Giving hope to the homeless

Joy Carpenter didn’t expect a Christmas shopping trip to change her life. But what she saw on the streets of Stoke-on-Trent that day drove her to launch a new outreach

Joy Carpenter and her sister Leanne were Christmas shopping when they noticed the barefoot homeless teenage girl. Of a similar age to her 17-year-old daughter, Joy was shocked.

As they looked around, the sisters noticed many other homeless people sleeping in doorways nearby too.

Determined to act, they went home and prayed and decided to start helping the homeless around Stoke - on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Hanley.

Joy began by enlisting the help of her church, Longton Elim.

“We asked everyone for coats, hats and scarves. People were amazing and we had bags and bags of donations,” she says.

“The week before Christmas we went out around the area with parcels of hats, scarves, coats and chocolate. We also bought everyone a hot drink and gave out tracts about hope and giving your heart to the Lord.”

After Christmas, Joy was keen to continue. For the past year and a half, therefore, she has kept the boot of her car stacked high with goods so she can help homeless people as she meets them.

“I’m always on the lookout,” she says. “If I see someone I’ll go over and have a chat and see what they need. I have tracts and Daily Bread to give out too.”

Longton Elim has been amazingly supportive, she adds.

“One time we asked for donations for six-foot heat mats that can be put underneath tents, because lots of the people we work with sleep in tents.

“People’s hearts were touched and they gave generously. We managed to buy 20 heat mats, and tents and sleeping bags too.

”Joy is thrilled with the conversations she and Leanne are having. “There are two gentleman who we’ve been working with for a while. They live in a wood and we’ve supplied them with tents and sleeping bags. We’ve given them Daily Bread and tracts and we often sit and talk together.

“We’ve given Daily Bread to another homeless gentleman too. He told us he read something about a homeless person in one and it really related to him.

“One time he got beaten up badly by a group of youths who left him in a really bad way, with broken ribs and a broken leg. But he said to me, ‘Joy, you just have to forgive them, don’t you?’ You can really see God working in him.”

Joy also loves driving past people she has given tracts to and seeing them reading them.

“I always pray that the Lord will touch hearts through those tracts, because you never know what effect they might have.”

Joy is passionate about working with the homeless now, but it wasn’t always this way, she says.

Before becoming a Christian two years ago, she describes herself as hard-hearted and selfish.

“I was very much just out for myself. I’ve had a difficult life as a single parent and due to family circumstances. I’ve been caring for my grandson Jenson, who’s 11, since he was a baby.

“I’m completely different now I’ve given my heart to the Lord. He’s shown me love I could never have understood before.”

Joy became a Christian during a particularly difficult time. After the breakup of a relationship she was left with a home in need of huge repairs and couldn’t see how she would ever be able to move.

“In the middle of the night I was at my lowest, shouting at God to show me why this was happening,” she says. “Then at 2am my sister texted me. She said, ‘I’ve just woken up and I don’t know why but I need to tell you that everything is going to work out OK’.

“I just knew it was God and gave my heart to him there and then.”

From that moment, Joy felt complete peace, even though the way forward was still unclear.

Soon, a buyer came forward willing to pay full price for the house despite the rebuilding work needed and Joy was able to buy a new home – across the carpark from Longton Elim.

“The Lord wanted us to come to this church!” she says.

Joy felt God soften her heart as her faith grew and she began getting involved in church life.

For 26 years, she had been a foster parent and noticed her feelings about this changing too. “My attitude towards fostering changed dramatically after becoming a Christian.

“I was actually thinking of finishing but I felt the Lord gave me an inner strength to carry on. That’s been such a blessing as I’ve really seen him working in the children’s hearts. Around six months ago my grandson asked me if I would pray with him to ask Jesus in his heart.”

This softening made her passion for working with the homeless possible too, she adds.

“Before, I would have walked past and thought they deserved to be on the streets. Now I feel completely different.

“The biggest thing for me is the love and strength the Lord has given me and the way he’s filled my heart with love for others. I never had that before and it still amazes me every day.”

This article first appeared in the July 2023 edition of Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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