Last Thursday night Paul decided to give his testimony because he felt that there may be some who had not heard it before. In the same way, I decided this week to give a short description of what prompted my son, and ultimately our whole family, to get involved in this type of ministry. It is my desire to give credit to the power of God to change lives and to encourage others to utilize their skills to help others.
My son, Paul, had abused drugs and alcohol during much of his life. We tried everything to help him but nothing worked. Programs did not work. Short stay in rehab facility did not help. Even a short stay in jail for a DUI did not work. But what did work was that Paul was changed by God's Spirit on Oct. 1, 2000. He definitely was a new creation. Paul had spent some time on the street, so he felt the need to help the homeless receive the same transformation. He convinced the owner of a Christian Coffee shop in Greenville to let him use it for a bible study on Tuesday nights in downtown Greenville. It was just my son (at that time he was not married), Mom and Dad (that's me). A couple of weeks no one showed up. It was just us having a bible study. Then a young homeless boy showed up one Tuesday night. We fed him pizza and ministered to him. At that time he was living under a bridge in the downtown area. The next Tuesday he brought in 14 more homeless and we were off and running. Since I am a CPA, I applied for 501(C) 3 Non-Profit status and now receive some financial support off and on from relatives, friends and volunteers. Mainly, the food is provided by my son’s catering business, StreetSide Catering Inc. Later, we out grew that location and moved to an old church that was turned into a ministry for the downtown folks. They let us use the facility each Thursday night.
We don't see as much change as we would like, but then again we don't know what God has done for some folks. People seem to come and go. Recently, I wrote a post on “Giving a Voice and a Lending an Ear” that highlights some of our activity. Honestly, it probably would not have been something that I wanted to do, but after close to 5 years, I can say that some of my best friends live on the street. That young boy that helped us start out still comes and he has been our “go between” for our world and his world. He is what I call a guest homeless. He bounces around between people who let him sleep on their couch or in a spare room. Usually that does not last long and he is off again but he always shows up each Thursday night.
We continue each week because we have a passion to help others. Many feel that they do not deserve our help because they do not appreciate our efforts, but this is not the reason. It is based upon God’s grace. The best way for anyone to start a ministry or any other community activity is to find out what your passion is and then fill it with your time.
~Marc
