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.

A Reason to Give Thanks – Ralph Pugsley

When homeless people ask Ralph Pugsley for spare change, he doesn’t dig into his pocket. He opens his heart and takes them to the same place that helped him get off the streets: Goodwill Rescue Mission.

The LORD says,
“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”

— Psalm 32:8

Ralph was homeless for six years, drug addicted and squatting in a vacant government housing project slated for demolition. Before heroin took over his life, Ralph had a promising future. A running back for his high school football team, he was a great student who loved to read. But he yearned for the high life the neighborhood drug dealers lived, with their expensive cars, jewelry and clothing. So Ralph started selling drugs. Before long, he was using.

Ralph still stops by GRM so he can stay in shape – physically and spiritually.

“Once I became addicted to drugs, I was a totally different person,” he recalls. He was incarcerated for dealing and possession. He lost his home and the support of his family.

When he lived on the streets, Ralph occasionally came to GRM for a hot meal. “A friend of mine was in the program, and I saw that he was getting better and better. Finally I said, ‘I’ve got to stop what I’m doing and come here too.’”

When Ralph joined our Project Emmanuel Recovery Program, his life made a dramatic about-face. He kicked his drug addiction, recommitted his life to Christ and reunited with his family. After graduation, he landed a job with the Newark Downtown District and quickly became a supervisor. Today he works as a concierge/doorman at a luxury condominium complex in downtown Newark.

Ralph is thankful to the Mission for the chance to remake his life. “The Mission is a beautiful place,” he says. “If it wasn’t for the Mission, I don’t think I would be alive right now.”

Read other Stories of Hope

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