'This is where our joy is'

New Friendship Center leader has passion for helping the homeless

Cody Howard, executive director of the Friendship Center, listens to Robert Parker on Thursday in Texarkana. Howard visits several homeless camps a couple of times a week to check on the local homeless population.
Cody Howard, executive director of the Friendship Center, listens to Robert Parker on Thursday in Texarkana. Howard visits several homeless camps a couple of times a week to check on the local homeless population.

The Texarkana Friendship Center's new executive director, Cody Howard, has spent half a decade getting to know the homeless population in Texarkana. He, his wife, Jill, and his children consider the tight-knit homeless community family.

Howard is also the pastor for Church Under the Bridge, whose congregation is predominantly homeless. He founded the church, which meets under the bridge at the end of Broad Street in Texarkana, Texas, in April of 2012.

"The homeless are a very spiritual community. They were basically sheep without a shepherd," Howard said. "They had nowhere to go. They deal on a daily basis with rejection. Church should be the last place they feel rejected, so we wanted a place without walls, a place where they'd feel comfortable. It's just a calling to this area. I feel like the best place you could put a church is right here in the middle of it, and that's what the Lord did."

Because of his established relationship with the community, Howard was a good fit to replace former Friendship Center Executive Director Bryan Bixler, who took a position with First Baptist Church Moores Lane.

"To come into this position is a huge blessing," Howard said. "People say they don't see how we do what we do, but me and my wife found out a long time ago and we're promised in scripture that to give your life is the way you'll gain it. It took us actually experiencing that to understand. This is where our joy is. The more we're out with the homeless, the more brokenness we witness, the more people we're able to love. It just brings us joy. The more we give our lives, the more joy we get. That's why we continue to do it. Not just because it's a calling but because we find joy in it. It's fulfillment of what we believe God's will for our lives to be."

The Friendship Center has several programs, including feeding 300 people a day with breakfast and lunch at the center Monday through Friday. Howard makes the most of those meals, sitting down and breaking bread with the population the center helps. He also regularly visits homeless camps in the area.

"I try to eat with them every day. I eat the same food they do. I sit in the same cafeteria they do and I try not to put much of a dividing wall up between my office and them. So when I meet people in there or out on the street, a lot of times they've already seen me in their camps or in their neighborhood," he said.

Howard has his ways of establishing trust with a population that is usually distrustful of outsiders.

"The homeless people respond so well to trust, and that's what's difficult for us to do as a people is put this guy in my car and take him to eat a meal and sit down and share a conversation with them. Society has told us for so long, 'Don't talk to strangers,' but the Bible says you need to show hospitality to strangers. Our American culture doesn't jive with biblical culture. The more we start to think in a mindset where I'm protecting myself, my wife and my kids, you're circling the wagons. If you circle the wagons, people can't get in. You're keeping people out and that's not what we want to do. We want to have wisdom and be smart about it, but the best thing for me to do and the way you can immediately bring down walls, and what I try to do pretty often, is just put somebody in my car that I don't know and take them to eat a steak, go buy some socks or go to the park and sit there and listen to their story," Howard said.

The homeless population isn't something people should be afraid of.

"Most people would be surprised at how respectful and giving they are. There is a quality of character in the homeless community, a core character of respect they have for other people and each other. They take care of one another. They're just very kind and loving. It's not a group of people, as a whole, to be fearful of," Howard said.

In addition to providing meals, the Friendship Center also has a Certified Nursing Assistant training program and relief assistance for families struggling to buy food or pay their utilities.

Howard would like to see the Friendship Center focus more on providing job training to help people achieve independence than relief assistance.

"A big part of homeless prevention is CNA program. We do free CNA training. What's involved in that is bringing them in and giving them a free education so they can get jobs and have the opportunities and try to make this bridge out of poverty. So many people don't have anywhere to start. That's more of the direction we want to go as the Friendship Center. In the past I think our mission has drifted. Over the years the Friendship Center has done that, with good intentions, with the mission of helping people but the mission has drifted away from community development to relief work. We want to provide opportunities for education and job training where people can learn a skill to help them succeed in life. It's a cycle."

Plans for the future include possibly moving the cafeteria to another building where there will be more space.

"Feeding breakfast and lunch is huge undertaking and we do it out of a tiny little kitchen and a feeding center that will seat 42 people, which is way too small for what we're doing," Howard said. "Hopefully what we can do in the near future is move our feeding center out to our shop. We have no money to do it but that's kind of our dream scenario."

The community can help support the Friendship Center is a few ways, including financial donations, food donations and volunteering time to help with the upkeep at the center.

For more information about getting involved, call 903-792-1301 or stop by the center at 620 W. Fourth St., Texarkana, Texas.

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