Behind the Renovations at Rust Street Ministries

Rust Street Ministries, a community outreach program, will soon open their doors to their renovated building.

In August, Rust Street Director Bob Knox hopes that renovations in the warehouses at the corner of E. Highland Blvd. and Rust Street will be complete. These renovations began last August.

Features in this remodeled building will include changing rooms, a play area, a waiting area, several interview rooms, bathrooms, a new entrance, a break room, a soup kitchen, and a church. Some of the additions may not seem too major, but Knox stressed the importance of the respect and comfort of the “neighbors” that visit Rust Street.

“Why do we have changing rooms?” Knox said. “All your nice department stores do. What we want to do is treat our neighbors like they would be treated at the nicest stores in town. Respect and dignity. They go in and they come out here on the sales floor, find something that they like, go in there and change, try it on, see if they’d like it. Because that’s what they would do in a department store.”

Home Improvement

Rust Street focuses on providing the needy with food, clothes and other necessities. Each family that comes to Rust Street is interviewed by the volunteers to access their needs. Volunteers are also sure to help and attend to all of their spiritual and emotional needs, to include participating in Christian prayers with each client.

“For once, here at Rust Street, we’ll have interview rooms where they’ll actually have privacy,” Knox said. “We’ve never had that before. What is this? More respect and dignity. I don’t want to ask for help. Some of our neighbors don’t either. Sometimes they’ve just lost a job and they’ve never had to do this before.”

Although Rust Street’s main goal is to help the needy in the community, Knox wishes for volunteers to feel valued and comfortable as well. The break room for volunteers in the remodeled building will be complete with a miniature refrigerator and a coffee bar.

“I think, because of this break room, we’ll be able to attract more volunteers then we’ve ever had before,” Knox said. “Because why? We’re trying to treat them just like we’re trying to treat our neighbors. Help them with their needs.”

As parents are selecting and trying on clothes, they will be able to make use of the new play area. The wall of the small area will be outfitted with Plexiglas so parents can monitor their children at all times. As Knox says, “[the children’s] safety is important to us because those children are important to them.”

According to Knox, Rust Street used to have one restroom for 135 volunteers, as well as two-full time and two-part time staff members. The renovated building will include both a men’s and a lady’s restroom.

Community Church

Rust Street is not only renovating in order to suit the community’s physical needs, but to their spiritual needs as well. Young Life, a Christian ministry, will build an auditorium inside Rust Street in order to provide the community with a place to worship.

“Young Life comes in here and they’re going to build an auditorium,” Knox said. “Sound system, video flat screen televisions, stage, everything. Guess what? We will get to use it.”

In the same space, a soup kitchen will be operating throughout the day. Knox said he had a slightly different plan for the worship center, but “God seems to have other plans.”

“So many buildings are built for religious purposes and they’re only used a few hours a week,” Knox said. “God gave us this building, then let’s find a way to use it 24 hours a day, seven days a week if at all possible. Wear it out trying to help people.”

According to Knox, Young Life ministers to young people, particularly young mothers without a support system. Young Life first teaches an individual about Jesus, then invites them to the church service. That’s where this auditorium comes in.

Rust Street will discuss the auditorium with the community in order to get an idea of what a visitor would enjoy and expect in a worship service.

“This is a different world,” Knox said. “If you go out as a missionary or [whenever] you go out into another culture, then you’ve got to adapt to that culture. You don’t change God’s word. But you adapt to the culture. And that’s exactly what this worship service is going to try to do.”

Volunteer Power

Knox stressed the importance of Branham and her volunteers to Rust Street’s mission.

“You never, ever know what kind of seed Janet and her group are sowing,” Knox said. “The rest of us out here, all we do is just keep the flow going so they can do their job. They’re the important ones.”

Volunteers at Rust Street fill many roles, such as working in the food pantry or sorting and tagging clothes. Other volunteers interview visitors to rust street, setting up their files and finding out what each family needs.

According to volunteer coordinator and administrative assistant Janet Branham, Rust Street has about 135 volunteers a week from across the county. The ministry also employs three full-time staff members as well as two part-time staff members.

Although the staff is employed by Johnson Street Church of Christ, Branham stated that around 24 churches contribute to Rust Street’s operations.

Branham says the recent renovations at Rust Street will provide volunteers with more room, help the system run better and give the visitors more privacy in interviews.

“The interview stations will also be in a more private setting,” Branham said. “That’s nice because right now, they’re just sitting right here and everybody’s walking by. It’ll be where we can actually visit with them in a personal way. It’ll be a lot better.”

Branham is quite happy with the volunteers’ work, but more help would be appreciated. She encouraged anyone interested to come to training on any Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 p.m.

“If there’s people out there that need our assistance, we want them to come to Rust Street and we can see how we can help them,” Braham said.  So, either way, if they want to volunteer I’ll use them or if they need assistance we’ll help them.

Rust Street also has a part in running Kids Eat FREE! at Fort Concho and assisting with the Fort Concho community garden.

According to Knox, the area that is currently being renovated will be opened up sometime in August. When Rust Street has a block party on July 26, Knox hopes for the renovated building to be finished enough so Rust Street can provide tours for the public.

In the end, Rust Street is all about individuals in the community serving their neighbors.

“We want our neighbors to know we’re not doing this renovation for Rust Street,” Knox said. “We’re doing it for our neighborhood so we can serve them better. That’s what all this has been. Serving our neighbor better then we have been.”