Shower Ministry Brings Smiles
As Chris explains, as good as a shower might feel to someone after a day in the heat, the feeling of showering off weeks and even months of accumulated sweat, grime, filth, and accompanying odors can be summed up in one word: euphoric.
THE MINISTRY
The Padgetts, who lead Urban Outreach Ministry in Indianapolis, have been ministering to homeless people for 15 years and with U.S. Missions Gospel Outreach and AGUSM missionary Jay Covert for over four years. They also lead a small house church in Fisher, Indiana.
When the Padgetts first got into providing showers and Blessing Bags (gallon-sized, sealable plastic bags filled with hygiene items and non-perishable protein-based foods), they felt the Lord telling them their responsibility was to clean up physical bodies, and He would take care of cleaning people up spiritually.
Currently they have a two-shower trailer with a 125-gallon water tank (for when there’s no water hook-up) equipped with tankless water heaters.
“We can provide 25 10-minutes showers,” Chris says. “Or if there’s a water spigot available that we can hook up to, we can offer an unlimited number of showers.”
And there’ s much to be said about simply anticipating a shower, for as the Padgetts explain, as people wait with growing anticipation and even a sense of excitement for their turn to shower, walls start coming down and relationships begin — or continue — to form and become firm.
“I really, truly love getting out there and just ministering and serving these people that people just walk by every day,” Missy says. “People don’t see them (homeless people), and just to be able to see them and let them know somebody sees them, not just me, but God sees them, that they are worth something, and hopefully, someday, they’ll come to know Christ as their Savior.”
“They’re high-quality people,” Covert says of the Padgetts. “They’re just very humble — the homeless identify them as their pastors.”
Chris and Missy say that they share the gospel and offer to pray with everyone who comes to take a shower, with an estimated 90% willing to share a prayer request and be prayed for.
CHALLENGES
Chris shares that the homeless community in the Indianapolis area is very tight knit within each camp — though homeless camps can be territorial, with physical conflicts periodically erupting between camps. Those living in the camps are understandably tight-lipped about their personal lives, while perhaps not so secretive when it comes to expressing opinions about “outsiders.”
There are likely very few ministries with the types of challenges the Padgetts regularly face as they minister to those who are homeless. As they’ve learned, although there are some who are situationally homeless, it seems most are homeless by choice.
“Many see their lifestyle as freedom — they do what they want, when they want, and they don’t want anyone telling them what they should or should not do,” Missy says.
“There is a lot of demonic possession out here and a lot of mental illness, which go hand in hand with drug use,” Chris adds. “But just a shower and it’s amazing how God does things.”
Covert confirms that the areas the Padgetts bring their shower trailer into are “some pretty rough places,” adding that “through their ministry we have discovered another side to homelessness — those living in abandoned campers and living in shacks alongside the river.”
Missy, who works primarily with the women in the camps, says many of the women have co-dependency issues with “their man” as well as with drugs.
“It’s a community, it’s what they’re used to, and change is scary . . . if their man won’t leave, neither will they,” Missy explains. “They have to be around their man and a lot of them sell themselves to get drugs or their man is selling them to get drugs . . . it’s so heartbreaking.”
Missy says that many times they’ve offered homeless individuals struggling with drugs the opportunity to attend an Adult & Teen Challenge center where food and shelter were never in question, their safety assured, and the opportunity to break free from drugs and have a relationship with Christ was a part of the daily journey.
“The ones we’ve talked to so far don’t want to give up what little they have, don’t want to get clean, or don’t want to step away from the lifestyle they have right now,” Missy says. “They don’t want to leave everything they know and who they know behind.”
MAKING AN IMPACT
For Chris and Missy, they realize that much of what they are doing is planting gospels seeds. In fact, Chris says recently they helped four men begin their escape from the homeless cycle — coming to the shower trailer to shower intentionally before attending job interviews, with each of the men ultimately being hired.
“As we sit with those waiting to take showers, we spend a lot of time simply listening to their stories, which helps form bonds and relationships,” Chris says. “Those who are homeless have bad things happen to them or the people they care about, so we take time to pray through with them and love on them.”
Yet, perhaps nothing is more telling of the inroads the Padgetts’ ministry makes than a recent encounter with a tight-lipped homeless woman.
“This lady was very sullen and standoffish before she entered the shower trailer,” Missy recalls. “She took the stuff we had, but she wouldn’t talk to us. But after she took her shower, she came out with this huge smile and we got to talk. But then, we had to go to another location for a couple weeks. When we came back, she came to us and asked, ‘Where did you guys go? I thought someone messed with you, and I was about to beat someone up because no one messes with my shower friends.’”
From mistrusted outsider to a friend she would fight for — again, God working in an unconventional way to see the lost makes steps toward Him.
“They’ve built a good ministry to the addicted, afflicted, and hopeless,” Covert observes, “and are creating strong bonds with the rough and hurting.”
FUTURE
Chris, who is looking to acquire a second shower trailer, says that this type of ministry is needed and would be effective throughout the state of Indiana and wherever there is a larger homeless population.
He’s also communicating with district and church leaders to encourage the creation of shower ministries in other sections of the state. And within the last few days, he reports, he received a note from a pastor wanting to get involved in the ministry, with other churches also expressing a real interest as they’ve learned more.
But much like working with any marginalized — even if it is by self-choice — community of people, ministering to the homeless people takes time and commitment.
“You have to build rapport,” Chris says. “But it blows their minds when we remember their names and what issue they asked us to pray with them about. ‘You remember me? You remembered what you prayed for me?’ I’ve seen tears come to their eyes as they can hardly believe it — to so much of the world they’re invisible.”
“Maybe I won’t get to see a great harvest as hundreds of homeless come to know Christ as their Savior,” Missy says, “but whatever the case, we’ll continue to plant seeds in faith that many will come in their lifetime to know the saving love of our Jesus.”
To learn more about the Padgetts and Urban Outreach Ministry, click here.
