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The program helps nudge houses of faith into doing the "hard and messy work" of helping homeless families rent an apartment and get a job, Fredrickson says.

"It's real easy to live in the suburbs and go to skid row and pass out sandwiches," Fredrickson says. "It's a whole lot harder to circle around another person and say, 'I'm going to be with you for the long haul—the next year or three years—and we are here for you and we are not going to let you fall.' "

Watching the volunteers work with these families is like "watching a miracle grow," Govan Bauman says.

"They start having that light in their eyes again," she says. "They do wonderfully in school. It's really quite magical."

Since Epps-Gray was reunited with her children—two of whom wound up on the streets for a time, too—she has been "blown away" by how much Bel Air Presbyterian volunteers have helped and blessed her family's life. Her youngest son, Dareyn Gray, 16, is getting As and Bs in school, and aspires to be a brain surgeon. Two of her older children, Dontay Gray, 18, and Karen Gray, 19, have earned 4.0 grade point averages. A church volunteer helped Dontay get an internship at the fashion company guess, where he designed his own pair of jeans. He's been accepted to California State University, Sacramento, and would like to become a counselor for troubled teens. He will be the first person in his family to attend college.

Epps-Gray, who attended church with her grandmother as a child, has recommitted her life to Jesus and is thankful the Lord worked through people at the church to save her family.

"He put it in their hearts to help me," Epps-Gray says. "They didn't do this on their own. It's through the love of Christ that they are able to help other people. I have all these people in my life because that was his goal. This was his plan."

Troy Anderson is a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Christianity Today stories on homelessness include:

Abolishing Homelessness in Ten Years | Philip Mangano, the federal 'homeless czar,' says, 'Yes we can.' (May 22, 2009)

Bridge to a Place Called Home | How one ministry partners with churches to put the homeless back on their feet. (February 1, 2006)

The Word on the Street | What the homeless taught me about prayer. By Philip Yancey (January 1, 2006)

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June 2009, Vol. 53, No. 6, Page 44