In this edition of Wes’s Weekly Wrap Up, LUM Executive Director Wes Tillett highlights the growing need for emergency financial assistance and how the LUM Financial Assistance Program helps neighbors facing difficult circumstances keep their utilities on, remain housed, and meet other essential needs.

For most people, the LUM emergency shelter is a place of refuge, compassion, and new beginnings. For Matt and Carrie Dickerson, it became something even more unexpected. It was where their own story began.

Matt first began volunteering at the LUM shelter in the fall of 1995 while attending Purdue University. At the time, the shelter operated out of a retired convent, and he was among the first volunteers to serve in what was then LUM's new shelter facility. During his five years at Purdue, Matt faithfully volunteered at the shelter, eventually serving as the live-in coordinator during the summer of 1997.

That summer, Carrie was serving with LUM through Summer Company after graduating from Ball State University. As they worked side by side serving adults experiencing homelessness, a friendship grew into something much more.

"I met the love of my life at the LUM shelter," Matt recalls.

Carrie later joined the LUM staff, where she launched the afterschool program for teenage girls, continuing LUM's mission of offering hope and opportunity to those who needed it most.

Today, nearly three decades later, Matt and Carrie are preparing to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They are the proud parents of two daughters, and although they no longer live in Greater Lafayette, LUM continues to hold a special place in their hearts. They remain faithful supporters of the ministry that brought them together.

When Matt thinks about LUM's plans to expand the shelter, the project is deeply personal. "It all started at the shelter you're looking to expand." Those words are a reminder that the impact of LUM reaches far beyond the walls of the building. Every night the shelter offers safety to someone in crisis. Every act of compassion plants seeds that may never be fully seen. Sometimes those seeds restore hope to a neighbor in need. Sometimes they create lifelong friendships. Sometimes they begin a marriage and a family.

For Matt and Carrie, LUM will always be more than a shelter. It is where God wrote the first chapter of their story.



As LUM looks toward expanding the shelter to serve more neighbors in the years ahead, stories like theirs remind us that when we invest in a place of hope, we never know just how many lives will be changed.

Behind the Scenes Homeless Services Experience is designed to be upbeat and interactive, while giving you a glimpse of what our overnight shelter guests experience, including a typical shelter meal. You can anticipate a shelter tour, short presentation, dinner will be served followed by cookies, coffee, and a brief Q&A. Attire for the evening is casual. 

published August 20, 2026