Southern Indiana Business January/February 2020 | Page 10

FIVE QUESTIONS
By Aprile Rickert
Photos by Tyler Stewart
5
QUESTIONS
Catalyst for Change
Pastor Jim Moon grows partnerships to help homeless
J
im Moon, pastor at Park Memorial
United Methodist Church in Jef-
fersonville for the past 14 years,
knows that service doesn’t stop at
the church doors. Though the church
has always focused on helping people in
poverty through benevolence such as the
food pantry and clothes closet, the church
has responded this year to the call to help
the homeless in a more significant way.
In June, Pastor Moon partnered with
other community organizations, including
Community Action of Southern Indiana and
Haven House Services Inc., to create the
Homeless Prevention Task Force. Working
under a tight deadline of less than a month,
the group assisted more than 100 people
in finding permanent or temporary hous-
ing after notice that the hotel in which they
were living, America’s Best Inn, would be
sold and demolished for new development.
In August, Moon entered discussions
with Barb Anderson, who had operated
Haven House homeless shelter for more
than 30 years, on purchasing the shelter.
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January / February 2020
Though details of the sale are still being
ironed out, in November, Park Memorial
took over operation of the shelter, renamed
Catalyst Rescue Mission, with Moon the
executive director and Paul Stensrud han-
dling the day-to-day operations.
1
When did you first feel
called to ministry?
I felt called to ministry probably the
first time as a person in my teens. I was
worshipping in a congregation in Newton,
Kansas, and the pastor told me he thought
God had a plan for my life...and that God’s
plan was to be in leadership at his church.
As a teenager, I heard the information, but
I didn’t understand the information fully,
what that would mean.
So I wrestled with that a little bit and I
felt an inner conflict. At that time, I was
fully committed to going to Kansas State
University and becoming a veterinar-
ian. When I really felt definitive change
needed to happen was the end of my junior
year between my senior year. I went on
a mission trip to Mexico and while I was
there, I really felt that God was impressing
on me that my life was supposed to bring
hope to hopeless people. I heard that then, I
hear that now...that my life is here to bring
hope to hopeless people.
And in that moment — I’m 18 years old,
and I’m working with really indigent His-
panic populations outside in the country of
Guadalajara, Mexico — I didn’t know what
hope I could bring them just being there.
I had brought clothes from America
and...the people there didn’t have the
clothes that we had, and I basically gave the
clothes I had with me to them.
On my way back, driving from Guadala-
jara, Mexico, to my home in Kansas was a
long drive, and I processed that information
to mean that I needed to change direction…
I needed to not pursue the track scholarship
and I went a different direction. …My
degree from Kansas State is social work and
Christian ministries. And it’s crazy looking
back on it now, but I always felt that social
work was very important to me because in