BANGOR, Maine — They carry sandwiches and water and reach out to homeless people in hopes of bettering the lives of people struggling to survive on the streets of Bangor.
“We don’t push religion,” Rhysa Carter said Monday evening as she and her husband, Nick, walked along a trail next to the Kenduskeag Stream carrying a backpack filled with sandwiches.
Instead, members of the Jericho Road Ministry at the Lighthouse Church of God in Orrington hand out food, water and — most important — fellowship to Bangor’s “invisible population,” and by doing so “we see lives changing,” Carter said.
Some of the homeless people the ministry has met are working, some have master’s degrees, and others have substance abuse or other problems, Pastor Jon Ouellette said.
All have somehow fallen on hard times.
“They have a life,” Ouellette said. “They have a history.”
He added: “We always tell folks that this is God’s practical love in motion. There are no strings attached. There is a message in there and they can receive the message or file it.”
Larry Labreque, who is homeless, first met members of the local Jericho Road Ministry six months ago. He accepted a sandwich Monday and stopped his pushcart, which he uses to collect returnable bottles, for a few moments to tell his story. When asked where he lives, Labreque looked toward the sky.
“I lived at the shelter for 22 months,” he said. “Right now, I can’t afford rent so I’m living out here.”
Members of the Jericho Road Ministry know him by name. They took time to say hello on Monday and to ask him about his cart, which held a jacket, a tent, water and a small American flag.
Labreque, who said he is on probation for a criminal offense, noted that the message of treating others the way one wants to be treated is the same with most religions.
“It don’t matter if you’re Protestant, Catholic or Christian,” he said.
Since meeting members of the Lighthouse Church, Labreque said he has been “a little bit more calm and I say ‘hi’ to people. Some don’t say ‘hi’ back and I think, ‘God bless you anyways, [expletive].’”
Labreque attended a Sunday service in Orrington recently, he said.
“We’ve had 10 people who we’ve saved,” said church member Patty Washburn, who helped organize the walking ministry two years ago. “These people are lost and all they want is someone to listen to them, someone to love them.”
The world that the church members enter every Monday night when they conduct their walking ministry is one that many Bangor-area residents drive by without seeing.
“It gets ugly,” Rhysa Carter said. “It’s not all cherry-topped. People forget these people are out here [or] look the other way, and that is the problem.”
Members of Orrington’s Jericho Road Ministry meet at Pickering Square each Monday and after a short prayer start out on their weekly journey carrying volunteer-made or donated food for those less fortunate.
The Lighthouse Church of God has a good role model for its street ministry, said member Nick Carter.
“Jesus hung out with prostitutes,” he said. “No one else does it. That’s why we’re here. We’re changing the community.”
The group is leading by example and would like to “start a revolution of people helping people,” Nick Carter said.
The walking ministry is helped by partners including the Coffee Pot Cafe on Broadway, the local Country Kitchen bakery and members of the East Orrington Congregational Church, who donate to the Lighthouse Church’s Bread of Life food pantry. The meals are prepared by volunteers with the food pantry.
During colder months, the Jericho Road Ministry gathers at the Main Street Dunkin’ Donuts, which they say has been “wonderful,” and church members who are not comfortable or physically capable of walking donate Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards that are used to buy drinks and food for those less fortunate, Rhysa Carter said.
“You definitely hear a lot of horror stories” while talking to folks who live on the streets, she said. “It makes you appreciate what you have and it makes you want to do more for others.”
Any food that remains in the backpacks at the end of the night is given to the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, which is where the ministry ends its weekly walking mission.
“Love is powerful,” Ouellette said. “Love is not based on words — it is based on actions.”