THE GOSPEL COALITION| March 12, 2018 | Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
Read the whole article:
These Christians Won’t Stop Serving
Excerpt from article:
Randy Odom, who heads Memphis Athletic Ministries (MAM), says the same thing.
“I’ve been here since 1992, and the poverty has been constant,” he said. “When Martin Luther King Jr. got assassinated, it was a turning point. . . . How would you feel, if the person who came along to bring freedom, to bring hope, was killed in your city?”
MAM is one of Memphis’s largest ministries, serving 700 children a day with a structured literacy program, homework help, team sports, and daily devotionals.
“I’ve got 45 full-time people, 50 part-time support staff who are totally committed to the mission, and 20 years of ministry,” Odom said. He knows he’s making a difference, but like Bibbs, it doesn’t feel like enough.
“I have 200 kids in the gym at the Olivet Fellowship Center,” he said. “But there are another 800 at the school down the road.”
Individual stories—not widespread change—keep him going.
“I’ve got eight to nine staff working for us that were from the community,” Odom said. “That’s what keeps you going—God calling you here, but also you see the fruit of some victories. And so you keep plugging along.”
