Last week, I mentioned that the easiest way for me to describe what we do at our shelters is to remember the 4 R’s. The 4 R’s are:
- Rescue
- Restoration
- Rehabilitation
- Reintegration
We talked about the aspect of rescue last time as being the services we provide to someone who is looking for a safe place to lay their head, a meal and maybe some clothes. This is what most people know us for.
The second R is that of restoration. This is really less about something we do and more about leading people to do this for themselves. Specifically, it is based on the belief that God wants to restore us all to a right relationship with Himself. And sometimes He uses us to help in that process by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The foundation for this goes all the way back to our beginnings in 1958. Faith City Mission, as it was called back then, was founded to share the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ to people living on the streets. Back then, it was primarily men. Beds and meals were provided in a makeshift shelter on Ohio Street, but the driving motivation behind the mission was Jesus. And it still is today.
To be clear, we don’t require someone to have faith in Jesus or anyone else for that matter to receive our services. Those are all free of charge and given out of the goodness of our hearts. But we do unapologetically tell anyone who will listen that Jesus is the reason we are here, He is our hope and His Word contains the answers to living the abundant life.
We offer daily chapel services, Bible Studies for the men and women in our programs, prayer and devotionals, as well as a listening ear to anyone who wants to know more about God and His plan for their life.
We feel called out and set apart for this ministry in our community. We are not a church, but we do come alongside the local churches to help them minister to those who may come to them for the types of services we provide.
All-in-all, we believe in Spiritual restoration to our core. It is our prayer from the board room to the lunchroom, that all would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Because as the Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
