Editor's Note: The following story was submitted by Nathan Smith, who operates Lighthouse Ministries, which offers homeless shelters for men and women in Warren County.

By Nathan Smith

I admire Mr. Ron Rohrbach and his battle against homelessness as you shared with your readers in the Dec. 11 Southern Standard.
I am glad he pointed out how hard it is to get good rest with the threat of attacks at any time. However, I do disagree with two things: No. 1, most of the 1,500 we have assisted in our county have not been mentally handicapped, and No. 2, he is not going to get a true mental feeling of hopelessness that our men and women suffer from since he knows after that grueling week, he still has a home and a job to go back to.
We get calls from officers and 911 dispatch in the middle of the night when they find someone who has had too many and they are not allowed to go back home for the night, or don’t have a place to go. I agree they don’t need to be arrested and taken to jail and have another court cost added to their sentence, but we need help in assisting them back into society as a law-abiding, taxpaying citizen.
We constantly get calls, but if we are full, people say we aren’t Christians since we don’t take them in. If we have to kick someone out because they won’t go by our rules, then we aren’t Christians. We have the burden of trying to protect the men, women and children who are already in the shelter and trying to repair their lives. Would you take someone into your home with no questions asked and not make them go by some basic rules?
I wanted to take this time to inform you about a need we have at Lighthouse Ministries. As some of you may know, we have the only homeless shelter for men, women and children in this and most surrounding counties. Yet, we receive no funding from any type of government.
Eastside Baptist Church and Westside Baptist Church are the only monthly contributors to our women and children’s home to pay for the electric bills. We also have individuals and churches that donate randomly as the Lord lays on their hearts, and we GREATLY appreciate them.
Every family has bills that have to be paid each month. Imagine having a household with 12 men, 7 women, and 4 children? That’s what we have when we are full, which is most of the time. Know that we are not complaining. We just rely on the Lord to send us what we need, when we need it, as he has done for the last 20 years of our ministry. We are just praying He is laying this burden on someone’s heart as they read this.
Frank Farrar has been such a blessing to so many people in this and other communities. He wished to remain anonymous about his donations to our ministry. He believed in the scriptures of our Lord, especially those found in Proverbs.
Frank purchased the old dog pound and gave it to us. Some of the guys used to say it was a place for unwanted animals, now it’s a place for unwanted men. He also paid for ALL the utilities we could not pay on our own each and every month. He saw my broken-down car, that I used to deliver the Southern Standard to pay the bills, too many times in the shop, and donated a car to me. He would hire some of our men and women to work for him. He charged minimum rent to some of our “graduates” in his rental houses.
I heard a pastor ask one time, “Who will miss you when you are gone?" Family only?
What if we had to measure our lives by the number of lives we impacted in a positive way? I love the song “Thank You” by Ray Boltz. If you don’t know it, grab some tissue and listen to it. I believe many have been called by God to serve and also been given blessings and gifts to fulfill the calling, but sadly some say no.
This community is very loving and giving. However, we have some who support fundraisers with the attitude of just looking for a good deal instead of seeing it as a way to give to a worthy cause and get something in return. I have actually heard at an auction for a cancer survivor, someone say that they could get that item cheaper at a local store.
We appreciate every sacrifice people make in giving to our shelters, but reality is all the leftover donations don’t pay the bills to stay open. Yes the leftover Thanksgiving, Christmas, business luncheons, and church meals are appreciated, but again they don’t pay for the electricity to reheat them.
We can have enough leftover yard sale clothes to start a store, but that won’t pay to have them washed. We can have enough toys to fill a barn, but that doesn’t pay the bill to heat the home for the kids to play with them.
I will continue to serve God and our community, but I need help. I promised Frank Farrar and Bill Harris I would no longer cause my own family to suffer for the sake of the Lighthouse. It would have been easier for me to continue to believe that homeless deserved what they had gotten themselves into. But God helped me open my eyes and see from His perspective how He had blessed me and that not everyone had been given the same chances in life. We feel like we must be changing lives for long-term solutions instead of just a band-aid.
We have former “graduates” coming back to testify to the current men and women. We have former “graduates” donating to pay for utilities. We have former “graduates” still in church.
I hate having to ask people for things, but if we don’t get any help, we may have to close our shelters. If you would like to help us give a hand up, not another hand out, then please pray God will open doors and send regular monthly donors our way. We could use donated automobiles, Christian people leaving houses or land in their wills to us, you talking to your church about regular monthly donations, you talking to your elected city and county officials about ways to assist us.
Maybe you might encourage the city to give us the Blue Building instead of paying for another expensive survey. If you would like to send us a tax-deductible donation, our address is below. Or even if you don’t agree with the way we run our ministry and would like to start your own homeless shelter, we would be more than happy to help you get started. We turn away at least two people a week, so there is plenty to go around.
Merry Christmas and God bless,
Nathan Smith
Lighthouse Ministries of Warren County, Inc.
P.O. Box 7406
McMinnville, TN 37111