Nathan Sack  00:00
A big thanks to Faith Horizons’ first sponsor Salvation Auto. Salvation Auto is a full-service auto repair and maintenance shop located in South Kansas City. My family has been taking our cars to Salvation Auto for three years now, and we could not be happier. It is great to have a local mechanic shop that shares our core values of honesty and integrity. With fair pricing and quick service, the team at Salvation Auto operate a business that adds value to Kansas City. If you need a trusted auto mechanic shop, I highly recommend Salvation Auto. To schedule an appointment, call 816-447-0218 again 816-447-0218. Thanks for joining us for another Faith Horizons podcast. The purpose of a Faith Horizons podcast is to discover the kingdom of God in Kansas City one conversation at a time. In this episode you will learn about the Healing House in Kansas City from founder Bobbi Jo Reed with room for up to 200 individuals at a time the Healing House provides transitional living for those it serves. Whether you have been long struggling from addiction, abuse or just getting back on your feet after incarceration, the Healing House provides opportunity to rebuild your life. The Healing House started in 2002 off of St. John Avenue in a single house for 10 women. Since then it has served over 10,000 individuals with an astounding 76% success rate. Its ministry base has become a city block campus was storefronts, restoration centers, admin buildings, and a community gym. To provide housing for its participants it has bought apartment buildings and 14 houses in once crime ridden neighborhoods. Enough cannot be said about the incredible effects the Healing House has had on its neighborhood. Crime rates are down, the housing prices are way up and businesses are moving in. Wow! Here’s my conversation with Bobbi Jo Reed. Today I’m with Bobbi Jo Reed of Healing House, which is located on 4505 St. John Avenue. Well, welcome.

Bobbi Jo Reed 02:28
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

Nathan Sack  02:31
So just briefly, before we get started into this great big adventure of figuring out what you’re doing here, just give us a brief synopsis of you know what Healing House is, and you know, when it started and some of the things it’s doing.

Bobbi Jo Reed 02:46
Okay, so I started Healing House, officially in 2002. And I’m a person in long term recovery. I have 26 years right now. And when I got my life together, there were hardly any places for women to go, and I started hearing the message early on. And I figured out there were 900 women going through treatment here in Kansas City, Missouri with less than 30 safe beds. Yeah, people didn’t want to be bothered with all with women and their issues. So the Lord put on my heart to do something to start helping single women. You know, people have compassion when there’s a child involved. But when it was just a single woman is like, well, she made her bed let her lay in it, you know that mentality. And alcoholism or addiction is a disease. It’s not a lack of moral fiber first off. Everybody needs to understand that but so anyway, I bought an old nursing home in the inner city with an inheritance I got for my folks. And I thought I was going to help 10 women, stay, you know, learn to live a clean life and then the dope man moved in right next door two months later. And so eventually, I’d call the police. He had brandish weapons, gang members, I mean, just insanity, but I call the police few times he go in the house, close the door and lock it. And so I did. I called on somebody even better, I claimed his house in Jesus name. And a year and a half later, we got the dope man’s house. And we were full anyway. So the women just kept coming. And now I’ll fast forward currently, we’ve taken 14 abandon or drug houses in our community, and we’ve rehabbed them ourself, and turn them into beautiful homes. You know, every time a recovery house moves into a neighborhood, I don’t care how bad a neighborhood it is. Everybody says, oh, no, not in my backyard, right?  But people have found in this community we’re the best neighbors to have. We’ll cut grass, we’ll shovel your snow we’ll do whatever what when we plant flowers, our houses are the nicest on the block. So we have to change that stigma of what people think people in recovery are. We’re not using, we’re getting our lives together. And we’re great people for the most part. Oh, so let’s see 14 homes we serve 200 people everyday adults, we have 30 apartments as well, we have-

Nathan Sack  05:12
So did the apartment serve the same thing or what are the apartments?

Bobbi Jo Reed 05:15
So it’s kind of an advanced, there’s beginners houses that are very structured, then once they get to work and complete their treatment component, or do all the classes, then they can move up to a little bit more advanced house. It’s a medium type house a little less structure, but still structure and then eventually they can go to an advanced house. And then they can go to one of our apartments if they like. But we also have a pregnant women’s home and a new mother’s home. So they kind of go high on our list to get into the apartments for them and when they get their child back. So we have also have a recovery community center here that helps anybody that off the street that has an addiction issue, we also give out free Naloxone for people that are dying of this stupid fentanyl, you know, and that’s been disguised by party drugs right now. So it’s, it’s you don’t even know you’re getting fentanyl. And it’s in almost everything weed. They found it in meth, it’s, it’s in everything. And then like I said, the designer party drugs, it’s in there too. So people are dying. So we can give that away free to people here we have daily groups, we have a family reunification room, job assistance anything. Here’s what happened. When I when I got to recovery, they told me go here and do this, go here and do this and go over there and do that. And I’m like, I’m already overwhelmed, just trying not to use anything today. And so what we have created, not that we want to be an island, but just to make it streamline and more comfortable for the people we serve, that they can come here and we’re going to walk with them through every step of the way. They’re gonna get hygiene products, they’re gonna get clothing their, we’re going to help them get doctor’s appointments, and then we’re going to take them to them and pick them back up. We’re gonna take them to get their ID and social security card. So when they come to us, all they have to come is with open minded a willing heart for real that’s it.

Nathan Sack  07:15
You guys help them find jobs, you guys, you know, help them get maybe some of the essential documents.

Bobbi Jo Reed 07:21
Every time, birth certificate, everything. Social security, most of the people we work with have lost their ID, social security card, they don’t have anything. You can’t get a job without that. So we help them do all of that. Many of our people if they need a prescription refill, they’re off their medications, or when they do need a refill. They go to the emergency room to get a refill. Well, that’s ridiculous. That costs the state tons of money. So we’re making sure they so we get them a gold card, which is free medical for Swope Parkway and Truman. And then we make sure they’re getting health care setup for their self on a regular basis.

Nathan Sack  07:57
So basically, what you’ve created here is kind of a from the bottom up. Yes, process Yes, of helping a person walk through the regrowth and beautification process of their life.

Bobbi Jo Reed 08:09
And we’re a family. Everybody calls me mom, they don’t have to, they just automatically do. And I love them. They’re my kids. I’m like a mama bear. I don’t care what you did yesterday. I don’t care what you’ve done in your past. You’re here today. And that’s all that matters to me. And I’m gonna love you till you can love yourself.

Nathan Sack  08:27
Amen. Amen. So, I got to watch the documentary, Bobbi Jo, Under the Influence, which just goes through the story of the creation of this, and also the story of you know, what you what you’ve been through to, to get a heart that was ready to do something like this. One of the things that, you know, Faith Horizons is really focused on is this restoring hope and prosperity to Kansas City. And so, you’ve been at the hopeless stage. Now you’re hopeful and so what does it take to go from hopeless to hopeful.

Bobbi Jo Reed 09:03
You know, I’ve just I went to AA for a while and AA was good for me. And that’s where I fit in when I first got into recovery. But along the journey, I believe we all have a God hole in the center of our being. And for me, you know, we tried to fill it up with you know, it could be a puppy when we’re a kid or a bicycle and the bicycle gets a flat tire or you know, we set ourselves up trying to put stuff in that God hole that doesn’t fit. And we might get have a boyfriend or girlfriend they break up with us. We might get married and that goes south, the car might get dented and then that void comes back in the center of our being and until I put God at the very center of my being I had no peace in my life. No wonder I mean, I’ve been through some horrific things. But you know from the beginning when I was young, I had low self-esteem and I felt hopeless even back then I never felt good enough. Never felt good enough until, if you watch a documentary, you’ll see it. But I got out of detox and once and then did treatment and then I started taking little hotel toothpaste and toothbrushes, little bars of soap down to the detox with some homemade baked goods that I would sell.

Nathan Sack 10:19
This was the KCC.

Bobbi Jo Reed 10:21
KCCC. It’s called Heartland now.

Nathan Sack  10:23
Okay, it’s called Heartland now.

Bobbi Jo Reed 10:24
And I’m telling you what when I started, addiction is a selfish disease. And so when I didn’t even know how sick I was really, I thought I was pretty good person, even in my addiction, but come to find out I was wretched. When Paul says, how vile-yes. And I try and I you know, I do the things I don’t want to do. It’s I was there, I was so broken. But when I would take those homemade cookies, and I would take those little motel hygiene products, you think you would have thought I was given people gold, and it sparks something in me and I got to sit there and talk to them and tell them what was happening in my life. And at first I did it because it made me feel good. But then I continued to do it because it just became the next right thing to do. And then ever since then, I’ve been on fire but at three and a half years my dad died one month before I got sober. And then I took care of my mom first three and a half years of my recovery. And eventually she passed away on December 30. I had a boyfriend living with me and two roommates, two of the roommates had relapse. I had started going to church just for the praise and worship part. I really didn’t like the preaching. Thank God for grace and mercy. So anyway. So I go out to get my mom’s urn, there were some people from the church, there was my boyfriend, and I came home. It was New Year’s Eve, and we were going to have something at the church and I walked in and my boyfriend was gone. And I thought he wouldn’t leave me now with my mom just dying. And so I drove out to the church, he wasn’t there. And it literally felt like my heart dropped down into my gut. And any other time I had anything really major happen I was able to anesthetize myself. And this time I had nothing. And I drove home crying and I got in my bed and I brought in the New Year praying to God to not let me go back where I came from. And to lead me and direct me.

Nathan Sack  12:24
This was on the, in the new year you said?

Bobbi Jo Reed 12:26
Yeah, it was December 31 of 1998. And I was just more humbly than I’d ever prayed. I had done some superficial praying, you know that God grant me the serenity and Our Father and but they didn’t really penetrate my heart too much. But that night, I know I fell asleep crying and praying. And when I woke up January 1 of 1999, the Holy Spirit had taken up residence in me. And I knew one thing about people with addictions, fear covers our life. Fear of being, you know, good enough, fear of being accepted, fear of money, fear of people, fear of everything. And when I woke up that morning, the fear was gone. You know what, and at first, I kept trying to take my will back, you know, I thought I was gonna get a hubby or something. And God just kept I had asked Him to lead and direct my path. And He sure did. And then I finally thought, okay, this is just easier following Him. And when He put something on my heart just to follow directions, you know, and I’ve been following Him ever since. And you can watch a movie. I’ve been through it. But you know what all the things I’ve been through, have made me as a woman I am today. And they prepared me for to have a servant’s heart. And I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I get to serve Christ every day. It’s not really a job. I serve Christ every day. And guess what- well all day all night.  And then I get to I see people literally come in and there’s no light behind their eyes. And they’re spiritually and almost physically dead sometimes. And then you get them cleaned up and you get them some new clothes on and they get some good night’s rest and some good food in their tummy. And before you know it, this light starts coming on very dimly. And within a week, two weeks, they’re shining brightly. And then eventually, you can see the Holy Spirit just shining through. I get to live around miracles every day. Not everybody gets to say that.

Nathan Sack  14:28
Yeah, that’s so true. Very cool. So would you say like part of like a hope recovery because it’s really what it is, you know, there’s hope recovery, you know, part of hope recovery. I was just listening to what you were saying. It’s almost like you had to restart your heart. Like you had to restart your heart again, you had to start you know, buying the little small things for the people just start serving others you know, that restarted your heart and then also there, then you’re getting feedback from the people that you’re giving it to that oh my God, you know, I’m being and I think you even talked about in the documentary you said, maybe I could be good at something. Maybe I could be good at something. Because you know, before that you’re, you’re dealing with insecurity and other fears which led you into a life of pursuing something. Which got you into, into darkness that you didn’t ever want to be in.

Bobbi Jo Reed 15:19
I wanted to be comfortable inside my own skin. And I never was, until when I took alcohol and drugs that ease the uncomfortableness of being in my own skin. And now, I’m a whole lot older and chubby. But you know what, I love myself. And I know that. I know, God loves me. And I know I’m His creation. And you know what, I used to be in awful relationships. I mean, as long as I had a man, even if it was a crappy man, I was okay. And I am in the best relationship I’ve ever had in my life. And that’s with God and Jesus Christ, my, my, you know, my salvation. Some days around here we live, we deal with life and death every day, honestly. And people that are very hurt and broken and been through a lot of trauma. And so it, it can get to you. But you know what, no matter what circumstance comes up, I know, God’s right there with me. And He’s got control of it. I don’t have to freak out. I don’t have to, you know, I just okay Lord, and you know what, I’ll be praying under my breath. I’ll go to the bathroom, I’ll pray and try to bring calm to the situation. But I really, God doesn’t speak to me audibly. God speaks to my heart. And when I first started, you know, I’m going to help 10 women. And so it’s my purpose that God created me. That’s a blessing. Not many people get to say that I’m doing what I was created for. And there’s not an ounce of doubt. In my mind, this is what I was created for.

Nathan Sack  16:53
Yeah, you know, there’s a scripture in the Bible, it says, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Once you start delighting yourself in what God is doing, then He gives you the desires of your heart. But really, it’s kind of interesting because the desires of your heart become His desires.

Bobbi Jo Reed 17:12
Right. When your heart is for Him, He will give you the desires of your heart. Absolutely.

Nathan Sack  17:19
But His desires are what become your heart. So this whole Healing House thing is like a partnership with the Lord’s heart for a people first and then a neighborhood. And just the whole entire healing process of walking somebody through, like, from the bottom up.

Bobbi Jo Reed 17:36
Absolutely. And, you know, when I got to this neighborhood, it was very scary place. Gunfire every three hours. There were drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, gang members all up and down our streets.

Nathan Sack  17:49
This is 2001 or 2002?

Bobbi Jo Reed 17:53
2001. We celebrate actually, we’re having our 20 year celebration this November 12.

Nathan Sack  18:00
Oh, wow. Congratulations, 20 years!

Bobbi Jo Reed 18:04
Why, yes, it is. That’s when I signed for the first house. We found that paperwork, so I guess it has was 2002. And, you know, and it was very scary. And I just kept claiming a hedge of protection around me and my family. And then we got the second house and you know, then women started coming in that were pregnant. We had no room for babies in the houses because we had women. And so I started peeking in an abandoned apartment building a half a block away. And by golly, the first house I bought for 50 appraised for 194,000. Second house I got for 37,000. It appraised for 186,000, which gave me something called equity. It was incredible. I never had that behind my boxcar. So-

Nathan Sack  18:56
You have to watch the documentary.

Bobbi Jo Reed 18:58
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And I, you know, I’m not a business person. I am a servant of God. And He, this whole thing is not Bobby Jo’s or Healing House’s. It is God’s because there’s no way this could have happened in 20 years. We have over 20 locations. It couldn’t have happened without- it’s all His. All I get to be steward of it. And I love it. It’s like my baby and all the people here I love. We have 50 employees. 48 are in recovery. 46 have came through this program and now work here. So almost everybody. We got a couple of normal people. We keep them around, you know? We love them, so it’s incredible. And we get even people that worked here. We’re in a recovery community. We’re part of a family. And so you’re serving God and you’re working hard every day, but it’s for the greater good.

Nathan Sack  20:00
Yeah, we got to talk with your brother Greg. And one of the things that he said is that because you you’re able, because most of the staff have been handpicked from the people who have come through the program, they understand the culture. And so what you’ve done is you’ve created a culture that’s duplicating itself.

Bobbi Jo Reed 20:21
Yes and so I mean, it’s so it goes, we get our success rate right now is 76%, which is unheard of.

Nathan Sack  20:30
That is incredible. Unheard of.

Bobbi Jo Reed 20:32
Yes, totally unheard of.

Nathan Sack  20:37
That’s people who start your program and then come through the program and are successfully re- integrating with society, getting jobs, moving on, getting married.

Bobbi Jo Reed 20:49
Having kids, business owners, and then they hire our people. So that’s a very high success rate. Now, do some come back? Yes. Do some fall back in their addiction? Periodically, that happens. But we do equip them with the tools even if somebody comes here and they got a nasty attitude. And really, their heart’s not in it. They’re here for the wrong reason. And they leave us or get exited. When they get serious, we’re the first place they think about I want to go back to Healing House. During the winter months, we turn away up to 100 people a week. It is, it’s easier on the phone, then when you got a grown man across the desk, crying and begging, I’m going to die if you don’t let me in. So we always need housing. We’re getting ready to start. Tomorrow, we’re going in and cleaning out a house we got not long ago. And it’s going to be named the Erin Langhofer house, which is the I don’t know if you guys remember. But the little girl that was hit by a stray bullet and killed on First Friday a couple years ago. So she was a caseworker at Rose Brooks battered women’s shelter. And so this is going to be a house for single moms with one child. And then we’re going to have trauma informed care specialists working there with the children. Because the children have been exposed to trauma if they’ve been in an addictive household. And then parenting classes and really equip these women and children to be successful and say, go on from there. So it’s, you know, our ladies. It’s in the 90 percents of our women that had been victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, right. I mean, it’s common with people that have addiction issues. So we have, we have classes for programming for anything. I mean, we had parenting class, six weeks parenting class, domestic violence. We have banking issues, our daily groups, we have eight hours of programming during the day.

Nathan Sack  22:55
That’s incredible. Yeah. And that’s what you’re talking about. For those first two, three, second tiers. There’s structure, programs, and classes. And you have to be here at this time.

Bobbi Jo Reed 23:08
Yes, it’s very, you’re very accountable. And that’s what people need. If they have too much time on their hands, they’re going to start thinking, and our best thinking got us into our addiction, right? So we keep them very busy. And it’s fun during the day. They’re not just listening to classes about recovery. They’re doing art therapy, they’re doing improv. They’re making works of art. We, Healing House won three of the top four prizes for Department of Mental Health arts fair this year. Yeah, statewide. And then let’s see what else. They do budgeting classes, they do outings to the museum. I mean, so it’s a mixture. You’re not just sitting in class.

Nathan Sack  23:51
So it’s a healing, it’s a healing community.

Bobbi Jo Reed 23:53
Absolutely. And guess what, you don’t have hobbies when you’re in your addiction. So we put this whole buffet out in front of people, so they can see what they’d like to do.

Nathan Sack  24:04
Yeah, I’ve come through I mean, I, I haven’t gone through anything to the level that you guys have gone through down here, but I have I’ve had my own traumas, you know, because we get stuck either in fear or insecurity or hate hating ourselves, you know, for whatever reason, you know, and so as you’re going through those, you know, the trauma recovery thing. One of the first things that I noticed that started coming back was I started getting interested in hobbies. Woodworking or just doing something. It’s like the first thing the enemy wants to crush. He wants to crush your creative spirit.

Bobbi Jo Reed 24:38
He does. He wants to crush us in general.

Nathan Sack  24:42
Yeah, he wants to steal, kill and destroy but the creative spirit which is the primary, one of the first characteristics that you’ll read about in the Bible, is a God created the Heavens, the Creator. We are created in the image of the creator. So that art that, that thinking, the planning, the creative becoming an entrepreneur, you know, creating a beautiful life, you know, having kids-

Bobbi Jo Reed 25:07
Right, yes. And they get that here. They haven’t been able, you know, I tell people tell me all the time. You know what, I haven’t noticed the sky or trees or birds for 10 years. Now I can see the blue sky I’m, but we don’t we’re so stuck. We don’t see the beauty because we’re stuck in this hole, you know. And I’m telling you what we have. Well, we have a book of poetry that was written by the folks that live here, we’re getting ready to do our second book of poetry. So we have a poetry teacher that comes in and teaches that so yeah, we already have one book that’s been published. And we’re working on the second one. Just open your mind.

Nathan Sack  25:57
That’s incredible. The little creative things that you know, society, especially in Kansas City, we are the art city.

Bobbi Jo Reed 26:02
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Our folks are talented, too very talented. And some of the most creative people that you’ll find. You know, if he looked back in the older days, some of the really creative folks had some other issues going on. It might not been addiction, but it was issues in so we find, oh, people have beautiful skills and talents that just flourish here.

Nathan Sack  26:30
That just go dormant when they’re step up against an obstacle, such as substance abuse or, or you know, like even childhood trauma that they’re dealing with, which is usually results in substance abuse.

Bobbi Jo Reed 26:43
Absolutely. Absolutely. When I started the houses, and I don’t consider myself a painter, but I used to paint all and every, the first three houses, I faux painted the entire the entirety of the house in every room, and they were different colors, but I painted the base color. And then I did the rag with the mixture on it. And so it looked like suede almost, it’s really warm. It looks like suede. And it was just every house that we have. Every apartment we have I decorate, and they’re beautiful. And when people walk in, they just feel at home. And it’s beautiful. And some of them have never had a beautiful room that matched and where they felt like, ah, you know.

Nathan Sack  27:39
You feel, you feel valued. Well, you feel valued, but also you can let down your guard. I mean, that’s a big issue to overcome is these people have a guard.

Bobbi Jo Reed 27:51
Yeah. And rightfully so you have to. When you’re in the jungle, you have to. Oh my gosh, yes, it was a jungle, and it’s survival of the fittest out there. And so a lot of people will we take people from Department of Corrections, they’re not bad people, they’re people that have made some poor choices due to their addiction. But you know, so you got to be hard in prison, you got to be hard in the streets to survive. And we get him here. And it doesn’t take long that those walls start coming down. It’s like peeling an onion, right? You got this exterior that doesn’t have much value, but it’s protecting the inside. So we start taking layers of that onion off until we can get to the core stuff. And that’s what we have to get to. It’s not just don’t drink, don’t do drugs. It’s a whole lot deeper than that. It’s every part of our being and in our addiction. So whenever we start using drugs or alcohol is where developmental skills and coping skills stop.