Rescue Mission Executives Visit the Panhandle

By Sarah Blei - email

Rescue missions across North America donate around 50 million meals to those in need, a year.

Although providing meals to so many people is rewarding, running a rescue mission has some challenges.

Almost 60 Leaders from different rescue mission organizations, some from as far as Canada, gathered in Panama City Beach, to get the chance to have some face-to-face interaction with their peers.

John Ashman, President of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions(AGRM), says this is a great opportunity for organizations of different sizes, from different cultures, to come together.  

 "We're all dealing with the same issues, because we all live in a country that has a tipping point on a lot of these cultural issues," said Ashman. "So, we are trying to address them before they become devastating issues in our missions."

The AGRM is the oldest and largest faith-based charity network in the United States.

They provide food, shelter, clothing, and support to homeless or needy individuals.

Locally, the need for the help is growing everyday.

"We're all dealing with this all over the United States in an economy that is more driving people to homelessness that have never been homeless before," said Rev. Billy Fox, Executive Director of the Panama City Rescue Mission. "We had 70-80 people last month who had never been homeless before, who frequented our rescue mission."

Thursday's conference was only a small part of a longer 3-day conference.

Click here to watch the full TV interview.