From a Chaotic Shelter Living Room to a Life of Service: The Burgers’ Full-Circle Journey

From a Chaotic Shelter Living Room to a Life of Service: The Burgers’ Full-Circle Journey The Burger family is rooted in their faith. If you were to look at the lives they lead today, you’d easily assume they grew up in the church and had nothing but wholesome, stable backgrounds. But faith wasn’t something either Justin or Hailey was born into. It was something they discovered as adults, shaped slowly and deliberately during their time at the Christian Care Center (CCC), long before they ever imagined a life together or serving youth in the same shelter environment that would change their lives forever. They arrived at the CCC separately, unaware the other even existed, each carrying their own history of pain. Both had spent years navigating cycles of addiction, trauma and relationships that had worn them down. Both had reached a point where the weight of their choices felt impossible to outrun. And both made the same brave decision: to walk into the doors of a residential program that promised structure, accountability and a chance to rebuild from the ground up. For Justin, the journey began after years of what he calls the “party time” of his life in Tampa. He had cycled in and out of treatment facilities and jail and quite frankly, he knew he didn’t have much time left. When a doctor told him after a massive overdose that he shouldn’t have survived, Justin decided to make his last-ditch effort. “I had gone to countless facilities in Tampa and if I wasn’t in a facility, I was in jail,” Justin said. “When I came here it was a final effort and I’d decided that if it didn’t work there was no more living.” The CCC’s Men’s Residence felt like something out of a book for Justin. Worship circles, counseling sessions and the visual of grown men from all walks of like gathering round to sing hymns was like a shock to the system. That shock was the best thing for Justin and the daily rhythm of the program slowly chipped away at the numbness that had settled in him. As his faith blossomed, Justin began to choose a different life. In her own timeline and experiencing her own reckoning, Hailey entered the CCC’s Women’s Residence with a five-year-old son and a life she no longer recognized. Her days were shaped by regret and her mind felt warped from her own struggles with substances and the trauma of unhealthy relationships. Rebuilding for Hailey required learning how to trust herself again, how to form healthy relationships and how to envision a life where she could be both stable and present for her child. The program became a refuge where she learned to breathe again and to imagine a future she had once dismissed as impossible. “I found Jesus at the shelter and built a relationship with him. I also had to build a new life around new friendships and relationships and I had to rebuild my relationship with my child,” Hailey explains. When they completed their programs, neither expected their next chapter to lead back to the same campus or to their partnership. Justin felt called into mission work, spending time in countries like China, Botswana and Cuba. Just as he prepared to return to China for a long-term mission, political unrest halted his plans. In that unexpected pause, an opportunity emerged at the children’s home located on the CCC campus. Despite his initial doubts about working with youth, something in him recognized the quiet pull toward service. The work became a turning point, giving him the chance to pour into young people in ways he wished someone had poured into him. Hailey experienced a similar shift. Coming from a hospitality background, she knew she didn’t want to return to an environment that didn’t align with the person she was becoming. The children’s home offered her a chance to serve, and in serving, to continue her healing process. Caring for teens who were living through their own family fractures gave her space to process her past and show up for kids in ways she had once struggled to show up for her own child. The work both softened her and strengthened her; it also led her directly to Justin. It was in that living room, filled with loud, restless teenagers, that Justin and Hailey met. Their first shared overnight shift was the usual whirlwind of chaos. Yet amid the storm, a strange sense of steadiness formed between them. During their shifts, they learned quickly how to respond, how to support one another and how to laugh through the tension. That quickly became the beginning of a bond neither had anticipated. When describing how their relationship blossomed, Hailey shared “We said if we could make it through that and create the friendship we did we could make it through anything.” Once united, their paths took them off the CCC campus again. Justin entered pastoral ministry, eventually serving as a youth pastor for six years. They later moved to Clermont, following a calling that led Justin to become executive director of a rapidly growing ministry. The work was intense, and the couple endured personal grief during those years, including five pregnancies that didn’t make it. Through it all, the CCC remained a place they quietly considered “home.” Hailey would return to the CCC before Justin, directing the Pregnancy and Family Care Center on the CCC campus. When the Center began conversations with LSF to reopen its youth shelter, renamed LSF Together at HOME, Hailey became involved through her role. She helped alongside the CCC team to navigate early partnership-building, including outreach to LSF Hands of Mercy Everywhere, whose home-style environment offered a model of care that deeply resonated with the team. The collaboration solidified the transformation of the old shelter into something more intentional, restorative and family-oriented. “We had never been exposed to the home-style environment. The CCC team was shocked, their homes were nicer than our houses. The training and the work was all beautiful,” Hailey said of her time spent with LSF Hands of Mercy Everywhere. She knew Together at HOME was going to be something unique, something amazing and something she could envision her husband being a part of. As the program came to life, attention turned toward identifying the right person to lead the home. Hailey sensed Justin could be that person long before he believed it himself. When he walked back into the shelter for the first time since its closing, something in him shifted. The space stirred important memories that had shaped his life. It didn’t take long for that feeling to turn into conviction. He applied for the role, with the caveat that he felt underqualified, but why not try. Justin secured the position of House Coordinator, bringing with him a blend of lived experience, pastoral sensitivity and a deep understanding of what it means to fight for a second chance. The opening of Together at HOME has brought together LSF, the Christian Care Center and a network of leaders committed to strengthening youth and families. For Justin and Hailey, it has brought something else: a homecoming. In the same living room where Justin first met Hailey, surrounded by a noisy chaos that once forced them to lean on each other, he now stands in a different season of life, carrying the weight and privilege of shaping futures. In the space where he realized who he was becoming, he now works to change the trajectories of a new generation at Together at HOME. “My heart and conviction go toward making sure that even if it’s not possible for their parents to get to a point where they can be reunified, how do we teach these kids to choose differently so they can have a different life when they become adults,” Justin said. “How can we equip them to be a person that isn’t going to be walking into the Men’s and Women’s homes one day. Hopefully we can impact their lives enough that they wind up serving rather than needing the services.” The post From a Chaotic Shelter Living Room to a Life of Service: The Burgers’ Full-Circle Journey appeared first on LSF | Lutheran Services Florida.