Make no mistake, the Norfolk Rescue Mission is a business, mostly like any other business, but with the "non profit" tax breaks & label to hide behind.
The Rescue Mission's product is the supposed "word of God", via their mere interpretation of that "word".
And they hold their interpretation over the heads of those seeking assistance.
The Norfolk Rescue Mission has a firm policy that men & women are not allowed even to talk to one another (their own staff exempt from that dictate, of course), and not even when away from the Mission premises.
Yep, apparently the "Christian faith", in their eyes, means you must ignore members of the opposite sex.
Thou shalt be rude?
As per IRS Form 990 tax filings, the Norfolk Rescue Mission took in $598,000 in 2023, with at least $441,833 of that going just towards staff salaries.
The highest paid Pastor made $71,041 that year, in a town where the average salary is only $47,346/yr.
WWJD?
Apparently, seek greater personal wealth.
Nothing but hypocrites.
Beyond that, the place is overwhelmingly dirty & disgusting.
Unkempt, dirty, unsanitary, etc.
This religious "christian" organization loves to talk about heaven, but my experience with them was sheer hell.
Make no mistake, this non profit entity is a business venture, with the homeless existing as their customer base. The "Word of God" is the product they sell.
Jesus may as well have been a corporate motivational speaker, given business operations/entities like the Norfolk Rescue Mission, whom manipulate words of the bible for their own profits.
The 2022 revenue for the Norfolk Rescue Mission was about $566,000, with most of that (some 441,833) going towards staff salaries. Much of the remaining revenue went towards office expenses (phone, accounting, travel, conferences, and other such).
Most of the resources utilized for the homeless residents are donated, thus very little is actually spent on providing for those homeless residents.
Much of the bedding is dirty & disgusting, often torn and highly worn.
The dorm showers are filthy.
The dorm bathrooms are dirty & disgusting.
There is old foodstuff splattered on the walls.
The resident kitchen microwave and refrigerator were dirty & disgusting, covered in old foodstuff.
I realize this is a homeless shelter, but the homeless are humans too, but often treated like animals.
The Norfolk Rescue Mission has asset of about $3.1 million, thus should be able to provide a little better environment for those with little to nothing.
They enforce fairly ridiculous one-size-fits-all policies that seem to reward a lack of responsibility, laziness and dependency, whilst punishing those that strive for personal responsibility.
One of the worst things you can do while staying at the Norfolk Rescue Mission is get a full time job, as they demand you comply with their largely inflexible, stringent & restrictive curfew policies, leaving little time to fulfill a full day of work and return back on time for dinner, without reprimand.
Was Jesus a fascist?
One could assume he was via the actions of staff at the Norfolk Rescue Mission.
Compliance & obedience to often silly demands is a priority (I even overheard a Mission Director complain of the same).
As example, simply talking to a member of the opposite sex, anywhere at any time, whilst staying as a resident of the Norfolk Rescue Mission, is grounds for immediate & permanent barring.
Thus even if you are two miles (or more) away from the grounds of the Mission, and someone of the opposite sex dares to try to strike a friendly conversation (as humans often tend to do), and that is observed, you are barred from the Mission.
There is little to no incentive to employ responsibility nor strive to make good & productive use of one's time, as staff can not seem to adjust to any deviation of their systematic schedules & processes (i.e. staff are incapable of adjusting to any situational changes).
And as such, more seasoned & frequent residents are able to easily manipulate those processes
It is a ridiculous situation & environment.
The Norfolk Rescue Mission exists not so much to help people get back on their feet as it does exist just to pay staff & add to the organizations assets.
It's no wonder they largely have the same group of people return, again & again.
A promotion of beneficial life skills, mentoring, leadership & such are most completely absent.
Hypocrisy is seemingly job number one at the Norfolk Rescue Mission.
Do as they say, but not as their staff does.
The Norfolk Rescue Mission demands attendance of their short-sighted & biased religious sermons, but are far more effective at turning people off against their "christian" faith than promoting it.