{"id":18773,"date":"2012-12-20T15:55:28","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T20:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=18773"},"modified":"2012-12-20T15:55:28","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T20:55:28","slug":"new-outreach-ministry-targets-young-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=18773","title":{"rendered":"New Outreach Ministry Targets Young People"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

From his experience as a football coach at Plant, Blake, Middleton, and Tampa Bay Vo-Tech High Schools, Horace Drew<\/strong> found himself drawn to young people. He also found himself acting as a father figure to a lot of the young men he coached.<\/p>\n

Because of his passion for helping kids, a month ago, Drew <\/strong>founded the \u201cRays Of Hope Community Outreach Ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI started giving away bicycles last year, and this year, I was able to provide bikes to the YET Center, Peace Progressive M. B. Church, Genesis, Abundant Life, Living Faith Church, Potter School, Edison School, and I\u2019m looking for others in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to continue the dream of Rev. Sam King<\/strong>, who passed away last year. His dream was to make sure our young people are successful, know about life, stay out of trouble, and know about God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew<\/strong> said his ministry is a year-round activity, not just something for the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe a ministry is supposed to reach out to kids all over, not just in one area. I want to reach them all over, no matter how far I have to travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also have a dream of taking a group of kids to the MLK Center so they will know more about their history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew<\/strong> said God has really changed his life, and he\u2019s concerned about the future of young people today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lost so many of our kids, and it\u2019s up to us to save them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have something special to deal with kids. The first thing is you have to listen to them. You also have to have patience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew<\/strong>, along with a group of volunteers, travel to the Salvation Army every other Saturday to feed the homeless, and always leaves them with a spiritual message.<\/p>\n

Drew<\/strong> said none of what he\u2019s been able to accomplish would have been possible without the help of his sponsors, Wilson\u2019s Funeral Home, Ray Williams Funeral Home, Gudes Funeral Home, Discount Cleaners on 22nd<\/sup> Street, Port-A-Pit Barbecue, Dr. Miles of Florida Orthopedic, H & H Security Agency, and Caspers Company (McDonalds).<\/p>\n

Horace Drew<\/strong> is a 1977 graduate of Hillsborough High School. After graduation, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he attended college and worked as an electrician.<\/p>\n

The father of four said the cold climate forced him to move back to Tampa, and he feels it was God\u2019s will that he return home.<\/p>\n

If you want to contact the ministry, you can e-mail them at\u00a0 HYPERLINK “mailto:raysofhopeoutreach@gmail.com” raysofhopeoutreach@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer From his experience as a football coach at Plant, Blake, Middleton, and Tampa Bay Vo-Tech High Schools, Horace Drew found himself drawn to young people. He also found himself acting as a father figure to a lot of the young men he coached. Because of his passion for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}