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.

Peace in the City – Jamaal Robinson

Cold, hungry and homeless, Jamaal robinson trudged his way to Goodwill Rescue Mission on a frigid December day, hoping for a hot meal and a warm place to spend the night. He found all that, plus the peace and purpose he’d sought for years.

“A heart at peace gives life to the body…”

— Psalm 14:30

A cocaine addict, Jamaal had just been kicked out of his aunt’s home, where he’d lived for a decade. He and his aunt got along fine, as long as there were lots of drugs to go around. But when the drug supply ran low, tensions ran high, and Jamaal found himself locked out.

On that December day, Jamaal had finally had enough. He was tired of the way his life was going. He wanted a fresh start, but didn’t know how to get it. So he decided to come to Goodwill for a few nights of shelter while he sorted things out.

Jamal (right) stops by GRM once a week to visit friends like Herman Burrell (left).

At chapel that evening, Jamaal’s life changed forever. “Everything that came out of the speaker’s mouth was what I’d been though. It was like he was talking to me,” Jamaal recounts.

As Jamaal walked out of chapel, one of our staff members reached out to him. “He said, ‘Brother, you look like you’re going through some problems,’” Jamaal remembers. He was shocked that a stranger would care.

That night, Jamaal joined our Project Emmanuel recovery Program. “I figured, what do I have to lose? I don’t have anywhere to go, and it’s freezing outside,” he says. “During the next few days, I was convinced this was what I needed. Once I finally made up my mind to change my life, the rest was history.”

Jamaal overcame his drug addiction and gave his life to Christ. He earned his GED through our Learning Center and found a job with the City of Newark. Today, Jamaal is an ambassador for Atlantic Maintenance and works in Jersey City assisting visitors. He still stops by the Mission once a week to see staff members and encourage men in our recovery program.

“I love the life I’m living now,” says Jamaal. “Everything I have, I owe to Goodwill. If it wasn’t for God leading me to Goodwill, none of this would have been possible.”

Read other Stories of Hope

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