What T.O.P.S. Really Is

After talking to several people and taking our own little survey about our efforts of people's voting rights. Several of you informed me that some of those against it are not aware that this is our ministry, and we've been doing this since we started 7 years ago. Also that some have even went against those of us here who live in the Wiregrass who should've been supported. ( All Republicans don't agree ). Because our ministry is outreach oriented and we would dare be like others and use our clergical status for political gain here's a small synopsis of:



THE ORDINARY PEOPLE SOCIETY ( T.O.P.S. )


People must realize that every part of T.O.P.S. is ministry. There is a bad misconception that the ex-felon voting rights is for people who are criminals and not for the safety of victims, but it's exactly the opposite.
T.O.P.S. mission is to help those who have gotten on the wrong track in life by any and all circumstances that lead to an unproductive life.
Momma Tina's Mission House feeds the hungry and homeless who have no where to live or eat; on the surface, but there's a deeper meaning to this feeding: when you feed a person who's hungry or high on drugs, you diminish crime being committed by that hungry person. It says in the Bible do not fault a man if he steals cause he's hungry.
You see a person who's high when they eat, it curbs the high and causes them to come down off of the high, and usually they will result to sleeping or at least calming down enough to be ministered to and reasoned with. This starts the process of restoring a person's life. A mere introduction to a different way. Seeing someone who accepts them and that's willing to work with them even in their most despondant way.
Some of the most remarking things you could ever do to help a person get on the right path is to accept them just the way they are. For some it may be one of the first encounters of love and God that they've ever known.
Then there's the restoring of voting rights or should I say restoring of people's lives. Because alot of people don't know that when a person lose their voting rights there's a whole lot more that goes along with that. They cannot get public assistance, public housing, student loans ( to better educate themselves and do better ), business license, and not to mention a job, apartment, or house because of a felony conviction.
But when a person get their rights back there's a mental change that comes about. The Bible says that there must come a renewing of the mind and that's what happens when rights are restored ( Rom. 12: 1-3 ). A person who have never been a citizen or have been considered less than a citizen, now has a chance to be classified as, called a citizen, act like a citizen, and eventually becomes a productive citizen.
This too causes a person to relinquish acts of crime and consider themselves a part of society instead of an alien to society. So crime diminishes as well. In Galatians 6: 1 It says when a brother is taken away in a fault, we that are spiritual should restore such a one. Isaiah 61: 1 Feed the hungry, heal the broken hearted and set the captives free, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound. So we do this at T.O.P.S. by Rev. 12: 11 which says and they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. We go into the prisons to set the captives free and give our testimony IT'S OUR MINISTRY! and I'm so glad that all of you in this area ( theWIREGRASS) know that and understand it!
The Drug War became a war on people and we spend more on incarceration than on treatment. So therefore we spend more to produce criminals than citizens!
Then T.O.P.S. does intervention and prevention with youth, and help the elderly, closing the generation gap, and allowing society to come together and close the divide. Especially in poor and poverty stricken neighborhoods.
To sum all of this up, every act of T.O.P.S. is MINISTRY and HARM REDUCTION!!!

Everytime we interact with the children and have an event it curbs the influence of the life they see on the streets. It causes their senses to get intrigued of this difference they see in the neighborhood that has forgotten it's neighbor and just become the HOOD!
Because it has been said by a young Doctor that these young people suffer from the same thing a soldier suffers from when he's at war, and that is post traumatic stress. So it's so much for them to see unity across racial, generational, and geographical divides even in communities and neighborhoods in small cities.
So we have our M&M Program which is monitoring and mentoring!
Whenever others come to this poverty stricken area that they normally would have never come to if there wasn't a T.O.P.S. ( Momma Tina's ). That provides a safe place for them to come and minister to those who may be considered less fortunate materially,but yet it brings together those who have had a greater divide. It brings all of us together on a mission from God and gives us an opportunity to be vessels for God. And even though some of us may think that we're feeding people to be a blessing, we may be getting a blessing by doing what God has truly asked us to do, and being ministered to while we're there.
So it takes us to the realization that T.O.P.S. is definitely for the victim first and doing this ministry to cause HARM REDUCTION in all aspects.
So therefore when Evergreen Pres. Church comes to feed in this area and those who donate, contribute and participate in our endeavors at T.O.P.S. to do what God has told us to do REMEMBER THE VICTIM COMES FIRST!!!
If WE HELP RESTORE PEOPLE LIVES IT DIMINISHES,CRIME, BROKEN FAMILIES,
HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES, AND RESTORES OUR COMMUNITIES, CITIES, STATES, AND NATION.
In order for someone to come into our program they must first acknowledge and make ammends to their victims. Alot of people think that if a person hasn't committed a violent crime then there's no victim, but what about the mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, and significant other.? we all have victims who we've hurt in the past, have we made ammends?
Have we truly looked at ourselves and been all that we can be to everyone we can be?
Have we truly given to those in need by doing what Matthew 25: 33-46 says!
Have we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, took in strangers, visited the sick and in prison?
When we do this, then and only then will WE NO LONGER SEE OF NEIGHBOR AS OUR NEIGHBOR, BUT WE'LL SEE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES, AND BE JUST ORDINARY PEOPLE, DOING EXTRAORDINARY THINGS, BY THE POWER AND SPIRIT OF GOD,
NO WILL OF OUR OWN, ALL GLORY BELONGS TO HIM