Story

Good Morning.

We are excited to share with you this incredible story of the local church intervening in the life of a man in it’s community. As Christians we see needs everyday. This is a story of a one member of local church seeing the need of another man, becoming his advocate, and connecting with him in a life changing way. We are honored to play a role in this story and we are sure you will be too.

The story starts with a young man named Terence from Cameroon. He came to the United States after being chosen from 50,000 other applicants in a lottery style selection process that only allowed for 30-40 spots. So when when Terence was selected, he jumped at the chance. He was connected with a host from Cameroon here in the United States prior to his travel and 7 months ago he made the biggest leap of his life by immigrating to the U.S.

Almost immediately Terence realized that he was in a hostile environment with his host here in the U.S. When he arrived he was given a recliner to sleep in and told that he needed to begin paying rent. They wanted to control every aspect of his life and would not allow him any contact with others outside of his work. He was threatened almost daily with eviction and told that he needed to earn more and more to pay his rent.

He secured a job at Kroger working all the hours that they would give him and was only able to earn approximately $400 per month. However, his host/landlord demanded $300 in rent, leaving Terence completely broke. When he tried to advance his situation the host/landlord would become hostile and threaten to evict him if he did anything other than go to work and back home. They began to control every aspect of his life. So here he was in the U.S. with a very low paying job, a host/landlord demanding most of his money for rent, but not allowing him to interact with anyone else to advance his situation.

That is when a member of our local church partner saw this man and his need. This man was in Kroger often and would gain more and more information about Terence with each visit. Soon this church member realized that Terence really needed help and it was going to take a community to come around him in a real way.

As soon as our local church partner got involved, the host/landlord threatened to kick Terence out of his home immediately. She threatened to bring his belongings to Kroger and just drop them off. Well, she made good on that promise and he became homeless that day.

This local church member began connecting dots in the community. He began a job search for Terence to have a full time work and a place to live within biking distance to his work. As you can imagine that is not an easy thing to do.

Ok…are you ready for this? God provided all of that within 2 days. The local church member secured Terence and interview with a friend of his that owns a company. They needed warehouse help. He was hired on the spot. Then they statred looking for a place for him to live as another friend posted an ad for a room for rent. Guess where is was? Yup! Within biking distance to his new job. The hiring company also put Terence up in a hotel room until his new apartment is ready and took him to Wal-Mart to get him some food and clothes. I did not mention it, but Terence only had two outfits and never enough food.

It is hard to believe, but this new apartment will be the first time that Terence has ever had his own bed.

We would like to help get Terrence set up in his new life, allow him a few months to learn his new job, and get some basics put together. We would like to provide his first 2 month’s of rent, utilities, and food. This will allow him to create some savings and relieve some built up pressure.

Terence was a teacher in his home country. His dream is to be educated here in the United State and go back to Cameroon to help others. We believe these are the best first steps in making that dream a reality.

Here is a picture of Terence in the middle with his new work family:

Need

Two Month’s Rent and Utilities = $1500

Total Need = $1500

How To Help

1.) Take a second and pray for this Need Alert and every Deeder that is receiving it.
2.) Share by clicking the icons below!

*As always 100% of your donation is tax deductible and 100% of your money, less the PayPal fees, will be applied to this specific need. You should also know that the relief will be delivered by the local church partner, not One Need.

All Need Alerts are prayed over and fully reviewed before you receive them. When you see a Need Alert from One Need we want you to have confidence that we are providing relief to a person with a real need. Furthermore, you should know that every need originates with a local church partner. Less than 5% of the Needs we work with become Need Alerts. You can feel confident that when you receive a Need Alert, like this one, that we have dug in and worked with the local church partner and the person in need. We know these people, their backgrounds, and have others that confirm these needs.
If you have any questions please email Rodney McClure at rodney@oneneed.org

In Christ,

Rodney & The One Need Team

*Want your church to be involved in the One Need Network? Reply to this email with your pastor’s contact information*