Today we’d like to introduce you to John Afful.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Both my wife and myself are from Detroit Michigan. We have seen poverty before as well as homelessness, but never before in such a concentrated manner that was prevalent in all neighborhoods and suburbs. When we started our ministry it was never intended to be used to fight homelessness in Los Angeles. It was simply started to teach and preach the love of God that He has for all people. This was going great till one of our USC students voiced her concern for the homeless population on Skid Row. I responded, “Yeah we have all sometimes felt like we have hit rock bottom and feel like we have come to the end of ourselves”. I made this response since I thought that skid row was just a state of mind, I didn’t know that it was a real place that had real people! The student then went on to inform me that Skid Row was in fact a real place with real people that was less than 5 miles from the University of Southern California. The location of this area meant a lot to me since in Bible school we are taught to address the needs of those around you within a 15 mile radius. So as a result I had to go see this place referred to as “Skid Row”. When I went I was shocked to see such poverty and hopelessness. My wife and I knew we had to do something, but what? We know that some people are in their circumstances by choice, others are there because of addictions that they are not ready to give up and then there is a third group. A group of people that have been there, done that, and are now ready for change. My wife and I decided to target those people to help. We found a rescue mission in the area that was willing to give us a tour and shared with us what they needed urgently. This was the birth of our clothes drive in which we have distributed 80 bags of clothes so far. We are aware that this is a small start, but it doesn’t seem small to the people that receive the clothes. Actually it’s quite the opposite. We see their smiles of appreciation knowing that someone is aware that they exist and hasn’t forgotten about them. From our brief research we found out that the area known as Skid Row has roughly 12000 homeless residents with roughly 6000 of them being veterans. This was one of the reasons among many that drove us to continue our efforts up to this point. Today in an effort to get more assistance to the residents of Skid Row we are having an informational at USC on Sunday February 25th at 1:00 p.m. It is our hope that we can devise a safer way for USC students to get to the area for volunteer opportunities through a secure shuttle service that they will be comfortable with. We are aware that homelessness didn’t just start in California when we arrived here. But what we will not do is ignore our neighbors that are in need at the time that they are in need.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been necessarily a smooth road since homelessness in the state of California has been pervasive for such a long time. Due to this fact we sometimes run into a callousness towards it. People are aware it exists, but just have come to the place that they tolerate it, and sometimes ignore it.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Power To Reign Ministries – what should we know?
Our ministry is unique in the fact that we didn’t go straight into the ministry. I have a long history in providing PEO (Professional Employer Organization) services for small to mid-size and even large entities. Whereas my wife has a long history in education where she was a vice principal for an elementary school and still does educational consulting. Due to our backgrounds a lot of our sermons deal with real life current issues that the bible addresses today. Even our recent published book “The Five Roads To Power” that is available on Amazon is based on spiritual truths that can be found in the bible. It flushes out and discusses the 5 ways in which we as individuals can grow our level of influence and change our circumstances. It is our hope that we can provide training using the book as curriculum for those that would like to change their situation.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Our volunteer work began as we grew up in a church in which we were given opportunities to develop our abilities and find our passion for helping others. We were members of Word of Faith in Southfield Michigan. Bishop Keith Butler played a big role in our training. Even before then our parents instilled in us a strong desire to be a blessing to others as well as to be mindful of how we treat people that are different from us.
Contact Info:
- Address: 11:00 a.m. @ Baldwin Hills Elementary School Auditorium
1:00 p.m. @ University of Southern California Taper Hall - Website: www.powertoreign.com
- Phone: 800-797-0248, 800-PWR- 024U
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/powertoreign
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.power2reign
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Powertoreign2
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