T.J., a fifth-grader, arrived in tears one day at the Life Bridge Inner-City Kids Club in Savannah, Georgia.
“Somebody had taken his cell phone,” says Sandy Weimer, a ministry volunteer. “I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to pray about this.’”
The next day, T.J. arrived at church with a smile and his cell phone. A girl had returned it to him.
“So his belief now is that God answers prayer,” Weimer says.
The kids club is one of several organized by Life Bridge and its affiliated church, First Assembly of God, to meet the needs of people in inner-city Savannah, says Jonathan Brown, the pastor of the 30-member congregation and an Assemblies of God U.S. missionary.
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The Rev. Jack Moon started Life Bridge in 1993 and, a year later, recruited Brown’s sister-in-law, a recent Bible school graduate, to run a sidewalk Sunday school at a housing project, Brown says.
“In 1996, my wife and I came and worked with her for about six months before she turned the ministry over to us,” Brown says.
Brown, who later became the pastor, oversees Life Bridge, which has a soup kitchen that serves lunch to 40 homeless individuals every Monday. The church also gives away groceries and clothing to needy families, provides free meals to children living at a nearby housing project and holds Bible classes for children, teens and adults.
Since 2012, however, Life Bridge has been without a home after their building’s owner sold the property. Life Bridge had to move, but several area churches and ministries, including Weimer’s church, Radiant Life Church, began providing Life Bridge space in their buildings. Despite the challenges, says Brown, Life Bridge continues to serve the community.
“[The Lord] has proven himself faithful over the years to see that these ministries are provided for.”
