It was a dark windy night on Chicago’s north side. The homeless were lined up outside the church patiently waiting for the door to open, an escape from the bitter cold in the January winter of 1984. That night I was on duty in the shelter: food, a cot, a shower. A mother, a child, a father. Homeless.

Florida’s churches do not have basements for shelter use. Our homeless sleep in cars and tents in the woods, or they couch surf.

Every Florida county faces the homeless issue.

Rozanne Brown, Founder of Carebag Inc, an outreach to the homeless on Florida’s Treasure Coast, states that Indian River State College currently has 120 homeless students, many who sleep on a friend’s sofa. She and her support team just met with students on the college campus in March, handing out bags of necessities.

Hurricane Irma created an increase in homelessness on the Treasure Coast. Rozanne Brown states that in 2018, more than 1500 children in the St. Lucie County School district were registered as homeless.

Homeless children are living in precarious situations, affecting them both physically and mentally. Their parents have divorced, been battered, are trying to live on low incomes, are without employment or have substance abuse problems. These kids have been traumatized. Because of living in homeless situations, they are “sick at twice the rate of other children”—ear infections, diarrhea, asthma. They are hungry. More than half “develop emotional problems serious enough to require professional care, but less than one-third receive any treatment.” These emotional problems include anxiety, depression, withdrawal, behavioral problems and learning disabilities. “By the time homeless children are eight years old, one in three has a major mental disorder.” (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)

In 2015, Florida school districts counted 71,446 children and teens who were either homeless or couch surfers. (DCF)

Rozanne Brown knows of a mother living homeless with her two-month-old baby and 15-year-old son in a car. She cannot come into a women’s shelter because her son will be separated from her.

There are many rules regarding shelters and the age of children allowed to remain with a parent.

“Chronic homelessness, in particular, results in especially high community costs.” People who are homeless need emergency care at hospitals they cannot pay for. They need financial help for food, medicine, everyday supplies that community organizations, such as Carebag, support. Amazingly, these people are not loafers, they do work, but their incomes are low.

A University of Florida study shows that there is a critical shortage of affordable low-income housing. Most people in Florida who are homeless because of extremely low incomes.

The solution is “a combination of limited rental assistance funding with limited services provision after moving in.” This plan is known as rapid-rehousing. (DCF)

For children, rapid-rehousing plan is a necessity. It’s also a less expensive way to help people who are homeless.

It is estimated that communities spend about $300 million each year to help the homeless. (DCF) http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/programs/homelessness/docs/2011CouncilReport.pdfh

Until more communities step up and help provide rapid-rehousing, organizations like Carebag fill the gaps.

Rozanne Brown has never been homeless; a former medical researcher, she has faced her own life-adversities. Her young daughter, her only child, died of spinal meningitis at age seven. She has also seen her parents into heaven.

Rozanne is known as “Roxy” in the woods. She is the face of Carebag. To those who are homeless, Rozanne Brown is the face of compassion, the person trusted by the homeless. She has a special Google phone number they can dial when help is needed.

Rozanne began Carebag out of her car with 120 hamburgers every other day from McDonald’s. Patron after patron either matched or helped her. Three and a half years later, Carebag Inc. has a board of directors and is a registered charity. Working beside Rozanne are 200 local volunteers.

In 2017 Carebag served 1700 hours handing out 98,700 personal items and clothing, and 67,000 bags of food.

Currently, Rozanne Brown is looking for a donation of a storage unit or building to hold the many donated items she has. She also is raising funds for a mobile shower unit, which together with a truck, trailer and everything associated with it will cost $110,000, for one year’s budget.

Not many people would do what Rozanne has done--left her career, gone into the woods, made a difference. But she has taken the words of her father, “You can do nothing but give and help, knowing you’ll expect nothing back,” and put actions to them.

The world is watching. Words matter. But actions are seen.

This is the question: “Will you too help children who are homeless?”

Contact Carebag and Rozanne “Roxy” Brown with questions or help at: roxy@carebagfl.org, visit her online at www.carebag.org or call 772.222.7399.

Contact Kelly Jadon at: kfjadon@gmail.com

No one’s job is easy today, but do you work 50 to 70 hours a week as a public figure? Do you keep up with constant technological advances, deadlines to meet, people to accommodate, licenses to be renewed and yet create work that’s fresh, innovative, interesting and applicable to a large variety of people?

A church pastor must do all of this and more. Senior Pastor of TC3 (Treasure Coast Community Church) in Jensen Beach, Gordon Mularski, laid it all out across his desk. He states, “A pastor must be proficient at many things.” Currently, Pastor Mularski is working on implementing a discipleship program, attending to church building plans, keeping up with the church’s financial responsibilities, connecting his congregation to the community through the Double Dog Dare “Pay It Forward” initiative. He must also walk his own personal spiritual journey, oversee his staff’s spiritual needs, look over last year’s victories, and prepare a sermon each week that has enough depth for a seasoned believer yet is simple enough for a new listener.

Whew!

He's also planning a church trip to the Holy Land, recording videos for social media, choosing music to correlate with his message and has implemented a financial help program.

A pastor’s work involves a very public life, not just for himself, but also his family. They are in the limelight, receiving phone calls at all hours and receiving criticism and threats. They deal with society’s breakdown and cultural shifts toward the occult and crime. However, a pastor and his family are also normally highly regarded, honored, loved, prayed for, and supported by the church.

When I was a child, my local pastor was a part-time reverend. He worked another job. Today’s culture has altered a pastor’s work, making more demands upon him. Approximately 54 percent work more than 55 hours a week, and 18 percent work more than 70 hours a week, causing stress. Many pastors are depressed, fatigued, and short on money for bills. (Church Leadership)

Yet these men are not quitting in high numbers.

Most pastors are committed people who have learned how to handle the necessary role of servant-leader. Pastor Gordon Mularski calls it, “The Art of Pastoring.” He admits that at times he must disappoint people “at a level they can tolerate.” He has not and will not sacrifice his family for his work. Fruit of these comments are his two grown children who do not have issues with the church.

The role of a pastor is not a job, it is a calling; it’s not easy. Pastors need rest, time away to refresh and renew. They need vacations with their kids and quiet dinners with their wives. They need less criticism and more prayer.

Gordon Mularski has pastored Treasure Coast Community Church for 15 years. His greatest blessing has been seeing the life-changing work through the power of Jesus in a very real way. His Atlantic Ocean baptisms often include entire families. Generational and cultural barriers have been broken too—a former prostitute and a man with a $100,000 Mercedes were baptized the same day.

Not long ago, the congregation was challenged to pray for three people every day for a specific time period. Shortly afterward Treasure Coast Community Church held a baptism. A woman told Pastor Mularski, “These three women you baptized are the three names I prayed for daily. They are my sisters!”

Pastor Mularski emphasizes the need for church leaders to ask God’s favor in everything they do, and to help a congregation understand that they themselves are the church, not a building. He adds, “Wherever you go, look for opportunities to be used by God, even in bars. Walk with a sense of mission.”

Pastoral support is necessary. The church itself is necessary. The two come together. To pull a vibrant church and its leadership out of a community would leave a gaping hole of loss—food pantries, kids’ clubs, teen youth groups and a host of other programs. Each year, 4,000 churches close their doors. Those communities become dimmer. Darker.

Keep the lights on in your community. Support your pastor as he stays and keeps a commitment to his calling as Gordon Mularski has. As you do, you support your church. Its presence is significant.

If you’d like to reach Gordon Mularski or for more information about Treasure Coast Community Church, contact: 772.334.3999; email: info@tc3.org

Contact Kelly Jadon: kfjadon@gmail.com

Hometown Heroes