Faithful Friends

In 1991 Sharon Fryer noticed a homeless women living in the alley behind her workplace. Sharon left her some clothes and an umbrella, and was touched when she saw the woman using them.

Buoyed in her confidence, Sharon volunteered at a homeless shelter. When she toured the center, “what I saw changed my life,” she says. “A man in wheelchair looked like Holocaust victim—his knees were drawn up and he was wearing what looked like a diaper.”

She learned most of these 30-40 people had AIDS. “I went into shock,” she says. She worried that she had been exposed to the dreaded disease. Then something else happened. As she chatted with one of the men, he asked her to promise to come back.

“No one ever comes back,” he said. Her heart broke.

Twice a week she went to the shelter, armed with nothing but cold sodas, a receptive heart, and a serving spirit. She listened to people’s stories, which too often included rejection by church-going parents or sexual abuse by church leaders.

She also shared the gospel with those she visited.

In 1993 Sharon got involved with Vineyard Church of Columbus, Ohio, where church leaders asked her help lead a compassion ministry. “Pastor Rich Nathan even spoke about it from pulpit, emboldening people to get involved,” she says.

Project Compassion, as it came to be known, has trained more than 900 volunteers to befriend someone with HIV/AIDS. “Many of these folks are really sick and can’t do some of the basic tasks,” Nathan says. “So our people cut their hair, clean their homes, watch television or play cards with them, do their shopping, as any good friend would. Along the way, opportunities arise for spiritual discussion as well.” This ongoing relationship is called “Faithful Friends.”

The impact has been amazing. “All of our clients in the last 13 years who have had a dedicated volunteer, a Christian mentor, have come to Christ before they died,” Sharon says.

Since being a Faithful Friend requires a one-year commitment, there are other ways to serve. One is “Coffee & Conversation,” a monthly support group for those affected by HIV/AIDS.

In his book, Who Is My Enemy? Welcoming People the Church Rejects, Nathan writes, “We must stop shutting the door of the kingdom in the faces of those whom God is inviting in… I’m encouraged by the call of Jesus to reach the least, the last, and the lost.”

Moving your church “beyond the box”

www.vineyardcolumbus.org Click on the Ministries section to view a video about Project Compassion. Columbus Vineyard will be presenting at the Leadership Network Innovations Series Briefing entitled: Church Multiplication and Teaching Churches on January 6-7, 2005 in Las Vegas, Nevada. See www.leadnet.org under Events. www.leadnet.org For information about churches serving their communities in creative ways. Click on the Externally Focused Churches area for concept papers. www.Careteam.org The web site for Care Team Network, which helps churches in the Southeast United States develop ministries similar to Project Compassion.