The One Who Hears

At 16 years old, Simone Moore ran away from a foster home in Muskegon, Michigan. More than 25 years later, God led her back to Muskegon.

Simone spent most of her adult life in Nashville, Tennessee, where she had seven children. At 18, she was saved at a church. But in her early adulthood, she began smoking marijuana and was later prescribed pain pills after surgery. What started as medication slowly opened the door to other drugs.

In Nashville, Simone’s life became a cycle of jail, rehab, and homelessness. She has not had a place of her own since 2013. She prostituted to afford crack, heroin, and fentanyl. Addiction dictated her days, yet even in the darkest seasons, God was still speaking.

Simone moved in and out of jail, but she also moved in and out of church. In 2004, God began stirring something deeper in her heart. While staying at The Salvation Army in Nashville, she started to feel uncomfortable in her lifestyle.

“The drug would start up. And I’m like, I’m just not comfortable. I just wasn’t comfortable anymore.”

It was more than discomfort, it was conviction. She felt a growing desire to stop using, but she kept going back. Eventually, she was asked to leave the shelter because of her drug use.

“I could feel my heart changing and running. My heart was running from my past because every time I would settle somewhere.”

God was pursuing her, even when she was running.

Determined to break free, Simone turned herself in to jail. In that cell, she cried out to God with everything she had.

I WAS LAYING IN THAT LITTLE BOAT ON THE FLOOR, IN THAT JAIL CELL, I LITERALLY FELT GOD TAKE IT FROM ME, AND I DID NOT HAVE A DESIRE TO DO IT. AND I FELT HIM BREAK IT. THANK YOU, GOD. I FELT HIM BREAK THAT OFF OF MY BODY, AND I LITERALLY FELT IT LEAVE.”

For Simone, that moment wasn’t gradual. It was directional. God met her in a jail cell and removed the desire that had controlled her for years.

For the next 10 years, Simone remained on probation. Then, the day after Mother’s Day, her world shattered. She received a call that her son, Isaiah Moore, had been stabbed to death at 22 years old in Kansas City, Missouri.

“When Isaiah was younger, God had told me that he was gonna die. He told me,’cause when I got the call my son’s father said it to me, I was like, I knew it. I said, I screamed. I said, I knew it. I knew this was gonna happen.”

Even in that devastating moment, Simone recognized God had spoken to her before. The warning did not lessen the pain, but it anchored her in something deeper.

Simone does not live with anger over her son’s murder. She is not consumed by bitterness. She grieves, but she carries peace.

THE POWER OF GOD IS SO REAL IN MY LIFE. BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW HOW I GOT TO THAT.”

She says she praises God for the peace in her heart.

After the funeral, her probation ended, and her sister invited her to Kansas City. They lived together briefly, but on August 4th, Simone found herself back on the streets in the very area where her son had been murdered earlier that year.

But even there, God was speaking.

She laid in the park seeking the Lord, listening to gospel music, sermons on YouTube, and reading devotionals. In what felt like the wilderness, God was preparing her next step.

On December 1st, everything shifted. Simone’s cousin from Grand Rapids, Michigan, someone she hadn’t spoken to in years, called after hearing she was homeless. She invited Simone to come live with her.

Simone saw it clearly: God was making a way.

After moving across the country, she felt like she was leaving her wilderness season. She was filled with joy, sensing that God was doing something new. Yet once in Grand Rapids, doors did not immediately open. She searched for stability but felt unsettled. Even with her cousin’s help, she sensed she was not exactly where she was meant to be.

Then God spoke clearly.

AND SO LIKE ALMIGHTY GOD SPEAKS TO ME, THAT JUST LIFTS MY SPIRIT.”

She felt directed to enter a shelter, not as defeat, but as obedience.

Searching for available shelters near resources, she found none in Grand Rapids. So she expanded her search and discovered the Muskegon Rescue Mission, back in the very city she had run from at 16.

On December 19th, her cousin drove her to the Community Resource Center at the Mission. In her heart, she committed to giving it three months.

This time, she followed direction with determination.

Simone showed up every day, seeking every resource available. She prayed specifically to be surrounded by godly people. God answered. She met the Mission’s community navigator, Regan, whom she described as “such a blessing.” Through one of our Guest Advocates, Miss Karen, Simone connected with a local church. At the Mission, she felt the love of God in tangible ways.

God had not just brought her back to Muskegon, He had positioned her.

On February 3rd, 2026, Simone moved into her own home.

Her story is not one of coincidence. It is one of direction. From a jail cell to a park bench, from Nashville to Kansas City to Grand Rapids to Muskegon, Simone heard the voice of the Lord guiding her steps.

Today, she lives in her own safe space, because Simone means “the one who hears”, and she heard the Lord speak over her life.

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