I have been an artillery officer in the USMC, worked in the meat-packing business, and taught applied psychology and business ethics at Georgia Tech and the Universities of Kansas, Florida and Indiana. After retiring in 2006, I served as the CEO of The Leo Center and Heartland Medical Clinic, which provided medical care, food, financial help, counseling, and pregnancy services to uninsured and under-insured members of the Lawrence Community. It was in this role that I discovered the plight of homeless children and their families and the need to address their problems in Lawrence.
A discussion of the issue with a man in town named Byron who was assisting the homeless and aware of the lack of attention given to homeless children, led me to search for a successful model program. After visiting Family Promise affiliates in other areas, I contacted the head office in New Jersey about starting Family Promise in Lawrence. Their assessment of the community affirmed that Lawrence had a great need for such a program and the resources among the faith congregations in the area to be successful.
I left the Leo Center in the fall of 2007 to get Family Promise of Lawrence started. I was fortunate enough to enlist the support of Katherine Dinsdale, who was chair of the city’s commission on homelessness, and the interest of Valerie Miller-Coleman, who was the homeless outreach coordinator at Bert Nash and dealing with some 50 families. We contacted every congregation in town by phone and held our first public meeting in October of 2007. About 60 people representing 25 congregations attended, and I was delighted that some of them got behind our efforts almost immediately.
We set a goal of opening our doors before the first snowfall of 2008, and we did, staring with eight congregations and Valerie as our first director. Many people were responsible for getting us underway, including my wife Nancy and Katherine’s husband Bob. People like Monte and Kay Johnson, Dolph and Pam Simons, John McGrew, Doug Stevens, Sharon Stultz, and Nancy Ezell were instrumental in making FPL possible and viable.
Of all the enterprises I’ve been involved with, Family Promise is, simply, the best. It is remarkably effective and efficient, it blesses not only the homeless people we serve but also the scores of congregations and hundreds of volunteers who serve them. I have seen lives transformed, eyes opened, and love enacted countless times, both on the part of the homeless children and their parents (or grandparents) and those who serve them in so many ways. It has certainly changed my life, and I will be eternally grateful for God’s providing this opportunity to put faith into action.