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.

I Want My Life to Be Used to Change Others

Jerome Wright, program associate for our Project Emmanuel Recovery Program, is quick to tell the homeless men he mentors that God is the God of second chances. To prove it, he shares his own remarkable story, of how he – a drug-addicted felon who slept in abandoned buildings and ate out of dumpsters – was transformed at Goodwill Rescue Mission.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

— Eph. 4:32

Growing up in Newark, Jerome always looked up to the gangsters, but he found out too late that being in a gang wasn’t as glorious as he’d dreamed. By the time he was 19, he was hooked on drugs, homeless and in prison for assault and kidnapping. In the years to come, he would serve time for two additional felony convictions.

During the decades that followed, Jerome says, “The only time I wasn’t homeless was when I was in prison.”

In addition to working full time at the Mission, Jerome is earning a college degree.

But by the time he turned 44 Jerome had had enough. “I sat in an abandoned house and prayed, ‘Lord, I keep saying I’m going to get myself some help, but I just won’t do it. I need you to intervene,’” he recalls.

The next morning, Jerome was arrested for burglary. In the county jail cell, he gave his life to Christ and was soon released to Goodwill Rescue Mission, where he’d been in our program years before but was asked to leave because he was still abusing drugs.

Jerome was nervous we would turn him away because he had tried once and failed. But instead, we welcomed him with open arms, showing him that God is the God of second chances.

While in our program, Jerome received his GED, and now he’s a student at Essex County College. He hopes to eventually receive a master’s in social work so he can work for a ministry that helps troubled teens.

“I thank God that Goodwill was a beacon of light in a dark city that I saw from a long distance when things were rough. I thank God for rescuing me and the Mission for the opportunity to get my act together,” he says. “Now I want my life to be used to change others’ lives. I’m determined to give back.”

Read other Stories of Hope

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