Christian HELP – Gets the Job Done!
by Rob Swanson

      For a guy who often says “we didn’t know what we were doing,” he’s amazingly successful.
      Dick Wilson is the founder of Christian HELP (Hope Encouragement Love Prayer). “My wife came up with the name,” he says. It’s an accurate description of this award-winning ministry. Known today as the preeminent faith-based job placement ministry, with additional services such as a food pantry, and Christmas gift programs, Christian HELP’s beginnings were, like Dick himself, humble.

      “Back in 1992, we felt God spoke to my wife and me separately and told us to start a ministry. So we sold our business, canceled our lease and said, ‘OK, God, here we are!’ and… nothing!” They tried serving their church, but when Ray Baake said, “When you want to reach the lost, you’ve got to get out of the church!” they took his advice. Dick, his wife Madge, and Harry Kunisch rented a building and Christian HELP was born.
      They just had to figure out what to do.

      “Christian HELP was set up to prevent homelessness,” Dick says. “We didn’t know what we were doing, but it seemed to us that employment was the best prevention. And food is also good, so we would provide that. After a year, though, with no money coming in, we had to rethink. So we got a grant to fix up houses. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but it helped us pay three staff and we learned both how to fix homes and to raise money…and people trickled in. But it still wasn’t a big deal. Then a friend who works at Shoney’s said, ‘why don’t you hold an Employment Seminar at Shoney’s and we’ll give you 10% of all the food we sell that night, and maybe you can get better known out there.’”

      It was such a good idea that Channel 9 covered it on the news. Then Channel 2 did a success story on a plumber Dick had helped place. Dick laughs, “They’ve never covered anything else we’ve done, so that must have been God! And we got better known...”

      Soon they were the Job Fair experts, founding the Central Florida Employment Council in 1994. With over 800 employers involved in the organization, the government took notice. The CFEC handles job fairs for the President, the Governor, and both Mayors. This year, 7,634 people found jobs through CFEC, doing more than their fair share of dropping the already low employment rates. Dick likes to quote Bud Hedinger, “When it’s you, unemployment is 100%!”

      Another favorite quote of Dick’s is, “God likes to use incompetent people so all the credit goes to Him.” While Dick is understating his contribution, God is very obviously involved. In 15 years, Christian HELP has connected 48,126 with jobs; given away 5,137,792 pounds of food; contributed $12,815,781 in services, and saved taxpayers over 114 MILLION dollars!

      Contributions are always welcome, and volunteers are constantly needed. You can take part in their Christmas-For-Everyone program and adopt a family. Or bring your business into the picture, like QDOBA Mexican Restaurant, who will contribute 10% of all food sold on November 16th (so fill your stomachs AND someone else’s by stopping by!) Need a job? Surf your way to the leading Central Florida employment site at www.cfec.org.

      Whether you need help or can give help, check into Christian HELP. They don’t really know what they’re doing, but just between you and me? They really do.