When Lexie Wood talks about her position as Executive Director at St. John’s Homeless Shelter, she comes to life. “This is it. This is home…I love coming to work every day….I’m in a special spot.” Her position as Executive Director includes running the shelter’s day-to-day operations and planning its future, and clearly this is a job she was made for. To her, though, it’s not just a job; it’s a calling fulfilled with love, passion and faith.
Her passion for the homeless began in her childhood. She grew up in a family where she recalls money being tight at one point and her family struggling at a time when her mother returned to school along with the factory her father worked at drastically downsizing. There was a time when she recalls her mother saying they might have to go on food stamps. Throughout this hardship, though, she never questioned if there would be food on the table or a roof over their head. Her parents had a solid faith foundation, and this was something Lexie never forgot.
“I really truly believe that this is what God has created me to do…I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t know where God is going to take me, but certainly I am so excited that this is His plan and His will for my life. I get paid to love on people with Christ’s love and it blows my mind that I actually do this for a living.”
Along with this, she recalls a trip to Chicago before Christmas with her youth group working to help the homeless on the streets. She remembers meeting a man who was looking for a blanket for an elderly woman who was sleeping near the subway. She said, “I was just struck by the fact that I had all of these things on my Christmas wish list and all this lady wanted was a blanket.” This single event touched her and turned out to have a direct effect on the direction of Lexie’s life.
Those two experiences coming together led to her passion for helping the homeless, combined with her interest in helping those with drug addiction. It seems in St. John’s Shelter, she’s found the perfect fit. With her passion for the homeless and drug addiction she states, “This has driven every decision I’ve made. It’s driven my education, it has driven my career choices.” She also adds, “I feel like all of these seemingly insignificant moments in my life, that when I look back, they were essentially just filled with God’s fingerprints, really creating me for this role.”
Lexie’s faith is crucial for her role at St. John’s, helping her deal with the day-to-day challenges and hardships the guests there have to face. She goes on, “It’s difficult to hear people’s stories…..and if you can bring the hope of Christ….then it’s just this amazing ministry where you meet people where they’re at….you meet them at the darkest point in their life and meet their physical needs and through that really encourage them and respond to some of those spiritual needs.”
Lexie states the most rewarding part of her job is also the most challenging, which is building relationship and simply doing life with people. She speaks of celebrating their successes whether it’s sobriety, employment or housing, but also experiencing their pain at times of loss or setbacks which is difficult. She believes these people have in some way lost their sense of identity and have lost their hope. She states, “if we can help them believe again, then we just watch them begin to grow and flourish,” --and start new stories that God is redeeming with the help of Lexie and her dedicated staff and volunteers at the shelter.
When asked if she sees herself in this position at St. John’s long term, the answer is a definite “yes.” Lexie says, “I really truly believe that this is what God has created me to do…I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t know where God is going to take me, but certainly I am so excited that this is His plan and His will for my life. I get paid to love on people with Christ’s love and it blows my mind that I actually do this for a living.”
Lexie Wood is living out her dream helping others realize theirs with dedication, passion and the hope of God---showing them that they are loved, accepted and that they too can dream. To see Lexie live out her dream at the ripe old age of 27 is inspiration in itself, and to see a person who helps others put the dream back in their own lives is truly amazing, and for Lexie, she does it with her faith by her side. And as she puts it, “For me, my faith is not a part of who I am, it is who I am.” And the guests at St. John’s Homeless Shelter are all the better for it.
