Ronnie “Indigo” Rowe, a man unlike any I’ve ever met, and I mean that in a good way. Another man you can physically see day by day the kind of joy he has to be able to live and learn here at the Mission. “I love this place,” he says with great peace in his voice, “I’ve grown both mentally and physically, and most important is spiritually, since being here.” Being at the Mission Ronnie has begun, “a journey towards self-mastery through my union or should I say reunion with God,” since he feels his spirit has always desired to be with God even from an early age. Ronnie has been here since April 10 2013, and in his time here he is recovering from a near fatal stroke he survived in February 2011. He’s hoping in the time yet to come that he will “discover and unleash my own personnel Jesus. Go and bring peace into the world from my very own God centered universe.”
Hearing Ronnie Indigo in his eloquence and articulate manner of speaking you would believe him to be a man of great education, but that is quite the opposite. He was a high school dropout and growing up he never read more than sports magazines. It wasn’t until about thirty he said that he really began to read beginning with unorthodox philosophy to inevitably the word of God. It was the initial years of his life I found to be most captivating, there are some things in life we don’t ever think can happen but for Ronnie it was life. “I was predestined to be a drug addict,” he explained, “I was born on drugs, my mother was so high herself that when she had me as she came to she didn’t even know she had a baby.” From a very young age Ronnie was adopted by the same man who baby sat him at infancy, so Ronnie does not remember who his biological parents were. His adoptive Parents provided a good home and raised him well.
Ronnie did not consciously use until he became nineteen and consistently did so to the age of forty five which he currently is. For most of his adult life he lived in Hollywood where he played guitar for a professional disco cover band. Things were going well for Ronnie in anyone’s opinion, he had trials just like anyone else divorce being amongst that list, but he kept on moving. In February 2011 Ronnie’s life forever changed when he suffered a nearly fatal stroke. Soon Ronnie lost his DJ and catering business as well as his fiancé. Ronnie became homeless for one month. He was too embarrassed to ask friends for help and had no family to turn to. Ronnie went through many transitions after the streets; initially he entered the psychiatric ward on his own terms. Then Ronnie moved to Salvation Army, men’s shelters, and sober living homes. None of these places were able to help him overcome more than just obvious physical problems due to his stroke, but there was still an addiction and a spiritual battle that raged every day.
Mr. Indigo Rowe finally found salvation when he began a life at the Mission. He was baptized on March 20, this year by a past case manager and he has been at peace since, “I’m starting to hear the voice of God.” He says, “I saw this place get built,” Ronnie says being the local that he used to be when he was raising his daughters Naomi and Triniti, “I always intuitively knew that I would live here someday.” Indigo is an artist name he has adopted now that he has found a life in God and has begun exploring the writer within just like myself. Ronnie signed off by saying at the end of the day “all that really matters is the love that we demonstrate,” I couldn’t agree more.
By Chadly
