From Survival Mode to Rest: Jefferson Russell's Story of Hope

The first thing Jefferson Russell noticed about his “new” car was how quiet it was. It was newer than anything he had ever owned, and the ride was smooth and silent in a way he was not used to.

That night, lying in bed, something else occurred to him. He had not turned on a car radio in years. Not because he did not like music, but because he realized, for the first time, why he had stopped. He had been listening for what might go wrong next.

“I had been in survival mode so many years that I stopped listening to music and radio in a car,” he said. “You don't realize that you're not really living. You're just existing.”
For the first time in a long time, Jefferson felt something different. He felt rest.

Jefferson has been coming to Real Life Center for years, since our early days when we operated near the Midwest Food Bank. Even now, as a regular at our weekly market, he shops with a habit that says a lot about who he is.

“I try to get what I feel like I can use, instead of just everything I could get,” he said. “I don't want stuff left behind that I'm not going to use. There's people who can use it.” He is especially mindful when it comes to items a child might want. “I have a soft spot for kids in my heart,” he said.

Even when he is the one in need, Jefferson is thinking of his neighbors.

About a month before the Christian Brothers Automotive car donation, Jefferson's exhaust pipe fell off in the Real Life Center parking lot while a volunteer was loading his groceries into his car. Between a bad back, bad knees, and an arm in a sling, Jefferson could not get down to fix it himself. An RLC volunteer crawled underneath the car with a rag and pieced it back together well enough for him to make it home safely.

Two weeks before the call about the donated car, the same car caught fire and was no longer drivable.

Real Life Center staff knew about both incidents. So, when Christian Brothers Automotive in Sharpsburg let us know that a refurbished car was ready to be given away, there was no debate about who needed it most.

Unanimously, the Real Life Center staff selected Jefferson to be the recipient.

For Jefferson, who has been out of work on a limited income due to an injury and has recently become reliant on rides from others to get around, the news did not feel real.

“I was just like a deer in the headlights,” he said. “It's like I won the lottery. Am I dreaming?”

He described it as learning a new skill, one he never expected to need. “It's a very different mindset to learn how to accept a good dream when you're so used to the bad dreams,” he said. “My brain's having to learn how to accept something good happening to me.”

Jefferson's sense of peace did not start with the car. It goes back to a night, years earlier, when a serious battle with COVID-19 brought him to the edge of losing his life, with little medical support to lean on.

In that moment, he made peace with God. “I said, God, my body is nothing but a vessel,” he remembered. “But I belong to you. My heart belongs to you. My soul belongs to you. I'm ready.”

He felt God's answer was no. Not yet.

“He said, I'm not done with you,” Jefferson said. He describes surviving that night as the moment he knew, without a doubt, that he belonged to God and that nothing could change that.

It is a conviction that has carried him through hard seasons since, including the season that led him to Real Life Center.

Ask Jefferson what our ministry represents, and he does not hesitate.

“It represents hope. It represents kindness,” he said. “My experience with Real Life Center has been pretty much as close to unconditional love as you can get.”

He points to the small things. Volunteers who remember which foods he likes and set those aside for him. A volunteer who got down on the ground to fix his exhaust pipe weeks before that same car gave out for good.

“They care about you, and they see you,” he said.

Scripture tells us that Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). For Jefferson, that rest showed up as a quiet car on a dark road and a community that has shown up for him again and again.

That is what Real Life Center exists to do: to meet real, practical needs across Coweta and Fayette counties, right when they are needed most, in a way that points people back to hope. For Jefferson, that meant a working car showing up not long after his last one caught fire and left him with no way to get to work, appointments, or even to the Real Life Center for groceries.

Your support is what makes stories like Jefferson's possible. Give to Real Life Center today and help us keep showing up for our neighbors in Tyrone and beyond.