Taking It To The Streets/Warming Station Share Thanksgiving & Christmas Blessings
By DANIELLE REID
Patriot Publishing
It is amazing what God can accomplish when he has people willing to pray, listen and then take action. Taking It To The Streets and The Warming Station ministries are examples of how Christian people, responding to a divine inspiration, can change the lives of those living around them – in this case, the homeless and lower income families of Pulaski County.
According to Pastor Charlie Barbettini, Taking It To The Streets is an outreach ministry with functions that are designed to bless the community. The ministry is comprised of caring people, mostly from other churches, who see the needs and come together as an extra extenion of their own church.
Using the scripture from Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature,” their mission is to spread the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ to all of those they encounter.
“We desire to be used by the Lord to become a light of hope to the world around us,” said Barbettini. “The team strives to take the services outside of the traditional church setting in order to reach those that may never attend a church service. We want the world to know Jesus Christ and His power to minister to every need they may have. There are people everywhere struggling with addictions, illnesses, financial issues and many more problems. We invite you to come share in a time of fellowship, worship, and prayer with us. Let God heal the broken places in your life.”
“The Street Ministry Team is just that: A TEAM! Any Christian that has the desire to take the Gospel to the streets is encouraged to help us,” added Barbettini.
Located at 235 North Jefferson Avenue in downtown Pulaski, the 501-c-3 ministry runs on faith and compassion. It is a part of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church Appalachian Conference.
“If God says to do it, we’re going to do it. It might sound crazy to other people, but we’re committed to following God. All God wants is for us to say ‘Yes’ and He will do the rest,” added Barbettini.
Among the ministry’s many efforts are: Bus Ministry, Crusades, Disaster Relief, Concerts, Back to School Supplies, Surplus Food, 3rd Saturday Free Meal and Clothing distribution, Prison Ministry, Warming Station, the Big Christmas Celebration and the recently held Free Thanksgiving Meal.
The inspiration for the Free Thankgiving Meal came to Pastor Barbettini during a vision.
“I saw a table spread out with big beautiful golden-colored turkeys and all the trimmings,” said Barbettini. “That was 15 years ago, when it started out – and this year we served over 1,110 meals in combination of both sit down and take-out.”
This is a full-course Thanksgiving dinner including 46 deep fried turkeys, two turkey breasts and one ham, plus all the trimmings of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and for desert Little Debbie cakes.
Of course, it takes an army of dedicated volunteers to provide these services and Barbettini can’t say enough about the wonderful people who make it happen.
“It takes at least 70 volunteers to do the work of planning, prepping, cooking and serving the Thanksgiving meals. With only a few core members, we don’t have that many people to do all the work, so these wonderful volunteers give up their Saturday to help. God brings them in and we get donations and it all comes together,” explained Barbettini. This year, they had enough volunteers to deliver the meals door-to-door.”
Without the commercial kitchen, Taking It To The Streets wouldn’t be able to serve the once-a-month meals or the Thanksgiving meal. He said that nearing the end of the completion of the building and very close to opening, they were told that they needed a commercial kitchen in order to serve food to people.
“In prayer I told God, ‘there are people in Pulaski County who could write a $10,000 check and wouldn’t miss it,’” Barbettini said. Without contacting anyone, Barbettini said he went to bed and left his phone turned on. During the night, an alert came on. Someone had donated the money by PayPal. “I got out of bed. I shouted. I prayed and thanked God. I was so excited, I couldn’t go back to sleep!” he said.
The spacious commercial kitchen has a six-burner gas stove, a grill, a three-compartment sink, food warmer and a drink cooler – everything needed to serve hungry people.
Barbettini says that during prayer, the Lord inspired him to provide a warming station to help homeless people. In preparation of knowing how to proceed, he accompanied people who were doing services where the homeless were staying.
“Not all homeless people want to be known and you’ve got to earn their trust. We just knew God wanted us to care for homeless people.”
Barbettini heard about someone who was doing a warming station in Tennessee so he contacted them for information and valuable knowledge; then incorporated it into their vision. He took the plan to his Taking It To The Streets board and told them he wanted to do a warming station.
“The board wondered where the money would come from for the Warming Station, but felt if God was calling us to do it, He would supply it. And donations started coming in.”
In addition to feeding hungry peoples’ physical bodies, Taking It To The Streets feeds their souls. They have been holding concerts and crusades since 2010 with speakers and preachers coming from the local community, adjacent states as well as those from as far away as California.
Typically, the weekend before and after a monthly meal, they have speakers from the community. Eight pastors from local churches have participated in street preaching here, and additionally they have held services in West Virginia and North Carolina.
The ministry has held 30-day tent crusades, and also shorter crusades in Draper Valley, the NRV Fairgrounds and Claytor Lake. At Claytor Lake, they were playing music and singing before the speaker started preaching. Barbettini said “There were people fishing in the lake who heard the music. They approached us and asked if we knew where they could find a good church. We ministered to them and a couple of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior right there at the lake.”
They also have responded to the flood victims of Hurricane Helene, starting locally and then expanding to Tennesee, Black Mountain and Asheville, North Carolina. “We were able to take four 6,500-watt generators and heaters along with clothing, household supplies, etc.” Barbettini says they will return to those areas to hold Christmas for Kids.
The local Big Christmas Celebration – Christmas for Kids – will be held at the Taking It To The Streets North Jefferson location on Saturday, December 21st from 3 to 5 pm. Again, this takes many volunteers to fund raise (local churches help with gifts and volunteers), purchase, wrap and distribute the gifts to Pulaski County resident children ages infant to 16-years of age.
“The nursing staff from LewisGale Hospital Pualski volunteer to wrap the gifts and conduct winter clothing drives for men, women, boys and girls for distribution during the monthly meal,” said Barbettini.
Parents can register their resident Pulaski County children for the Christmas for Kids celebration at the following locations: Emmanuel Bookstore, the Patriot newspaper, Cougar Express or call the ministry at 276.620.4293. For more information visit Streets4God.com
Barbettini says he loves ministering to the homeless community in Pulaski County.
“I ask God often to let me stay in the street ministry because I love them so much. I love the homeless people. If I was invited to the White House and could take a guest, I’d take a homeless person.”
