A Heart for the Homeless

Mar 09, 2021

Celeste Savage has always had a heart for serving people. After facing a tough circumstance, her eyes were opened to how homelessness could have easily happened to her.

This season shaped her heart for the homeless.

In 2004, she felt God leading her to start a homeless ministry at her new mission-based church. She collaborated with her Pastor at Oakridge Baptist Church to form a feeding program called “Halo on the Streets”, or H.O.T.S. Soon after they realized the homeless needed more than food. They needed an outreached hand. So they developed and trialed a program called “Be Our Guest”. The homeless were invited into the church for a week and provided shelter, food, resources, and were ministered to.

This trial program provided the evidence that a program like this was essential to our community. The program needed to be bigger, involve more churches, more resources, and a much bigger space would be required as they were outgrowing the four walls of the church.

The true need of the homeless community was for someone to “Love ‘Em Like Jesus”.

Out of that need, three years later in 2007, Hope and Life Outreach, or HALO, was formed as a non-profit organization. Shortly after, God provided a building that allowed room for growth, both in numbers and services. “We prayed for a way to purchase the whole block, and God did it,” Celeste says.

One day, Celeste recognized a young lady with a baby that came into the facility for help. That young lady had been at the shelter years prior … as a child. History was being repeated into the next generation and it needed to stop. This was a wakeup call for Celeste and her team. HALO began work on developing ministries to open its doors to men and women as a respite and resource center, providing them not only food and shelter, but the tools to help them get off the streets, back into society, and end the repeating of the past.

HALO offers many ministry programs to aid the homeless including a cafe, shelter and respite services, life skill classes, health and wellness services, spiritual development, a children’s program, school tutoring, and more. 

The Journey of Hope program helps individuals attack the root cause of their homelessness and work towards restoring their lives. Along with food and shelter, this program includes foundational biblical teachings, job readiness, life skills, recovery, and financial, health, and wellness principles. A full blown graduation is included as a celebration!

The Bargain Center helps to support all the ministries HALO has. Open to the public, it offers new and gently used clothing, furniture, linens, books, electronics, and household goods at affordable prices. Every $2.10 spent supplies a meal for a homeless individual. Spending $25.00 provides a place to sleep, shower and a meal for a mother and child.

As a non-profit, HALO operates on in-kind and financial donations. “The community is amazing. We put the call out and they just step up to the plate,” says Celeste. Currently, their biggest need is toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and staple food such as coffee, sugar, and milk. 

They also need volunteers. Due to the pandemic, their volunteer roster dropped from 600 to 60. Being a 24/7/365 organization, the need never ceases so neither can the work. So far in 2021, HALO has hosted over 2,800 bed nights. Since 2007, they have provided assistance to 93,463 women and 40,235 men (based on bed nights).

Even in growth, HALO’s mission remains simple: “Love ‘em like Jesus” and provide resources to those in need to help rescue, transform, and restore their lives.

Celeste could have easily become homeless when she fell on hard times all those years ago. But God took her circumstance and made it a HALO for her. “But by the grace of God, go I,” she says. Thank you Celeste for answering the call of God on your life and being the hands and feet of Jesus in our community.

Want to volunteer or donate to HALO?

Visit their website (www.haloministry.org) to submit a volunteer request form or click the donate button to support this ministry financially. If you would like to donate tangible goods, call 410-742-9356 to inquire what items are needed.