It’s a sunny Saturday morning, and The Broken Bus Ministry is ready to roll.
The white retrofitted mobile outreach vehicle sits, its engine idling, in a parking lot outside the ministry’s Fairfield facility. The small bus is stuffed with meals, blankets, coats, shirts, pants, socks, shoes, boots, toiletries, bibles and prayer books, among other necessities. Some items are donated; the ministry has purchased others with monetary contributions.
The Bible is about to come to life for those experiencing homelessness on the streets of downtown Cincinnati.
A handful of volunteers climbs aboard the bus. As the bus takes off down the highway, the ministry cofounder, Michele Bailes of Liberty Township, posts a heartfelt thank you on the group’s Facebook page and updates donors and other supporters on the day’s plans.
“Don’t let the sun fool you!” Bailes writes. “It’s cold, windy and damp outside. But volunteers are already heading downtown to provide a hot meal and make sure everyone is warm and dry. The bus is overfilled with your blessings! It looks like one big mess (which it is!) but trust me when I tell you, that mess is nothing but a whole bunch of love! Thank you! Please pray for those outside.”
Those Outside
Bailes and the other Broken Bus Ministry volunteers come to know the individuals they serve by name. Dave. Arthur. Melvin. James. Chris. Ross. Curtis. Friendships form. Bailes emphasizes that as appreciated and life-sustaining as the donated items are, they run secondary to the heart-and-soul nourishment that human relationships provide.
“That’s what people experiencing homelessness crave,” Bailes says. “An appropriate hug or touch on the shoulder or an encouraging pat on the back are way more important than the items we hand out. It’s such a real friendship. Everyone is just themselves, natural and authentic. It’s a friendship based on nothing but our shared love of God.
“No one has a stronger faith in God than those who live on the streets,” Bailes adds. “We are brothers and sisters in Christ. If our friends downtown don’t know Christ, we show them the love of God before we talk about it. Empathy, compassion prayer — once they feel God’s love, we start to talk about it.”
The bus is the foundation of all the work God accomplishes through the 100% volunteer ministry, Bailes says. There are no paid staff, just people giving of their time to love others.
“We drive downtown primarily. We drive around and around to find and meet people wherever they are, physically and spiritually,” she says. “We pull over, open the back doors of the bus and serve from there. When we’re finished, we close up the bus, put it in drive, and head to the next person.”
This grassroots Christian organization, supported by members of the community, is also committed to encouraging people of all ages to serve others. Many student groups from area high schools and colleges such as Xavier University, ride the bus regularly to help. It is common for families to join us as well.
It can be as life-changing for the students as it is for the people they encounter. When three students from Mount Notre Dame offered a young man on the street food, he wanted to donate all he had: $3 in crumpled dollar bills.
“People with less give more,” says Claire Sitarski, one of the Mount Notre Dame students.
“We have a good core of volunteers, and we encourage new people to hop on The Broken Bus as much as possible,” Bailes says. “We want to plant the seeds of servant ministry. We want to get people on the front lines, serving others face-to-face and breaking down stereotypes. We want to educate volunteers about the human nature of those experiencing homelessness. We want volunteers to learn the names of the people they are serving, share a laugh, and hear their stories.”
The bus can accommodate up to five volunteers, ages 12 and older. The ministry serves up to 40 people or more during each weekly three-hour trip. At every trip’s conclusion, volunteers sign their names on the bus’s ceiling and write heartening messages.
Answering a Calling
Bailes, a senior teaching professor at Xavier University, says that she and her husband, Greg, a police officer, felt called to start this mobile outreach ministry in 2012 after doing service work with their church. They initially served food from the back of their family vehicle with their daughter, Jordan, and son, Justin. That’s when Michele Bailes realized that individuals experiencing homelessness need so much more than what they could provide out of their car. Soon after, they began searching for a way to be able to provide more help on the spot.
That’s when the couple heard that a woefully weathered secondhand mobile service vehicle was available for sale. It required major cosmetic repairs, but the engine was still good. The asking price was $1,500.
“We didn’t have that at the time,” Bailes recalls. “We had no plan, no idea where we’d put that bus. In our driveway? But we looked at it and decided it was perfect. It was broken, just as Jesus likes to use us to serve others — when we are broken or a mess. He doesn’t care what we look like on the outside.”
Bailes’s husband bought the bus and surprised her with the keys on her birthday. With the help of friends and supporters, the bus was repaired and ready to serve.
“I believe God uses broken people to love broken people,” Bailes says. “The Broken Bus may no longer look broken on the outside, but those of us inside the bus — we are nothing special. We’re just a bunch of God-loving people that have been called to be the hands and feet of God.”
Want to learn more about how you can serve others through The Broken Bus Ministry? Visit thebrokenbusministry.org or stop by their Facebook page.