Redemption Bible Church helps shelter serve area homeless population

What began as a sprout of interest from an Arlington Heights church in how best to serve the homeless population that was migrating toward and attracted to its worship services, has now blossomed into a mutual partnership with a local social service agency.

The leadership of Redemption Bible Church first learned about JOURNEYS | The Road Home's work providing temporary shelter and social services for homeless children and families in suburban Cook County through one of their parishioners, who also volunteers at JOURNEYS.

"We rent the Metropolis Theatre in Arlington Heights for our Sunday morning worship service, and one of the things we noticed was that a number of homeless people were coming to the open lobby there to keep warm," said Pastor Tyler Drewitz of Redemption Bible Church.

"So one of the things we wanted to know from JOURNEYS is how do they respond to their clients' needs. Previously we knew very little about the organization. After we met with JOURNEYS staff we left with such a greater understanding of how we could partner with and serve alongside their organization," said Drewitz. "We learned that the best way to serve any of the homeless in the area is to just point them to JOURNEYS because they have the counseling training and the resources to be able to help these people."

"The leadership at Redemption are welcoming and all-inclusive and they really wanted insight into the area's homeless population," said Beth Nabors, executive director at JOURNEYS | The Road Home. "Through our initial meeting we realized our two organizations were rather in line with respect to mission and human approach."

"When Redemption's leadership first told us that they wanted to bring over some of their congregation to help us beautify and make our client center a more welcoming environment, our requested list of 'to-do's' was rather small because we thought their crew would be few in number," said Nabors. "As discussion progressed, Redemption shared the excitement of their congregation to connect with JOURNEYS and thus our 'to-do list' grew per their request. The church then donated a large check to us so we could buy the necessary supplies up front so that when their crew arrived they would be ready to go."

"We saw that there was a great need at JOURNEYS," said Drewitz. "So we wanted to figure out how we could help out financially and with our actions as well."

Thus was born Redemption Bible Church's "Sunday of Service," when a faith community serves a community in need.

On Sunday, April 19, Drewitz showed up at JOURNEYS' Hope Center, in Palatine, with 65 members of his congregation. They then proceeded to put in a full eight-hour day. They painted the entire center; scraped and painted the garbage bin enclosure, coating it with a special waterproof paint; removed everything from the attic, cleaned and built shelving, and then put everything back in a more organized way; tiled the bathrooms; removed most of the landscaping in front, put in new plants, and laid mulch in the front and the back; replaced missing bushes near the parking lot; and picked up trash in the rear wooded area.

Pastor Drewitz said that the recently completed work is just the beginning of future labor projects that his church will take on for the social service agency. "We are really excited about an ongoing partnership with them. We are a young church, only about 6 years old. We don't have a ton of resources as far as finances, but we do have a lot of people and a lot of willingness to serve."

"From the beginning of our connection to where we stand today, I have been in awe of Redemption Bible Church," said Nabors. "Their leadership has an attitude of 'can do and will do.' They are all about strengthening the human spirit. Their generosity not only comes from monetary gifts and volunteer hours given but more importantly from their gift of soul and spirit. Their great strength is in that they truly understand the concept of building stability through attention to individual need."

JOURNEYS | The Road Home provides shelter and social services to the homeless and at-risk in North and Northwest Cook County through its HOPE Center, PADS Program and PDI Transitional Housing Program. Visit www.journeystheroadhome.org or call (847) 963-9163.