Seeds of Hope

Life blooms for a homeless man touched by Glenda Hoffman’s street ministry

By Anne Ryder

In daylight, John’s Alley looks like any other alley. It’s narrow and dark with a concrete passage between buildings to the north, an enclosed parking lot to the east, and its namesake, St. John’s Catholic Church, on the south.

But when the sun begins to set, cardboard boxes and blankets appear. Shuffling men with tired bodies, slumped shoulders and worn out shoes start to gather, some hiding bottles of booze that help numb the pain and boredom of another night on the street – another night in John’s Alley.

“I’d always sleep with one eye open,” a tall, thin black man tells a congregation that had recently gathered at Center United Methodist Church.

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