Young Christian Adults Serve The Homeless And Are Changed Themselves.

In 2005, a conversation began about what to do with an empty apartment in a tiny homeless shelter in Louisville. Five years later, 26 young adult Christians have had the trajectory of their lives forever changed as they followed Christ and built relationships with the homeless and hurting through JSBC’s Hope for Louisville program.

Hope for Louisville was started as an opportunity for Christian young adults to learn how to love God and love their urban neighbors in word and deed. Team Members serve in JSBC’s Day Shelter by providing toiletries, helping guests access mail and their stored luggage, and building relationships with the male and female guests. Team Members also build relationships with their urban neighbors. (For the Men’s Team, this means primarily the men who live at the shelter long-term. For the Women’s Team, this means primarily the women and children who live close to them in a nearby low-income neighborhood.) Team Members are part of a solid gospel-centered church within walking distance of where they live, allowing them to bring their new friends deeper into Christian community. Also, Team Members seek daily intimacy with Christ through prayer, Bible study, service and worship. This is all pursued in the context of community with other Christian young adults as Team Members live together, worship together and serve together.

For many people, the desire to build deep, impactful relationships with the poor is lost on “someday”. “Someday, I am going to break out of my routine and do something radical.” But for many, that “someday” never comes. Hope for Louisville makes that “someday” happen today.

Everyone does the Hope for Louisville program for different reasons and come from different walks of life.

Hope alumni Matt Smith says, “I did HOPE because I was truly seeking God. I was working in the corporate world. I had no passion for what I was doing. I also knew that the job I was in wasn’t where I wanted to make a career. I was really wanting some new direction and change in my life. A friend told me about the HOPE program and I knew from the moment I heard the details I wanted to be involved, if that was God’s will.”

Some are fresh out of high school. Others have graduate degrees. Many are somewhere in their college years.

In reflecting on how God used HOPE to change his life, Hope alumni Brandon Bowers says, “I am different from the experience in several different ways. It has changed many things that will affect my life forever, such as how I view material possessions, what money is intended for, and how temporary so many material things are.”

Smith adds, “I feel I am different in that I have more empathy and a greater understanding of God’s love for people. I have been humbled and become more patient. I have received focus and put much more trust in Jesus. I have a greater understanding of the human condition and am able to identify with people who before seemed so foreign to me.”

Even the lives of parents are changed. Betty Stewart, whose son Coran did the program, says, “Coran’s three months of serving at JSBC with the HOPE team forever changed his life…and mine. While I shamefully and regretfully admit I’d always associated ‘homeless’ with ‘bum’, my son quickly saw and taught me something very different. God began to open my eyes a bit to the world outside my selfish own. It was Coran’s experiences that he shared with us that have forever changed my view of ‘homeless’ and has, indeed, made me better understand and appreciate his ministry passion.”

JSBC’s Hope for Louisville is open to Christian men and women between the ages of 18 and 30. Hope offers both a 3 month summer term and 1 year term. To learn more about the Hope for Louisville program, please visit http://hopeforlouisville.com or call 502.584.6543.

Summer Term 2010

Service Dates: Tuesday, May 25th – Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Full Year Term 2010/2011

Service Dates: Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 – Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Application Deadline: Thursday, July 1st, 2010