- I'm Pastor Boone and I am
a pastor.
I'm also the founder of a nonprofit Oaks Village.
I was the founder of Oaks of Righteousness,
which is a church,
and we are a homeless shelter, we are a food pantry,
a clothes closet, a soup kitchen,
a free childcare center,
a free medical clinic, and a nonprofit grocery store.
I'm also a wife and a mother.
So I've been in ministry for some years.
And I got sent to Monroe
12 years ago, and I pastored a little small church.
And I was there for about three years,
but I really felt God was pressing me to stay in Monroe.
So my husband and I, we made the decision
to start our own church.
And when we started our own church,
we eventually, we went to go buy a building.
And the building, it had
had a warming shelter in it at one point.
So they were going to close the warming shelter.
And I showed up one day,
and there was a homeless man laying on the ground.
We were just going to look at the building.
And I was thinking, "Wow, I'm taking this man's home away.
I don't want to do that."
So we bought the building and we decided
to keep the warming shelter going.
And in that time, the first year we served 91 people
'cause they said it was just a few people.
But 91 is not a few people to me, that's a huge number.
And so since then, you know, our numbers have went up,
and we've served hundreds of people.
But during the time,
after we started the warming shelter,
my husband and I, we made the decision
to move into the warming shelter,
the homeless shelter, with the people,
to raise money so that we could eventually
buy a bigger shelter, a bigger church,
so that we could expand the homeless shelter.
Because we just could not deal with the fact
that there were people living out on the street.
So we moved into the homeless shelter.
We lived right there with the people for two years.
And then we bought another property.
And when we bought this other property,
we ended up going into the clothes closet,
the food pantry, we started a food pantry,
we did a lunch program.
We just started expanding to more stuff.
'Cause people would come into the shelter
with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
So we would get furniture, we would get clothes,
we would get whatever just to kind of help people
to get on their feet.
And then we noticed that childcare was a huge issue.
So that's what made us want
to start the free childcare center.
There is no one road that leads to homelessness.
So people are there for so many different reasons.
And so, it's a humbling experience,
but it's also an experience where you realize
that these are people just like you.
And we're all really just a few paychecks
away from being in the same predicament.
And we have expanded our shelter.
So it's not just a warming shelter,
it's a year round, 75 bed shelter
where we, you know, house sometimes up to 500 people a year.
And so we do write for grants,
but I'm also an unpaid pastor.
So anything that I would make,
I just put back in the ministry
because I believe in this.
And I just want to see people reach
their best life.
People to be happy, to be whole,
and to see people off the street.
And this community, we have so many volunteers.
It is absolutely amazing.
I have volunteer nurses, volunteer doctors,
teachers, cooks.
I mean, people who are retired,
who've had extensive careers.
People who are still working,
who come and just volunteer hours.
It has been amazing what this community has done.
I love Monroe, and the people in this town
have really stepped up.
And I think if every town and every group everywhere,
people in every community would do this,
we could solve so many problems.
And that's really just it.
Just loving people as you love yourself.
And just letting people know that they matter.
And they're important.