paves the way for spiritual life to enter the culture of the mission. It models and leads others to see how to con- nect to the source and how to remain in God’s life. That produces on-going change within the human spirit at all levels throughout the organization. Rescue missions’ role H ow does transformation happen? I think it’s impor- tant to consider and un- derstand how we can facilitate God’s inner working. Here at HUM we follow several spiritual life principles that seem to be working. First, biblical transformation must be modeled by mission staff. For me, this means starting with the gospel of Christ and His life in me, and the changes He brings about in me— which should be evident to me and all who interact with me. Evidence of my change will inspire others to seek change as well. The spiritual success I pass along to others depends upon my own. A slogan I use around HUM is, “If you don’t grow you got to go.” The people we serve are seeking change and we can only offer it to them if we’re growing, changing, and trans- forming in our own lives. If I ever stop being intentional about growing, then I should not be in leadership of an organization committed to lives being saved and transformed. Secondly, we are careful here at HUM to not have “us vs. them” atti- tudes. We are all in this together, and must work on it one day at a time, honestly, together sharing the experi- ence of the journey. When program members can see that we, too, are on our own quest for spiritual growth and change, they can go to a new level of openness to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them. Third, at HUM we follow the HOW principle from the Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text. H is Honesty with God about where I really am in my own heart and mind today. O is Openness to how God is talking to me through people, places, and things today. W is Willingness to let God do what He knows is best for my life right now. Fourth, we encourage service in our therapeutic community. Every SRP client has a daily work responsi- bility to keep the house running properly. We call it work therapy and, when done appropriately, it really is therapeutic! It’s a great thing when a man fulfills his duties as part of a team and learns (or relearns) how it feels to do his part in something important and bigger than just him- self. He begins to feel good about himself again when he knows others are counting on him to do his job and he does it well. Work therapy is a responsibility that a man must fulfill as part of our HUM family. But we also encourage them to voluntarily give back to our HUM community by helping the next guy—either a new guy coming in or an upper classman who is struggling. We also encourage our clients to volunteer their time in the commu- nity. Many go out and help feed homeless people, or volunteer in schools or service organizations. We encourage our guys to not just attend church and 12 Step meetings, but to actively participate. The men of Helping Up Mission experience blessings when they step out of their own comfort zones and help someone else. Biblical transformation changed my life decades ago. I’ve invested almost two and a half decades pass- ing it along here at HUM, and I’m committed to keeping it the highest priority of all the wonderful work we do. My own transformation contin- ues, and it’s my distinct privilege to see it happening in the lives of the men we serve here every single day! Ĩ 42 WWW.AGRM.ORG JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 Evidence of my change will inspire others to seek change as well. The spiritual success I pass along to others depends upon my own.