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Hope Reborn: Man wants $50,000 to begin ministry of rebuilding lives
AP Photo
Gene Boswell visits the house in Burlington that he hopes will become the center for his ministry.
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Published: December 1, 2008
BURLINGTON
Gene "Bones" Boswell knows that it won't be easy to raise $50,000 for his ministry.
But even though that amount is just a starting point for the effort to create a home for men who want to overcome drug and alcohol abuse, he's not discouraged.
It's easier to understand Boswell's confidence when you know the story behind his vision.
Along with his wife, Brenda, Boswell founded Lost Souls Ministry in 2005. Its goal is to help people who are often overlooked by society and the church.
Boswell describes the people who he works with as street people, the homeless and "low-income to no-income people."
The Boswells live near a house on the 900 block of Harris Street in Burlington that was damaged by a fire. Boswell became concerned that the vacant house, besides being an eyesore, was being used for prostitution and possibly as a hangout for gang members. He asked the city to condemn the structure and also boarded the doors and cut back bushes that had hidden what was going on inside.
Then Boswell discovered a new purpose for it. He said he sensed that God wanted him to ask its owner to donate the property to Lost Souls Ministry.
If you think that sounds dubious, you're not alone.
"I was skeptical," Boswell admitted.
But he tracked down the house's owner, who lives in Columbia, S.C. He wrote asking her to give the house to the ministry, and she agreed. Besides the house and the land that it sits on, the property includes a side lot.
The property changed hands earlier this month.
Boswell plans to call the house "Lazarus House."
The name is based on the Biblical account of a man who died and was brought back to life by Christ soon before his own death and resurrection. Boswell said that the goal is to restore the lives of men who have been overwhelmed by addiction problems.
Boswell, who became a Christian in 2003, talks openly about his own history of addiction. And as he walks through the house, he talks about how different rooms could be used to provide structure for the men's lives. He even envisions a vegetable garden in the yard.
Besides dealing with fire and smoke damage, there's a lot of other work to be done to make the house livable.
Boswell knows he is stepping outside his area of expertise. But he also knows he needs to start making some improvements to the property in order for the city to allow the house to stand.
The initial goal of $50,000, he said, "will get us started on what we need to do."
Besides helping people, he said, the house would be an investment in the community. Every man who comes through the program would be one less person in trouble with the law or in jail.
Eddie Boswell, who is Gene Boswell's cousin, is a building contractor who was elected in November to the Alamance County Board of Commissioners. He and his wife, Gail, have helped Lost Souls Ministry with an outreach that has attracted mostly young people at public-housing complexes.
Boswell has walked through the house and said that although it needs cosmetic work, it seems structurally sound. He said that will be easier to determine once it is cleaned out.
"The foundation is in good shape," he said.
Boswell said there are no cracks in the brickwork, which he called unusual for a house that age. The house was built in the 1920s.
Even before recent economic difficulties, Boswell said, many ministries were struggling to bring in what they need to help people.
On fliers he is distributing to raise money for the Lazarus House, he refers to the old saying that the way to eat an elephant is "one bite at a time." The fliers say that "$1 will help eat the elephant."
In other words, no donation is too small to help. But Bos-well, who dreams big, knows that there are also wealthy people who can write a check for many thousands of dollars, and he hopes one or more of them will decide to do that.
The house itself is evidence to justify that kind of faith.
"In this recession, houses don't drop from the sky," he said. "Only from God."
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