Earnie Hall knows what it’s like to be homeless.

He’s been there and made it out, and God gave him a mission.

He is the program director for River City Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter for men that works to get them back on their feet and find new meaning to their lives. This May he observes his seventh year heading the mission.

“We take men off the streets, or who are out of prison and on drugs or alcohol. It can be any number of things that have made them homeless.” he said. “We do have men who are not homeless who are on rehab.

“We are a Christian rehab program. It’s based on the Bible; the teachings of Jesus,” he said of the four-month program the shelter operates.

“I’ve been where they are. I try to take them further down the road than I’ve come,” he said.

Hall is a former River City resident, going through the mission in 1992.

“I was in the program here for 11 1/2 months,” he said. “I returned in 2009 to work here. There’s a lot of good seeds planted when it comes to recovery, and also in knowing who I am and what God expects from me as one of his sons.

“The mission’s been here 25 years. I will have been director for seven years in May.”

Hall, who had been serving as jail chaplain and had a street ministry at the time he was hired, succeeded the late Gene Johnston as director.

“The board members knew what I was doing in the jail and on the streets, and they offered it (the position) to me. I came through this mission, so I have a relationship here. They helped me get on my feet.”

He said he has a good relationship with the men at the shelter, adding, “we have more than just a counselor relationship; we have a brotherhood. From day one, I’ve been praying to God to send me those that no one else wants, the hard core criminal, the mentally ill, the one that’s strung out and can’t get clean. I believe the answers are in the Bible and the message we bring is making a difference.”

The shelter has 48 beds: 40 for men in the rehabilitation program, and eight transient beds, where men can come for three nights.

“We have men who travel through all the time,” Hall said. “We are on one of the main streets of Vicksburg, and we have the railroad and the Interstate; we get a lot of traffic. Sometimes we get referrals from other agencies like DHS (state Department of Human Services) and from the sheriff’s department and the police department and the hospitals. Even the state hospital sends people here. We have our clients from all over the country, not just Mississippi.”

Men in the program attend chapel twice a day. There are one-on-one sessions with the shelter’s chaplain and small group meetings and life skills training. All of it Bible-based.

“The mission also offers a work rehab (through its thrift store),” Hall said. “We try to train them from receiving to shipping and working with customers — people skills. Some are trained at the cash register, some do local driving. They also work in the kitchen where we serve meals three times a day, so there’s culinary skills and training.”

After four months, he said, the men start looking for work.

“We try to teach them how to apply for a job, how to do resumes, how to dress appropriately, how to be groomed and be able to do an interview and look the part,” he said.

Hall said one advantage he sees is his experience going through the mission, adding he is able to share his experience and the principles that have been handed down to him through his experience.

“All of my staff has come through this program except the ladies that work here,” he said. “We have this common goal to get clean and sober and be productive in society.”

Some of the men, he said, are from broken homes; some have child abuse issues; some have come out of gang warfare or prison times. “They’ve faced the most horrible scenes,” he said.

“We talk to each other in the same language,” he said. “These men are trained to minister to each other. We tell them they have the same mission that the apostles had, and that’s to go out and share the truth of the word, to bring deliverance to other. We call it word therapy. We address our problems with scripture.

“You see a man who is totally broken come out of his shell and start to grow and start to care again, and have true empathy and concern for one another.”

Prayer services are held at 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily, he said, and the men go to one of four local churches on Sunday.

“We do church here twice a month,” he said. “We call it victory vision.”

The mission is supported in part by its thrift store, which is on the property.

“We have a store that feeds itself,” he said. “People from all walks of life shop here and they donate here. The demand is always here, and the people supply us. It’s Vicksburg taking care of Vicksburg. I think we’ve got the right name on the building. When we say, ‘Vicksburg Rescue Mission,’ it’s not about one church or one person. It belongs to the people.”

The store has allowed the mission to expand its ministry to help its neighbors, Hall said.

“We have built a lot of relationships with our customers,” he said. “We go visit their sons in the jail, or we bring their families here to work. We’ve even done funeral services for a few of them, and had wedding here.”

He said the mission wants to worl with ith the Mississippi Food Network and hold a children’s feeding this summer, and to try to work with the local children. Also planned is doing neighborhood watch from the mission.

“We see the need, and I thank God for my board of directors who see the same need. I’m blesses with a great board.

Hall said he plans to stay at River city “as long as they’ll have me I’ll be here, unless God assigns me somewhere else. Right now I’m here.

He said the mission has been able to help furnish homes, help fire victims, single mothers, and provided food boxes for some people. “It’s very much a team effort.

“Amazed would be the word. I know before Jesus I didn’t care about no one, and today I pray and weep over Vicksburg,” he said.

“I fight a spiritual war for the sons and daughters of Vicksburg. This town has been good to me it saved my life, so I feel obligated to try and save as much as I can.”