Homeless shelter beats the clock to raise tens of thousands

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Garden City Rescue Mission was under a tight deadline to raise funding.

The mission needed to raise roughly $80,000 by Friday or face the risk of shutting down.

But the mission says with prayer, they reached their goal of $495,000 on Thursday. By noon, the mission announced they raised more than $524,000.

The mission helps house people and provides resources to get them back on their feet. It rescues about 400 men from the streets yearly.

“We are not only going to be able to purchase the property, with the money still coming in, will be able to secure and expand the GCRM ministry to reach the homeless in our city in an even bigger way,” the mission said on Facebook.

The financial deadline was looming for a while. It’s a daunting task, but Executive Director Patrick Feistel’s faith is stronger than ever.

“We’re gonna stay right here,” said Feistel. “God’s always seen value in it and the value of what he’s done here and the souls and the lives of people that have come through. This is where God wants us to continue.”

It’s been a long couple of weeks for the rescue mission.

“A lot of these people that are here with us right now, they won’t survive on the streets,” said Feistel.

Thanks to the support of local churches, businesses, and strangers, the rescue mission is staying put.

“I can just say, praise God, praise God, praise God,” said Feistel. “God has not only met our goal, but now he’s starting to bring us into our dream and our vision for the ministry.”

Now that ownership of the property is secured, all eyes are on the future of the rescue mission.

“The vision of what’s gonna be next is now looking like that’s gonna be a possibility that God’s not just go

nna allow us to have this, but we get everything we need to make this ministry secure, safe, and sound for the future,” said Feistel.

The rescue mission has people from here and there reaching out to help.

“We’ve got $5 checks in the mail and every one of them was just as precious as the $50,000 checks that we got,” said Feistel.

It took a village to get to this point.

Pastor Don Stone with Lumpkin Road Baptist Church said: “Immediately, it was like, how can we help, what can we do?”

Pastor Brandon Lynch with Amazing Grace Baptist Church said: “That’s a tall, tall mountain to climb, that’s a lot of money to raise.”

With a lot of support and hope, the goal was reached.

“I just felt like the community was going to come together, it was no doubt,” said Stone.

“It just shows the impact that this place has in the community where so many folks have pitched in and helped out to meet the goal and exceed the goal and just continue to see great things done through this place,” said Lynch.

For more information, visit the Garden City Rescue Mission’s website.

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