In the year 2000 God opened the door for Joe Williams to minister to the at-risk street kids that lived in and frequented his home neighborhood of Montrose, Houston. Our first Bible study outreach in 2001 was in a house church with 3-4 street kids (who came after being offered cookies and hot coffee). Shortly after that Youth With A Mission Houston, directed by Martin and Kim Dale, joined the effort and these two ministries formed the partnership that later became known as Montrose Street Reach.

The word spread to other street kids and homeless as the project continued to grow. We now host (feed and help) approximately 70-120 street kids and older homeless at Montrose Street Reach every Wednesday night. We are currently holding our outreach in a parking lot behind 1110 Lovett Blvd. In addition we walk the streets of Montrose on Friday nights sharing the love of Jesus and offering practical help. We also receive numerous phone calls requesting many different kinds of help. We offer what help we can, with one caveat – we won’t contribute to enabling these street people to stay in the dangerous situations in which they put themselves.

Montrose Street Reach is, at present, the largest project that JWM is involved in. However, we want to see our people and practical resources expand to allow us take on new projects all over the city. There is despair on the streets of Houston. We have to bring hope.