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Market Street Mission: 120 Years of Service

James 1:12 – Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

“Life was dark, ugly, and miserable,” Stacey remembers. For most of his life, he was a solid citizen and a family man.  Sadly, he had fallen in with the wrong group of “friends,” trying to fill a void he felt in his life, and they introduced him to heroin.  His addiction grew until he needed it every day, and felt sick if he stopped.

“I love you,” Stacey’s wife told him, “but I hate what you’re doing.”  His self-esteem started to plummet.  “I felt low because I couldn’t do what a ‘real man’ could do, like provide for my kids,” he says, and he used more heroin to cover up his shame.

Stacey didn’t want to put his family through that, so he started looking for help.  To his surprise, the programs he contacted said he “wasn’t bad enough!”  “What do I have to do?” he wondered.  “Almost kill myself to get attention?  The people I reached out to wouldn’t even reach a hand back!”

Then in 2003 Stacey found the Market Street Mission (the Mission).  Even though his first day at the Mission was six years ago, “I’ll never forget that day as long as I live,” he says.  “As soon as I walked through the door I felt peace.  I heard something in me say this is where I need to be for a while.  I wanted to really, really change my life.”

It wasn’t always easy. He had never lived with a large group of men before, and he missed his family.  “I stayed because I had to do it for myself.  Sometimes you have to have that inner strength to be an effective man, a husband and a father.  I had to keep playing that in my head.”  His classes were an eye-opener.  Relapse prevention and the effects of substance abuse on the brain made him see his addiction in a whole new light.  Anger management helped him get to the root of the void inside him.

“I kept a lot of stuff in,” he explains.  “It was like a closed door that would never be opened.”  Learning to open up and share released his anger... and let God back in.

Stacey graduated back in 2004 as vice president of his class.  He found a steady job, and has the support of his family, a new church, and his coworkers.  He still lives in the “old neighborhood,” surrounded by temptations to use drugs again, but he keeps a close relationship with God and won’t let drugs be a part of his life anymore.  Instead, he comes back to the Mission as a volunteer.  “I never want to lose sight of where I came from,” he says.

Stacey is a living witness of the impact that the Market Street Mission has been making on the lives of families in the community.  

The Market Street Mission has been a fabric of the Morristown community for more than 120 years.  The building was more or less the same as it had been when it was built.  Electrical wiring still ran through the old pipe system from the days it was lit by gas!  Five employees kept the Mission going, tending to the needs of up to 50 men each night.  Through renovations, expansions, and new ideas, God has really grown this ministry since then.  Today, as they celebrate their 120th anniversary, 35 employees use their gifts to help design and implement the most effective, life-transforming programs.  As the Mission still stands on its original property in Morristown, it continues to endeavor to help those needing assistance through different programs including Emergency Services and Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation and Recovery.

Through their Emergency Services Program, the Mission seeks to meet the critical needs of the homeless and poor.  They provide thousands of meals to men, women and children on-site every year.  At night, the Mission operates an emergency shelter that provides homeless men a place to stay.  More than 90 men can sleep here in safety every night – and they continue to provide support for a growing number of women and families in the community. 

Their Rehabilitation & Recovery Residential Program spans 6 to 9 months and graduates as many as 60 men each year.  While enrolled in the program, residents participate in weekly individual and group counseling sessions, various types of classroom instruction, computer directed education, daily work therapy, daily chapel services and weekly Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous meetings (AA and NA).  In addition to these standard requirements, residents are encouraged to pursue their GED (High School Equivalency), acquire computer skills through specialized courses and prepare for the work world by developing strong interview and work skills. 

The Mission also serves as a host site as well as a distribution center for Angel Food Ministries, a grocery relief program for families struggling financially.  Morristown Town Hall parking lot is cold and dark at 5 a.m., but that doesn’t deter the group of volunteers gathered around the 53-foot semi trailer full of food that will have to be unloaded and sorted for distribution.  With unemployment high and the economy rough, hundreds of families in Northern New Jersey can’t afford to put food on the table consistently.  They provide Northern NJ host sites with more than 800 boxes of food each month to feed needy families.  One grateful recipient, 83-year-old Joseph, said of the Mission, “I’m by myself since my wife passed away, and my daughter-in-law that’s not working right now can’t afford food.  Angel Food is good if you’re on a budget.  If you eat, you qualify.  Market Street Mission is helpful to all people.” 

The Market Street Mission relies on the generosity of the community for all their programs and offers thanks to their many friends who give so much each year.  The Market Street Mission stands as a testimony of faithfulness; God’s faithfulness, the faithfulness of our founders, employees, volunteers, donors, and everyone else who believes in this ministry, and the faithfulness of graduates who have gone out into the community as witnesses of true life change.

While ministering to everyone’s physical wants, Market Street Mission can address their deepest need, Jesus Christ.  By God’s grace, they live their testimonies in such a way that people ask them, “Why are you like this?” (1 Peter 3:15)

To learn more about the Market Street Mission visit their website at www.marketstreet.org. If you would like more information please call Phil Parsels at (973) 538-0469.

Special thanks to Phil Parsels