The Mission: May 2010
A Bright Light in Dante’s Inferno
A local hero in a squad car patrols the harsh world of Skid Row with love, prayer, and faith in second chances.
When Officer Deon Joseph of the Los Angeles Police Department first learned he’d been assigned to Skid Row 11 years ago, his fellow officers warned him to transfer as soon as possible.
“These streets were Dante’s Inferno,” Deon says. “There were bonfires, tents lining every sidewalk, people stacked on top of each other, fights, and murders. People openly used drugs. Sometimes they overdosed and died – and no one would call the police or an ambulance.”
But Deon saw something more. Deon had grown up watching his father employ ex-cons who needed a second chance. His parents raised 41 foster children who had all suffered physical, mental, or sexual abuse. “So when I got to Skid Row,” Deon recalls, “I thought, ‘I already know these folks. These are my family’. And it was time to get to work.”
Deon is determined to do far more than enforce the law. “The love of Christ drives me, and I keep hearing God’s voice saying, ‘Go and do more’.'”
As a result, Deon spends time praying with prostitutes, ex-gang members, and drug addicts on the streets. He takes personal interest in their lives and makes sure that everyone who wants help gets it.
“Folks on Skid Row believe they’re worthless and that society hates them,” Deon says. “But none of them, when they were kids, ever thought, ‘I want to be a sex offender or a drug addict when I grow up.’ There’s a story behind every individual. Every one of them is somebody’s father or son or mother or brother. And they need help. That’s why I go out of my way to help people here. I tell them, ‘If you want to change your life, if you want to get your life on track, let me know. I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
Often, that means Deon personally connects people from Skid Row with Union Rescue Mission, where they can get a hot meal, safe shelter, and the real help they need to change their lives.
“Union Rescue Mission represents hope in this community, and it’s my job to help them provide that hope through their drug programs and shelter,” Deon says. “Every day, I see broken men and women enter this place. But something happens to them here that strengthens and transforms them. That’s why I encourage people to donate their money and time here – whatever it takes to keep this mission running and continuing to change lives.”
Deon says he’s only doing what God wants him to do – pray for and encourage people. “God is good,” he says. “That’s all I can say.”
The Odd Couple
Ronald Smith, a life-long gangster and radical Muslim, discovers new hope and healing when he meets a most unlikely friend.
Despite the fact that my father was a pastor in Chicago, I spent most of my life in and out of prison for various violent crimes, including attempted murder, stemming from selling drugs.
When I got out of prison in 2000, however, I honestly wanted to change my life. I earned a degree in communications and spent the next seven years working in television, from ABC News to E! and the Sci-Fi Channel. I even worked as a producer on the Grammy Awards, the American Music Awards, the Oscars, and the Golden Globes.
But despite all my success in TV, my own drug use finally caught up with me. I couldn’t control it anymore, so in July 2008, I decided to seek help at Union Rescue Mission. Over the first several months, I was often tempted to leave. But the most unlikely guy here at the mission, Scott Bonovich, made sure I didn’t.
I had spent most of my life as a black, militant gangster. Scott is a white guy from silver-spoon land. But he and I really hit it off. We both loved ancient history, we’re both writers, and Scott had even studied Islam. He encouraged me to attend his Bible studies and we’d spend hours talking about God, the Bible, Jesus, and Islam.
Jesus and the Bible slowly started making sense to me. I began praying to Jesus and I experienced His healing power in my life. I graduated from the Union Rescue Mission’s Life Transformation Program in July 2009.
I thank God He used a man like Scott to change my life. If you look on the outside, Scott and I have absolutely nothing in common. But inside, we’re so much alike. Today I call him my “Uncle Scott”. More important, we’re brothers in Jesus Christ.
Notes from Andy
No Excuses
When Jesus said, “The poor will always be with us,” he never meant for us to use that as an excuse to refrain from helping those experiencing homelessness. He’s actually quoting from Deuteronomy 15:4-11.
“If among you one of your brothers should become poor…you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need. …For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land.”
In other words, when someone falls into poverty, you should do whatever it takes to help him climb out. There will always be poor in the land, so be generous to folks in need so they can find a way out of their poverty.
This is a call to action, not an excuse to leave things the way they are. In this day, when so many average Joes and everyday families are falling into poverty, it is time for us to take action – to make sure that no one suffers the devastation of homelessness.
Blessings,
Andy
-
http://topsy.com/trackback?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2&url=http://www.urmblog.org/2010/05/26/the-mission-may-2010/ Tweets that mention The Mission: May 2010 | Union Rescue Mission — Topsy.com