I came to meet Samuel Dean early one morning with a call from the Desk Sergeant at the jail.
Samuel Dean, a homeless man had come in the night before saying someone had tried to steal his SUV while he was sleeping in it. He came to the jail asking to seek safety in the jail parking lot. The Sergeant was kind enough to say OK and call me the next day to see if I knew of any place he might be able to stay.
I drove down to pick Samuel up and took him to Waffle House to get him something to eat. We prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for the food and asked for God’s Grace to find him a warm, safe place to stay. I then took Samuel up to the Salvation Army where they just “happened” to have just received some grant money and were able to put him up at a local extended stay motel for a month.
During the time Samuel was at the nearby extended stay motel I was able to drive by to pick him up for church at 12Stone Church where he joined and now has made friends at my Friday Morning Men’s Group
Samuel is paralyzed from his legs down from a stray gunshot in New York City. He had been driving for Uber until he ran off the road and messed the front end up in his SUV which we got fixed at my friend Mike Wheatley’s Garage. Now he is back at work and has been able to rent a room in an apartment nearby and volunteers with BTGM as a driver.
Russell and David listen intently as Samuel talks about the many people in Liberia who have to crawl around on the ground because of birth defects or injuries from land mines.
Samuel’s grandmother founded the Florence A. Tolbert and the Disabled Advocates Inc. to address these needs and Samuel is dedicated to continuing her work in Liberia in partnership with PET International. PI provides free personal energy transportation carts to allow some of the 70 million world-wide so disabled to get off the ground and move around.