Goodwill Rescue Mission

Our Mission

Goodwill Rescue Mission offers help and hope to North Jersey’s urban poor and dispirited.

•	For mind and body: food, clothing, shelter, training and teaching.
•	For soul and spirit: the life-changing message of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.

Special Project

Hope Totes
Can you join us in this front-line ministry by collecting items to fill the totes?
Click here for more info.

Christmas Joy at the Mission

Kelly LeBrun got something truly special for Christmas last year. As a member of our Project Emmanuel Recovery Program, he got the chance to celebrate as a new creation in Christ.

“My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him …”

— Psalm 28:7

“This was actually the first Christmas in my life, since I could remember, I didn’t get high or drunk,” Kelly shares. “I had a clear-minded spirit.”

Kelly had been high or drunk since he arrived in the United States at the age of 18. A native of Haiti, he moved to Brooklyn to live with his father.

Kelly LeBrun makes culinary magic in our kitchen everyday.

“He took care of me until I started doing drugs, then he punished me by putting me out, hoping I’d quit drugs, but I never did,” Kelly recalls. “I’ve been on my own since I was 18.”

Kelly found work in a factory then attended a culinary arts school. Through the years that followed, he bounced from job to job, relationship to relationship. Twice divorced, he would go months without working, content to spend his days drinking and getting high.

Kelly was living in East Orange when he lost his last job. “My landlord said, ‘You seem like a good person, and know a place that can help you with your drinking addiction,’” he recalls. That place was Goodwill Rescue Mission.

“I always knew I had a drinking problem, but until I found God, it was too hard to give it up,” Kelly shares. “But Jesus has showed me that everything is possible, and He took away my desire for drugs and alcohol just like that. Done!”

Kelly graduated from our recovery program and is now in our leadership program, working at the Mission and mentoring other men. Some day, he plans to attend Bible school and become a pastor so he can share the joy of the Lord with others in need.

“I thank God for rescuing me and the Mission for the opportunity to get my act together,” he says. “Now, I’m determined to give back.”

Read other Stories of Hope

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