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About the
Mission

 

 

“By this shall all men know
that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another.”

John 13:35 KJV

 

The inspiration from the Holy Spirit to write about the mission and the operations there came last autumn, and it was then that the idea for a website was brought to mind. The more time that was spent there doing interviews and observing the everyday operations, the realization became clear of just how vital the mission is to this area. The Pastors, staff members, and volunteers who work there are some of the most humble, compassionate, and unselfish individuals I have had the pleasure to meet in this lifetime. They work for very minimal wages and are there to serve Jesus Christ. They are Spirit Warriors, Saints, and World-Class Christians who are doing their level best to give the unwanted of the community a hand up. In the words of Pastor Trish Mikulan, “The Warren Family Mission is the largest shelter in Warren that offers more than free meals to the community. The mission also offers free Christian counseling, benevolence, and assists with emergency problems in the community such as housing, transportation, and referrals to other appropriate facilities. The people who are currently using this program are disheveled, malnourished, disadvantaged individuals who come from the surrounding area in Warren that has high criminal activity, drug infestation, and dilapidated housing. In fact, the community has organized a ‘Take Back the neighborhood’ program in this area due to the deterioration of properties.” Satan has left many lives wrecked in our depressed area. The staff at the mission put on their spiritual armor every day and go to war in an effort to help those in need. The spouses of the staff deserve a lot of credit for all the loving support and encouragement they give. A special thank you should also be given to Judy, the mission secretary, who is always helpful to everyone.

The main objective of the website is to give the public as much information as possible about the mission and its staff to hopefully draw more attention to it. The mission has been described by one public official as “the best kept secret in town.” What is happening at the mission should be no secret. The amount of underprivileged individuals needing help is escalating and the mission is in dire need of increased donations/funding in order to feed, shelter, clothe, and minister to the homeless. Many improvements are being done, and the family housing project underway next to the mission is very costly but desperately needed.

How to get more individuals, businesses, and churches to donate more in a financially depressed area is an ongoing concern. We live in a society that has become more and more obsessed with having as much or more than the next guy, so getting people to give to the less fortunate is not very popular and hardly an easy task. If we are fortunate and blessed, it should be an honor to donate and serve the poor as our Lord teaches us through the Holy Spirit. As the great Christian author C.S. Lewis once wrote in “Mere Christianity,” “Some people nowadays say that charity ought to be unnecessary and that instead of giving to the poor we ought to be producing a society in which there were no poor to give to. They may be quite right in saying that we ought to produce that kind of society. But if anyone thinks that, as a consequence, you can stop giving in the meantime, then he has parted company with all Christian morality. I do not believe that one can settle on how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, ect., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say that they are too small.” Christ said “you cannot serve both God and money,” but even for many Christians charity is a weak area in their lives in our money driven kingdom of earth. Money is not an evil thing. It is obviously the love of it and obsession with it that is evil. When Pastor Chris Gilger informed me of the few larger donations the mission has received, and in particular of an individual who had donated $50,000.00 to the mission and wished to remain anonymous, it moved my heart. All those who give to the mission are blessed in my humble opinion, no matter what the amount.

What I have a hard time understanding are not those who will not help the mission financially even though they can afford to. That is between them and the Lord, and they may have other causes they feel the need to donate to. What I cannot understand are the individuals in the community that look down on those who end up at the mission for help. They are miles apart from the Holy Spirit and it brings to mind some words wrote long ago by Giovanni Papini in his great work “Life of Christ:”

“We do so little for the poor that we have no right to judge them. As they are, abandoned by their brothers, kept far from those who could speak to their hearts, avoided by those who shrink from the proximity of their sweaty bodies, excluded from those worlds of intelligence and the arts which might make their poverty more endurable, the poor are, in the universal wretchedness of mankind, the least impure. If they were more loved, they would be better men. How can those who have left them alone in their poverty have the heart to condemn them?

Jesus loved the poor; He loved them for the compassion which He felt for them; He loved them because He felt them nearer to His soul, more prepared to understand Him than other men. He loved them because they constantly gave Him the happiness of service, of giving bread to the hungry, strength to the weak, hope to the unhappy. Jesus loved the poor because He saw that if they were justly treated they would be the most legitimate inhabitants of the Kingdom. He loved the poor because they rendered the renunciation of the rich easier by the stimulus of charity; but most of all He loved the poor men who had been rich and who for the love of the Kingdom had become poor. Their renunciation was the greatest act of faith in His promise. They had given that which considered absolutely is nothing, but in the eyes of the world is everything, for the certainty of sharing in a more perfect life. They had been obliged to conquer in themselves one of the most profoundly rooted instincts of man. Jesus, born a poor man among the poor, for the poor, never left His brothers.”

To be a fortunate person and think that you are better than the less fortunate person is a fatal mistake. As Pastor Tom Weaver has stated so eloquently, “We are all God’s children.” This world is only our temporary home and this life is just a test to see how well we can serve God during our short stay here. We must be extremely careful not to fall in love with this world and thinking that there is no need for God in our life no matter what our situation or circumstances. The Son of God humbled Himself during His life here on earth and placed Himself at the lowest level to set an example for us. We must do the same if we are to truly “follow Him.”

It has been a very humbling experience to have the privilege of doing interviews and writing about the Warren Family Mission. It has left me much more aware of my brothers in need, and the people there are continually teaching me about the sacrifice and selflessness that only the Holy Spirit can bring. Pastor Dan Ellis has it right, the most important thing any of us can do is “show the love of Christ” and one of the best ways to do that is to “Feed His sheep.” Your continued prayers and contributions to the mission are very much appreciated.

All glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Mark Holley

 

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them. For there was not a needy person among them, because all those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed to each person as anyone had a need.

ACTS 4 verses 32-35