Compassion and Rescue

This is our Monroe Street Facility on the corner of Monroe and 17th Street in the Uptown District of Toledo, Ohio. The first and third floors comprise our 165 bed unit for men in both our transitional and program services. The second floor houses our administration offices and conference facilities.

The men who arrive here each day represent a wide range of problems; ex-felons, addicts, mental health, physical health, no families, jobless, no high school diploma and the list goes on. But all of these men share something in common beyond the fact they're all homeless - none of their problems began today.

Ask yourself this question; "How long would it take me to become homeless if I started working on it right now?" Would it take a week, a month .. a year? While the time it takes a homeless person to reach one of the facilities of Cherry Street Mission Ministries, is going to vary from person to person, the reality is you have to imagine how many family and friends you will need to cycle through until there literally is no where else to go.

Think of it this way, how many moms, dads, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, friends, co-workers and friends of friends told you that you were no longer welcome in their home? That's how long it takes to become homeless - for some it's a matter of months, and for others the reality of homelessness has taken years.

This is what I mean when I say, Cherry Street Mission Ministries is a downstream ministry - we are the receiver of the many who have been floating ever-so steadily down the river of humanity for some time. Can you see that they've all come from another place?? A place way upstream of where they are now.

Compassion for the least, last and lost must begin with rescue! Rescue is defined by going after the upstream of a person's life - and here's the kicker for most would be or wanna be rescuers, you must be willing to put aside the downstream realities of a person's life first. In other words, if a person is an alcoholic you will put that aside to discover what cataclysmic event occurred in his or her life for the purpose of rescue.

More on this in July - stay tuned!

Dan Rogers