Hillcrest Bruce Mission – Ashland Kentucky

Over Spring Break, I was able to go on an ICO trip to Ashland, Kentucky. We worked with three different Non-profit organizations, serving them and learning about their ministries. One of the coolest was Hillcrest Bruce Mission. They provide several goods and services to neighbors in the community – food, clothes, dental work, preschool, a library, GED education, and more. Mike is the current director. He is awesome. He lives by the rule of “love thy neighbor,” and he trusts God to provide for him as he does this. Instead of worrying about where the money is going to come from or who will donate goods, he trusts in God’s provision of those things. He creates a budget every year not knowing where most of the money will come from and he has many stories to bolster his faith that it will come.

Another particularly redemptive aspect of HBM is its focus on restoring dignity to people who are often dehumanized. Instead of focusing on efficiency and getting people in and out the door, Mike welcomes people in to sit and talk. He has them pick out their own groceries. He gives freedom and options to people who are usually enslaved to poverty. He only keeps nice clothes and donates the stained junk to be turned into rags.

Mike told me that poverty is a cultural thing. One of the most helpful things we can do to help those in poverty is to restore their dignity and show them what they can do and who they can be. Give freedom to the poor to do amazing things. This is the gospel. While we were sinners, Christ died for us – to free us from our bonds to slavery and have freedom in Christ.