fbpx
News Articles

Missionary makes lasting impact on at-risk children in inner-city D.C.


WASHINGTON (BP)–The Wednesday afternoon Royal Ambassadors (RA) session at Johenning Baptist Center begins with the basics.

“Give me a verse!” says Wes Garrett, director of the center.

“Joshua 1:9 — Do not be terrified, because your God will be with you wherever you go,” one of the boys quickly answers. “Psalm 27:1 — The Lord is the light of my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” says another.

If there is a common thread to those choices, it isn’t entirely coincidental. Fear is a significant issue in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of southeast D.C. where illegal drugs are the dominant industry.

But Garrett believes that the more influence he can have through RAs and other ministries, the more likely they are to discover Christ as the ultimate solution to the problems they face.

“In a word it would be relationships,” said Garrett, who in four years has revitalized the ministries of the center and brought a renewed focus on evangelistic ministry. “In our effort to get them to know Christ, we just get to know them — and they must get to know us.”

Garrett is one of the featured missionaries of the March 3-10 Week of Prayer for North American Missions. He is one of nearly 200 church and community ministries missionaries across the United States and Canada reaching individuals with the gospel through meeting physical and spiritual needs.

Garrett understands the impact a Southern Baptist ministry center can have on an individual because he has experienced those benefits firsthand. Friendship House, a Baptist center in the Newport News, Va., neighborhood where he grew up, provided not only emergency food and clothing on occasion but also a broad range of programs that shaped him spiritually.

“It was at a camp sponsored by the center that I felt God calling me to go into that type of ministry,” he said. “God gave me a love for it because I went through it, I believe.”

After a stint as a chaplain’s assistant in the military, Garrett found himself back at Friendship House — serving in a variety of roles until he was named director in 1989. He became a NAMB missionary in 1993 and was asked to take on the leadership of Johenning in 1997.

The center is historic in the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, named after home missionary Anna Banks Johenning in 1959.

Since his arrival Garrett has provided the impetus for a broad range of ministries focused on transforming lives with the gospel.

“He’s had a great influence here because he has really brought the center back to life again,” said Ione Hicks, a member of Johenning Baptist Church, located next to the center. “More people are involved in the center than they were. And the children especially. In the classes they have here, they get to know Christ in their lives, and the counseling they get here has really helped.”

Center ministries include a job placement program, a Bible study for senior adults and an affiliated day-care center located in the same building. But much of the effort is focused on ongoing ministry to the children who face daily crises and family instability much greater than Garrett could ever have imagined.

“I guess my first love is working with children who need help,” he said. “I just enjoy being around these children, seeing them nurtured and seeing them changed.”

One of the children in the RA class has 21 brothers and sisters by the same father, and he lives with one of his cousins. Another boy recently was caught with crack cocaine at school. A third visits his father every weekend in jail.

So that is why Garrett finds himself at the center well into the evening on most days, dealing with the group that has become a second family for many of the children. There is the RA group, a computer club and even a “hobby club” that allowed Garrett last fall to share his personal collection of Monopoly games. Boys’ and girls’ clubs offer a broad range of activities mixed with Christian education.

“Our desire is that we have a lot of activities going on for the kids, so they can pick and choose what they come to,” Garrett said.

“It’s really a nurturing station, to teach people how to be Christians,” he added. “And the children learn. They learn through Bible lessons … and they learn through the love that we show them.”

There is also a sports program, with football, baseball, T-ball and basketball teams competing in community leagues. There is only a nominal fee — but participants must be involved in more than just the sports.

“We have a requirement that you’ve got to be in Bible studies or the other ministries if you want to be a part of the team,” Garrett said.

In the summer, he takes active participants to camp, where the 24-hour Christian environment often results in many professions of faith — the time when the center’s ministries move from evangelism to discipleship in the lives of the young people.

Richard, the 12-year-old boy with 21 half-siblings, first got involved with the center through summer camp in 1998. Last spring, he accepted Christ and was baptized. In an essay he wrote for a contest sponsored by Garrett, he told how much the center had meant in his life.

“I did not know what I know now about God,” he wrote. “Brother Wes taught me a lot about God, and that He loves me and gave His son to die so that we might have everlasting life in heaven.”

“That to me just blew me away. But that’s the stuff that brings tears to your eyes,” Garrett said, noting that the boy later mentioned that his mother and grandmother both came to the baptism — an unusual event considering the circumstances of the family.

He told of talking with another boy at the end of one of the events, who asked him if they allowed fighting in the center. When told they did not, he said, “Good, and that’s why I want to come in,” Garrett said.

Those are the comments that keep Garrett motivated, ready to find yet another way of touching a life with the gospel.

“That gives me my energy and strength, seeing them nurtured like that.”
–30–
(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: TOUCHING A LIFE, PASSING GO, COMPUTING CARE and TIME FOR SENIORS TOO.

    About the Author

  • James Dotson