BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

It was refused. The following year, they purchased the restaurant for $45,000. “We wanted to get the restaurant up and running for six months before adding the discipleship program,” Jim remembers. “In April 2010, we opened The King’s Kitchen for lunch. That summer we added dinner. “There were two aspects of our training and discipleship program, in which each person receives on-the-job training,” Jim explained. “We also close for three hours each day, and during that time we teach Bible study and discipleship training.” Not everyone they took in met with success in the one-year program, but three people graduated after the first year. “There were people who disappeared after getting their first paycheck,” said Jim. “Some started the program and then went back to the streets.” A Mess or Two In 2011, Jim and Karen started Restoring Place Church, which meets in the restaurant. “Most of the congregation is people we met on the streets,” says Karen. “In one Sunday service, for example, while a former American Idol contestant led worship, a young woman sat on the front row drinking alcohol. I told one of our ushers to ask her to leave if she was going to drink. She left, guzzling her drink as she went. After a while, I asked the usher to find the woman and tell her she could come back if she didn’t drink. She came back and sat on the front row. “The scripture that best describes our ministry is Proverbs 14:4 in "The Passion Translation": ‘The only clean stable is an empty stable. So if you want the work of an ox and to enjoy an abundant harvest, you’ll have a mess or two to clean up!’” “Our ministry is real and raw, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” says Jim. “Jesus said when we minister to the least of these, it is as though we are ministering to Him. I believe He meant that then, and He still means it today.” In addition to The King’s Kitchen, the discipleship program and Restoring Place Church, Jim and Karen have also started the Charlotte Mecklenburg Dream Center. Modeled after the one in Los Angeles, they meet the needs of people by providing food, clothing and free resources for those suffering poverty, addiction and abuse. They help find solutions to homelessness, hunger and joblessness. On Friday nights in uptown Charlotte, the smell of chili cheese dogs wafts in the air. People from The King’s Kitchen and the Dream Center walk the streets giving away 160 chili cheese dogs. As the food draws the people, volunteers introduce them to Jesus, minister to them and invite them to Bible study. On Saturday mornings, Dream Center staff and 300 to 400 volunteers a month show up in rough neighborhoods where they Adopt-A-Block. This isn’t a short-term ministry. They show up on the adopted block every Saturday without fail and do whatever is needed—from mowing lawns and making repairs, to providing groceries and praying for people. They become friends. According to the FBI, the Adopt-A-Block program, carried out in different cities across the U.S., is the most effective revitalization program they’ve ever seen. 18 : BVOV

• Cover