(Facebook/River of Refuge)
Children enjoy their meal at the River of Refuge in Kansas City, Missouri.
A Christian ministry is helping working poor families in Kansas City, Missouri by providing them rent-free housing.
River of Refuge is making a difference by providing room and board to families at the former Park Lane Hospital, which it purchased for the project.
The families can stay at the facility rent free “as long as the adults maintain full-time employment, adhere to program rules and agree to pay off debt.”
The families are given financial coaching, jobs skills classes, parenting classes and educational tutoring.
Mario Glynn and his seven children comprise one of the families at the River of Refuge.
“We ended up moving with a friend in a one bedroom apartment,” Glynn told CBN News.
Pastor John Wiley founded the River of Refuge in 2009 and dreamed of turning the hospital into a transitional housing for the poor.
His dream became a reality when the first families moved into the facility.
“It feels surreal, you know seven years of believing it was possible,” he told CBN News. “We’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of families over seven years but we couldn’t bring them here and give them a transitional place. But now we can so here we are in a former 150,000-square- foot hospital dedicated to families living in homeless.”
Wiley said the project was hard but worth it.
“There were many nights where halfway through this project I’d wake up in the middle of the night thinking what have I done because we had so many obstacles that seemed to be in the way. But over seven years I’ve watched obstacle after obstacle become removed,” he said.
He added, “And so what it’s done for me personally, it’s changed my faith. And love compelled me to not talk way, to not give up, and to persevere so I say that it was love that caused me to push on.”
According to program director Stephanie Keck, rising unemployment and utility costs have forced families out of their homes.
The River of Refuge opened last May and many families are on the waiting list.
“Within the first 24 hours I had close to 30 people calling for help,” she said. “Just in that first 24 hours and we still get on average probably 20 people a week asking for help. This morning I had six people asking, ‘Can I apply for your program?'”
