ministry Unexpectedly Led to Adoption - 31

A routine ride to an OB appointment turned into a cascade of small yeses that changed a family forever. We invited Sammy and Josh into the studio to share how a simple act of showing up for a young woman in shelter led to bringing her home for safety, standing beside her at a sonogram, and eventually saying yes to kinship care when private adoption plans fell apart. What began as protection for a birth became a story about obedience, trust, and the kind of compassion that holds steady through uncertainty.

We walk through the complicated middle moments—hospital decisions, state custody, the heartbreak of an adoptive match dissolving, and the decision to keep a newborn safe without knowing the ending. Sammy and Josh speak candidly about loving their son’s birth mom with clear boundaries, offering dignity while refusing to ignore harm. Their reflections reveal how decades of desire, disappointment, and prior foster experience prepared them to recognize a holy invitation at the right time. The toddler they now call son fits into the family like a missing piece, and yet they continue to pray for his first mother by name, keeping hope alive for redemption.

We widen the lens to talk about homelessness in practical terms. Relationship beats handouts. Names matter. A simple greeting can draw someone back toward services and stability. You’ll hear tips shaped by years of volunteering—how to engage wisely, why panhandling isn’t the full picture, and how partnership models restore dignity. If you’ve ever wondered how to move beyond good intentions toward grounded love, this conversation offers field-tested steps anchored in faith, humility, and courage.

If this story moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your words help others find conversations that grow real compassion.

Chapters

• 0:08 Welcome, Show Updates, Abide Study
• 0:58 Launching The Compassion Series
• 1:22 Meet Sammy And Josh
• 3:08 Scripture Foundation For Compassion
• 3:36 The First Appointment And A Stirring
• 7:17 Trusting Promptings And Hard Yeses
• 9:48 A Lifelong Heart For Adoption
• 13:19 Bringing Birth Mom Home
• 16:50 Plans For Private Adoption Unravel
• 19:34 Protective Custody And Kinship Care
• 22:12 When The Yes Becomes Forever
• 25:51 Noble’s Joy And Family Transformation
• 28:06 Loving Birth Mom With Boundaries
• 31:33 Practical Compassion For The Homeless
• 40:55 Closing And Listener Invitation

Transcript

Kim McIntire: 0:08

Hey everyone. Welcome to the It's Time to Rise Up Podcast. I'm your host, Kim McIntire. We know there are so many things you can do with your time, so thank you for taking time to listen today. We pray you're encouraged and blessed by what is shared. If you're not familiar with our show, check out our website at it'stimetoriseup.org where you will find our social media links. And for our podcast platforms, you'll find us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else you find your podcast. I'm excited to announce that the Abide Study is now available on Amazon and Barnes Noble. The link to order is found in our show notes. The Abide Study is currently the discipleship piece for the Rise Up movement. There's more information about that on our website. Now let's get to today's episode. This begins our series on compassion. And today I want to welcome Sammie and Josh Brueggeman into the studio. You guys, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us. It's just such an honor. I know Sammie and Josh because we used to attend church together. My grandson and your son attend the same school and are in the same grade, starting high school in August next month. August 13th, I think, is the first day of school. Just being people who serve in the community. I know you're very involved with in different ways with God's Resort and Watered Gardens and Josh with the medical community as he serves as a physician at Freeman. So we're just honored to have you here today. And I know our listeners are going to be really encouraged and blessed. I want to begin just by asking you guys to share a little bit about life. Josh, why don't you talk a little bit about your life?

Josh Brueggeman: 2:05

Sure. Thanks for having us, Kim. You're welcome. Sammie and I have been married for almost 25 years now.

Kim McIntire: 2:12

Awesome.

Josh Brueggeman: 2:13

We have five kids ranging from two to twenty.

Kim McIntire: 2:19

Oh my goodness.

Josh Brueggeman: 2:20

And so we've done a lot of life together. We've been on a lot of adventures together, and um we're gonna talk about our latest adventure today. Yeah, and we love telling the story because God is so good and um sharing his goodness is fun. It's fun and exciting to me.

Kim McIntire: 2:40

It is, it is. So how you guys look so so young, and I don't have no idea how old you are. I really don't. So how old or young were you when you met?

Sammie Brueggeman: 2:51

Uh 20 years old. Were we 20 when we met?

Josh Brueggeman: 2:55

Yeah, I think so.

Sammie Brueggeman: 2:56

Okay. I think so. 20.

Josh Brueggeman: 2:57

We were aged really well.

Kim McIntire: 2:59

Well, that's really nice. When you said 21, I'm like, oh my word, Nicholas is 21. Yeah. Uh life goes fast, doesn't it? It does. Okay. Well, I want to begin with the scripture. Okay. James 127. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. So I really try to connect a scripture with each interview. And this interview is about compassion. Um and we're gonna just jump right in, Sammie, with you. Um you met a homeless woman. Yes. You ended up adopting her baby, you and Josh ended up adopting her baby. Did how did you end up meeting a homeless woman? What is the context of that?

Sammie Brueggeman: 3:53

So we have served at Water Gardens for the past 10 years as um volunteers who our family does a meal once a month. And then I would do other little things that needed to be done. Just um a good friend of mine, Carolyn Plasman, uh, she had a list of women that she could call on if there was a need. And so Carolyn sent a message out to a group of us and just said there's a new young woman who's pregnant in shelter for the first time. And uh she has not been to any kind of OB appointments, so we're looking for someone to take her to an OB appointment and a sazonogram to see how you know how things are going. So I was actually a school and I thought I I was doing some volunteer work up at the kids' school, and I thought, well, I could I could do that. That's that's an easy yes to do. And so I called him, said, Do you want to go with me? Because he was off that day. And I remember he said, How long is this gonna take? And I said, I don't know, a couple hours. And the rest of our lives. The rest of our lives. Um, and so we we did uh pick her up, and um, you know, at that moment I didn't have any thought of uh anything stirring or happening. Um, but we took her to her sonogram and she actually wanted us to go back with her. She didn't have anybody, and so we said we would, and we went back. So we got to see him on the sonogram for the first time when she did. And I remember I I think it was probably at that moment that I felt an overwhelming desire um in my heart to protect that baby. And I don't remember at that moment, I remember feeling really sad for his birth mom and the situation she was in. Um and but I felt like we were being like the Holy Spirit was was pressing on us to take care of the baby she was carrying. And I told him that um I said, I just feel like I need to make sure this baby is born in a hospital and not on the side of the road or in a back alley. Um, the more we got to know her and kind of where she was mentally, um, I really felt like that's what we needed to do. So in that moment I said, can we not take her back to Water Gardens? Can she live with us until she has the baby so that we can make sure the baby's born in a hospital and then figure help her figure out what is she going to do? And even in that moment, we did not think we we were not, it was not on our radar to do that. I will let Josh talk a little bit about how interesting that part is because adoption has been a part of our story, and there's a cool God thing to that. I'll bring it up.

Kim McIntire: 6:54

I was gonna I was gonna actually ask Josh. So when Sammie is feeling these feelings and the Holy Spirit is putting this, you know, impress impression upon her, and she says, I feel like we need to bring this woman home with us, like in that moment, were you were you all in ready? Did was this had the spirit already prepared your heart? Was there resistance? Like, what was your reaction to that? What when when she speaks that to you, what is your reaction?

Josh Brueggeman: 7:21

Uh you you can't hear the smile on my face, but I'm smiling because um this isn't the first time something like this has happened. But um my understanding of my wife is that she has a very strong connection with the Holy Spirit, and she hears a strong message and she is obedient, things happen. And so when at this point in our lives, when something like this happens and she tells me what we're supposed to do, her act of obedience is doing it, and my act of obedience is saying, okay, we'll do that.

Kim McIntire: 8:04

So um there's really then, I just have to stop there. There's really then in your marriage just that level of trust that if she says this is what we're supposed to do, there's not really a hesitation. It's a yes. That speaks volumes. I just I can't let that go. Because, you know, mo a lot of relationships don't have that level of trust where if one spouse says, I feel like this is what we're supposed to do. And that's true. The answer is yes.

Sammie Brueggeman: 8:40

Yeah. And it's yeses haven't always been met with easy things. You know, we're not always saying yes to something that just turns out to be like noble was was not, it hasn't been easy. It's been hard on different levels, but there've been times that we've said yes to something the Holy Spirit has c has clearly asked of us. And it hasn't been easy, and it's maybe been one of the hardest things. The last time we were foster parents, I think was a good example of that.

Josh Brueggeman: 9:13

And we also know that some of the yeses we've said in the past that have resulted in more hard than not have also led to this yes, which has been greater blessing. And so one of the advantages of being older, we're in probably the second half of our lives now, yeah, is that you have all that experience to look back on and you can see the trail of blessings along the way that you couldn't recognize earlier in your life.

Kim McIntire: 9:45

So true. So true.

Josh Brueggeman: 9:48

What I would like to uh back up with a little bit is that uh our adoption story actually started about 30 years ago. And I remember sitting in a high school classroom and learning about world overpopulation and the uh AIDS pandemic and the millions of uh uh parentless children in in Africa and thinking, my goodness, why should I have children? Because there are so many kids that need homes already and need a family already. And uh there were similar stirrings in in Sammie's heart at the same time, and she's always had kind of a heart for the underdog and taking care of uh you know individuals with disabilities and rescuing animals and those types of things. That's been a part of who she has been for a long time. But uh we started doing things together in college with um doing care providing for a gentleman with dementia. Uh we did that as a college job together. So um, but that desire to uh adopt or be involved in adoption uh was carried out through our throughout our marriage. We actually had an appointment with an adoption agency uh scheduled for the week after we found out we were pregnant with Nicholas, and so we canceled that appointment. Um and we tried to go through the adoption process a couple of times, and one of those led to fostering, which we never intended to do, and that was a very hard experience. And uh we tried uh to pursue it, but we moved and COVID happened and then we got old, and um in uh in September of 22 uh Sammie and I had a conversation and uh she basically told me I'm not interested in adoption anymore, I'm past that stage of my life, I want to go back to school or go back to work, and I think we're just beyond that. It it didn't it didn't come to fruition.

Kim McIntire: 11:52

Oh my goodness.

Josh Brueggeman: 11:53

So uh I had a uh a moment where I I didn't feel reconciled with that personally, and so I just I said a very short prayer 10 or 15 seconds and said, God, I I don't know what your purpose was for giving us the heart for adoption. Maybe it's already been fulfilled, maybe it's just to support other people. I'm gonna release this to you if you uh if you have in in your plan for us to adopt, then you'll have to let Sammie know and know in certain terms that that's what you want us to do, and I'm gonna stay out of it. I'm releasing this to you. And I really did, but I let it go. And so when this whole situation came up, neither Sammie or I had any intention or thought to adopt out of our uh introduction to Noble's birthmap. So it's interesting how sometimes it takes the release of something for it to actually come into fruition.

Sammie Brueggeman: 12:55

It's a very powerful point. So once we um re we were on the same page and he said, I agree. So we just asked her. I mean, she's I didn't know what she'd say. We are new, we are total strangers to her. So I said, Would you like to come back to our house and stay? And we're gonna try to help you figure out what to do because right now you're you're homeless. The the state will take the baby into custody. Um what are your plans for this baby? What what are you gonna do? And so that started a relationship there. She wanted to come home to us. Strangely, she would not sleep in any of our bedrooms or any extra places. She slept on the couch out in the middle of the house because um that's where that felt safest to her. And she grew up in foster care and aged out of foster care and experienced a lot of uh abuse by her bio-dad and in foster care both. And so she um carried that with her, but she felt safe at our house. She liked being there. Um, but it became pretty evident pretty quickly that she was not cognitively going to be able to parent, um, even if her living situation changed. We could just tell pretty quickly that wasn't gonna work for her. And so we started out talking to her about different options um and she settled on adoption uh through an agency for people who are private adoption who were looking for adoption. So we um kind of turned that over to an adoption agency that worked with her out of Kansas actually, because Water Garden set that up and they had some um connection. And so she uh met with them and picked out uh family, and um that was the plan. And then we were there a hundred percent to support that. And uh and then she asked for me to take her to drop her off at the work at the worth shop, and she wanted to do a little bit of work that day. And and I'll be honest, I I needed a little bit of a break. Uh she's been with us now, and I was um looking forward to my son coming home from college for the first time for a break, and I just needed that. Well, while she was there, she took off. And um I was so distraught thinking what is gonna happen to this baby. She was due to she was due to deliver in two days. Like we had an appointment at the hospital, and um, she was gonna get induced. And so my partner in in crime and all things, uh Kelly Friend, she went with me and I said, I need to find her. We have to find her. And so we drove around Joplin until we found her. And I did find her.

Kim McIntire: 15:39

How long did we station?

Sammie Brueggeman: 15:41

Not as long as you would think. I mean, we sat, we drove around for probably 20 minutes, sort of aimlessly, and I said, You know what, we need to just stop and pray that the Lord directs us to where we are because we're running out of daylight, we're running out of time. She said, Yeah. And so we did, and we pulled in by um like the the um court area, said a qu a quick prayer, like near downtown, said a quick prayer, took off down Main Street, and it with within three or four minutes, Kelly looked over and she said, There she is, right there at that gas station. Thank you, Lord. I know. And so I said, Oh yeah. So anyway, we ended up she had gotten out because the baby's um named birth father had gotten out of jail and she found out about it, and so she wanted to go find him. And so we um, you know, you do some scary things uh and things I would tell my girls never to do, but we did approach them and um she talked to him about adoption. He was on board with it, and so I said, Well, you come with you come with me. And um, it was cold, it was December, and I f I felt bad, but I was not bringing this guy into our home that had just gotten out of jail. And so he went to a car and slept in a car um overnight. And Josh picked him up the next morning, and everybody uh we when we met, I guess that night, the the adopted family was from Wichita, and we called them and said we found her, and everybody decided to they left and everybody was meeting that evening uh for dinner. We said we'll we'll host a dinner so everybody can meet everybody. And so we we took everybody out to IHOP. She loves IHOP. And so um we went and met there and I felt like this is what God was orchestrating. I never even in that moment thought there wasn't anything unsettling in my soul other than I just felt so strongly that I wanted to protect this baby. Yeah. And so for me, I thought, well, this family seems nice and they love the Lord and and they are nice. They're they're they're wonderful people. So we the next day we took her in, I took her into the hospital, she was induced. Um, he was born just before midnight, and I was there. Um, and so was the um the adoptive family that had been chosen. And I remember coming home and I told Josh excitedly, hey, the baby's here, the baby's healthy. Um, and all that was fine. And then the next morning I got a call from the adoptive mom, and she said, uh she's asked for the baby back. And I remembered getting so mad, and I went up there and I let her have it, and I said, This is unfair to this baby, he's gonna enter the the foster care system. That's one thing you didn't want for him was to enter the foster care system. You aged out of it, you know the heartache that comes with it. How are we supposed to protect him when he don't we don't know where he's gonna go? And she said, I just don't, I just don't want that. I don't want that. And on several occasions she had asked us, could you take him? And I know she wanted us to take him and take her. And I I said, I like no, there's people who are looking to adopt babies. And so we just really did not have it on our radar. And then um five days later that he went into protective custody um for five days while they let the bio parents have a chance to prove that they could figure something out with a uh safe place for him. And we had a meeting and they asked us to be there. And so at this meeting, we still tried to convince them that adoption by this couple was the right thing, and they still refused. Um and so the state said that we have no choice but to take him into protective custody, and then they asked her, who is your next of kin? And she said we were because we were all she had. Wow. And so then at that point, the state said, Well, would you do a kinship placement and will you take the baby as foster kinship? And you don't have to be fully licensed to do that, so that is something that um can be pretty quick. Um and you get you work towards kinship licensing once the baby, you know, the child's already in your care. So he came to us. And and was that just an automatic yes?

Kim McIntire: 20:02

It really was.

Josh Brueggeman: 20:04

I mean we knew from our prior foster experience that kinship placement is something that can happen. And so knowing the circumstances, knowing they had already looked for extended family and those uh options, we knew that that could happen. So we very briefly talked about it and said if if they're gonna place him in foster care, if they would let us do kinship, we would we agreed we would take him until the other family the the adoptive, the family that wanted to adopt him.

Sammie Brueggeman: 20:36

Right.

Josh Brueggeman: 20:37

Yeah, so we were we were still thinking that was a possibility. Um but they they called us probably we really went into that meeting thinking we were gonna be able to talk logic into them. And um, we tried and tried. In fact, Sammie actually got in trouble with the state children's officer for for coercion.

Kim McIntire: 20:57

Um I can see that she can be very she can she can be persuasive. Yes, yes, she can.

Josh Brueggeman: 21:03

Um but the the answer was still a no. And we were kind of dumbfounded actually, and so there was a point at which then the investigator said, Well, unfortunately, we have I'm I'm declaring now that he's coming into state custody. And so then at that point we knew um he would he needed to come come with us. So he's he stayed at Children's Haven for another day and and then we picked him up.

Sammie Brueggeman: 21:34

And we really went into that thinking, okay, you know, then this family can take him and they he can do um we knew it was across state lines, but we we knew that there were still things that could be done. Um but pretty quickly within a few days after that, they called and they said, you know, we we feel called to adopt, but we don't feel called to adopt out of the foster care system. And now that he's in the foster care system, and and I understand that I don't even I don't blame them one bit because we know the ups and downs and the uncertainties of the foster care system. And um and that's you have to really guard your heart in that things can change so quickly. And they just weren't that's not what God had impressed on their hearts for their their journey to be. And so they said, you know, we we love him and but we don't think we're the family for him. And so really like hearing her say that at that point is probably when for me, I've really never asked Josh when it was for him, but I think at that point when I realized that, which was, you know, a a week in, I thought, I never want this baby to be anywhere else. Like I've been, I want to protect him forever. So that the desire I had from the moment I met his birth mom and I met him and her dummy, that desire to keep him safe. At that point, I thought, no, I want to keep him safe for the rest of my life. Like I felt very strongly at that point that no, I'm called to be his mom. And it kind of all started like, oh, like God kept coming back to this.

Kim McIntire: 23:08

What about you, Josh?

Josh Brueggeman: 23:10

Those were super messy feelings though, because there was a heartache for the other family, and you don't know what to say to each other. They didn't know what to say to us, we didn't know what to say to them, and we were all living in this strange limbo with this precious baby's life in the balance.

Kim McIntire: 23:31

Right.

Josh Brueggeman: 23:32

Um it was a strange strange feelings. And I I will say they have adopted uh a little girl.

Sammie Brueggeman: 23:40

They probably four months later.

Kim McIntire: 23:44

Oh, that's adopted a little girl. Yeah, so that's it yes for you, Josh, in that moment? Like Sammie said, Yeah, when did you feel like it was a yes for for him to be yours?

Josh Brueggeman: 23:56

Um, you know, I always just was kind of along for the ride. Like I I think there have been enough uh faithfulness moments in our life that I just I don't ask so many questions anymore. And I just trust that um how it is to be is going to play out if we're faithful and we are obedient. And so we just and I I don't say this in any sort of uh uh arrogant way, but um or self-righteous way, but the story is largely a story of obedience, and it was just a bunch of little yeses along the way.

Sammie Brueggeman: 24:41

Yeah. And so, you know, and we weren't always prepared to say yeses to that. I mean that couldn't and that's interesting, you know. Sometimes I think we're old parents, and I think about that a lot, like um, we're we're gonna be old parents for him, but we needed to be where we were spiritually and just life like with life experience to be able to say these yeses. Yeah.

Josh Brueggeman: 25:04

Not only that, but I I can tell you if we had the time, I could specifically describe to you a work that Noble is doing in the lives of each of us. And it is almost like he was custom made for our family at this time in our life. And so there's there's something a something that needed to be fulfilled in each member of our family at this time in our life that that he is uh he's working through.

Sammie Brueggeman: 25:36

So God. So God. Absolutely. I think I was we talked about this last night, like this came with a lot of small yeses and the obedience of little yeses that led up to the big yes of saying, you know, we want him to be a part of our family forever. But it, you know, we definitely had we had all big kids, and we that we knew it was going to be something, everybody was gonna have to make a sacrifice. And I was talking about that and I said, I know that each of my kids would say whatever sacrifices they've had to make for Noble to be a part of our family, like the blessings that have come back have been just tenfold. And they all adore him, and he has been a gift to each one of us individually in ways that we just didn't even know we needed. It's incredible. So how old is he? So two and a half.

Kim McIntire: 26:32

What a great age. Yeah. Oh, he's so he's doing all kinds of fun stuff. Yes, right.

Sammie Brueggeman: 26:37

So fun, and he just language is exploding and so he's developing well. Yes, everything has been great. And you know, when he was born, there was no drugs in his system. Praise God. Yes. And um, we just uh we I mean we just have been so like he's been the the sweetest, best disposition. Um yeah, I I said if God was gonna give me a baby when I'm old, uh, he gave me a really he said I'm gonna give you an easy one.

Kim McIntire: 27:08

So thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for that.

Sammie Brueggeman: 27:10

Thank you, Jesus. Very good. He's so So he sleeps at night. Yeah, always. I mean, he probably started sleeping through the night when he really was. I mean, I remember thinking, this is crazy that he is so good. Yeah, just always sleep means a lot. Sleep means a lot. And so does like just going with the flow. I I thought he has four big siblings that have busy lives and busy things, and he's always been game just to get up and go drag along and to do what they what we had to do for them. So good. He's integrated so well. And um our you know, the that has just seemed so perfect and it it has given us such blessings, but we also live we live in the tension of of knowing that um his his birth mom is still struggling and she she doesn't live the life we want for her, and we do still have a relationship with her. So is she able to see the baby? Well, that's pretty much up to us now since he's been adopted. Yeah. And we have been very careful about that because of the the life she's still choosing to live. Sure. We don't want him to be hurt or embarrassed or any of those things. And so we're very careful about she he has no idea when you know we don't refer to her as anything other than her first name. Um and he has not seen her more than one time in the last six months, probably. And um, and that is only because she has chosen to continue living a life that isn't healthy. Is she still homeless? She is.

Josh Brueggeman: 29:02

She is homeless is a relative term. Yeah.

Sammie Brueggeman: 29:06

She's home she's homeless, but she lives she lives in a home with people right now. Um with a it's a home that a lot of people live in together. Somebody owns it, somebody, I don't know, is on a lease, but there's you know, ten people that she names off whenever I say who lives here right now. So she's not on the street, which I'm very thankful for because there's been winters where she's been on the street and it's almost unbearable for us to think about her being out there in the cold. Absolutely. Um you can't truly love a baby, a love a person so much, and not love the the one who gave him life. And she could have chosen so many other things when she I mean, it's hard to be pregnant. It's really hard to be pregnant young without any resources and on the street. And so So I told her so many times you gave us such a gift and I want you to know that your choice to carry him to term like that was such a good choice and I'm so thankful for the choice you made.

Josh Brueggeman: 30:12

And she also did sign over her rights to us. She did. She signed it as voluntary. She literally gave him to our family.

Kim McIntire: 30:22

So I didn't know that that wasn't a state decision then.

Sammie Brueggeman: 30:25

Well, it was heading in that direction, but it went a whole lot faster, whenever. And that is an interesting thing because she was serendipitously found me through a friend that she was walking down the middle of the street. My friend called me, had never met her before, but knew her the name she went by and it's unique. And so she said she pulled over because this girl was walking in the middle of traffic the wrong way and she was worried about her. So she got out and said, Honey, you need to come with me. What is happening? And sh whenever she started talking to her, she said, What's your name? And she said her name. And my friend thought, well, this has to be Noble's birth mom. How many people could have this unique name? And so she called me and she said, I have her here. Do you want to talk to her? And I said, Yes. So I went to that space and she thought I had just shown up there. She didn't know there was a connection between this woman and myself. And so um she said, I've been trying to f to find you because I want I want to sign over my rights so you guys can adopt Noble. And so I s I mean within a that happened, and within an hour's time, she was at her attorney's office, the one that had been provided to her, and she signed over the documents for her to relinquish her rights. And so at that point it was relinquish them to the state, and then the state, you know, had chosen us because we'd been the ones raising him.

Kim McIntire: 31:45

Yeah.

Josh Brueggeman: 31:45

You know, Kim, um it's interesting. If you would have asked me a couple years ago if this situation were to arise, what would your relationship be like with the birth mom? And I probably would have said, well, I would want my family as far away from her as possible. I just wouldn't want that risk and that potential for her to but living in that situation now, I want nothing but the best for her. And on a cold winter day when I open the door and it it hurts to have the cold air hit my face, she's the the first thing I think of. And you know, we we did have conversations with her. We said we we can adopt you, not in an official sense, but if you want to live as a member of our family, that's something that we're willing to do. But we have expectations of our children. Sure. And we would have the same expectations of you in doing your best to make good decisions and you know, making safe decisions and those types of things. And we still hold great hope um for her and we pray for her, and um we hope maybe in a few years we'll be back here for a different episode and have I would be overjoyed for you guys to come back. We know that we know it can happen because that's right. And um God redeemed that.

Sammie Brueggeman: 33:26

Um so we know it's possible, and we and a lot of times people I think say, like, why are you why do you worry about that? You've adopted him and he's safe, and which is true, but it's and that is a hundred percent true, but I never want him to question how much we loved his mom, his birth mom.

Kim McIntire: 33:50

I remember Sammie, and you may have forgotten because this was a while ago. But I remember when I was having a women's prayer group, I think it was during the season of COVID or just after. Um I remember you brought birth mom to my house and she joined us for prayer, I think once or twice.

Sammie Brueggeman: 34:10

It would have been probably in yeah, it would have been after COVID and 21 fall 22, it would have been the fall of 22.

Kim McIntire: 34:15

That pro that's when I met her. That specific prayer group went until 23 or 24. But um, I remember just observing you with her and thinking, if I didn't know, if I had not ever met you and I didn't know her and was just watching, yeah, I would have thought she was your daughter. That was the kind of love that was so apparent, you toward her. So I join with you in prayer to believe that her life is going to be redeemed from the pit.

Sammie Brueggeman: 34:47

Absolutely.

Kim McIntire: 34:48

In Jesus' name, because he can. Absolutely. Nothing is impossible with our God. No, not at all. So as we conclude this episode, um, you know, people encounter the homeless every day, whether it's on a street corner or volunteering at Water Gardens or any number of places, cross lines, watered gardens, God's resort. I mean, there's so many amazing ministries in the Joplin, Missouri area. And that's just something I want to brag on about the community that I live in, is the homeless are loved. They are, yes. And they they do have a place of refuge, and they do have nonprofits and ministries that are really pouring their heart out to lift out their hand to raise them up, right? Yeah. And to give them an opportunity to change the trajectory of their life through Christ, through life choices, skills, just opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise. So as people are encountering the homeless, I just want to ask you guys, and I don't know if one or both of you want to speak into this, but what wisdom would you share with people in our community or communities all over the nation? How do we minister to these members of our society, you guys? I mean, so many of us, me included, you know, pass by people and kind of have this overwhelming feeling of, other than pray, I don't know what to do. I mean, I've felt that so many times. So would you guys like to speak into that?

Josh Brueggeman: 36:18

I would say in large part what they need is relationship.

Kim McIntire: 36:23

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Josh Brueggeman: 36:24

And so we think about material needs and a home and clothing and those types of things. And yes, those are helpful. Um, but those aren't gonna change the reason they are homeless. Those those material things are not going to change the core reason of why that person is homeless. And so uh what the average person can do is number one, see them. You know, there's no reason why when you walk by a person on the street, you can't smile or say hello.

Sammie Brueggeman: 37:01

And I will say too, I always say this like there is a difference between our homeless community and who you see um on the side of the road, or like the that the stop sign, the panhandlers. That's actually so if you work with the homeless community in town, uh, water gardens on them, a lot of them will say those are not really people a part of the homeless community. And sometimes those can be people.

Kim McIntire: 37:24

That's a good clarification. Yeah. So that's a very good clarification for our listeners. Yeah. So that I would say m a lot of people don't know that.

Sammie Brueggeman: 37:33

Um that is not uh who we're talking about really. So uh but but you know the people, you know, they're they're walking with a bag or whatever, you know, walking um, especially in the downtown area.

Josh Brueggeman: 37:48

Um They've got a shopping cart.

Sammie Brueggeman: 37:50

Yeah, something that shows like they're living on the street. Um I before Noble came, I uh did a Monday night um prayer walk that starts from Water Gardens in the evening and it goes out into the areas that where we know homeless are. So these are people who not are not using the services of Water Gardens or Souls Harbor or anything like that. Maybe they have at one point. But the goal of that is to go out and make sure that they know that we remember and we see them and we want to know how we can pray for them. Now that is that is taking leaps of faith because I know Josh and probably my mom are just terrified to think that I go out with groups under bridges. Now we're wise about it. There's always a man, you don't send women out by themselves. There we have, you know, people who carry. And so it's not that we're being stupid about going out into situations that aren't safe, but going out there and learning the names of these people and saying, gosh, I really wish you'd go back in and partner. Can you, even if you don't partner for a bed, could you partner for some for a box of food? And that would partnering means doing something for water gardens in exchange for receiving something. And it knowing their names week after week is so important. And our friends, the Perries, Amanda and Tom Perry, they do this better, and and Carolyn Plasman too, they do this better than anybody I know, and I'm so thankful to watch them and watch how they do it because they love people and and they make people feel seen and known, just like how Jesus asked us to, and that's how Jesus made people feel known and seen. And so if people if people want to know how do I interact with the homeless, make them feel like they're seen and not forgotten or not just um invisible. That's so good.

Josh Brueggeman: 39:44

Do you know how precious a touch can be to some situation when they have not bathed in a week or two and there's odor, and somebody ignores that and pats them on the back, shakes their hand, gives them a hug.

Sammie Brueggeman: 40:03

Mm-hmm. It just makes them feel human. And it's it's those things that then there's so many times that I would we'd go out on the Monday prayer walk, and then on Tuesday I would call Carolyn Plassman and say, Hey, did so-and-so show up to partner today? And oh yeah, they you know they did. And hey, they showed up, they put their name on the list for a bed. And in that respect, you're like, it's just a little win because at that point they knew that they mattered to somebody, somebody was paying attention to where they were. And that's the kind of stuff that helps people want to change the traject trajectory of their life, change the choices that they're making because they know that they're worth it.

Josh Brueggeman: 40:37

If you want them to believe they have worth in God's eyes, then you have to show them that they have at least some worth in your eyes.

Kim McIntire: 40:47

So good. So good, you guys. You have just poured out tonight to our listeners. I'm so grateful. And I just believe this is going to stir up some hearts. You know, let it be so, Lord. Yes, grow in us compassion. And I'll have you back for part two. Yes.

Sammie Brueggeman: 41:06

All right, we're happy.

Kim McIntire: 41:07

I'm anticipating part two. Yes. That's right. Thank you again. Thank you. And thank you, listeners, for taking your time to listen to the podcast. We're so excited to hear your feedback. So please rate us or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. May God's grace and peace be with you all in Jesus' name.