Sheltering the journey

News-Sentinel photo by Aaron Suozzi Making the transitionMost people see the east side of the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission, where people can stay for a limited time. But that area, known as the transition dorm, is only a small part of the facility.

Dan Cortez is as comfortable covering murders and robberies as he is reporting about Notre Dame football. Single, he is a downtown apartment dweller who works out regularly at the YMCA. Reporter Jennifer Boen has three children, owns a home, attends church on Sundays, is an active band mother and craves her morning black coffee. Photographers Ellie Bogue and Aaron Suozzi have two children each. Suozzi's children are very young and he spends his spare time fixing up his house. Bogue, who is married to another News-Sentinel photographer, loves to bike-ride and teaches a photo class at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Yet, for about a week in October, the four journalists left their busy lives behind and became homeless residents of the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission and its satellite home for women, Charis House.

They came with not much more than the clothes on their backs, and found out what it's like to go to chapel, attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, sleep in a bunk, share a room and privacy with others, wash dishes and serve meals for hundreds. And they listened to stories ripe with lies, self-denial, cravings, tears, laughter, hope and redemption.

Today, join us for an unvarnished journey with men and women who are trying to find their way back to acceptance by society, aided by volunteers and professionals from Fort Wayne's century-old refuge of last resort, the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission. And stay tuned as we meet with them again next year, and track their successes and setbacks.