The Rev. George Nailon: "My Life Was Tore Up."

Imagine walking unfamiliar streets with no place to call home, nobody cooking a meal for you. Imagine asking for help and nobody listening, eventually turning to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain.

After the high subsides, a stark reality hits: You are still alone and homeless.

This was the life of the Rev. George Nailon, associate minister at Greater Faith Baptist Church. Today Nailon volunteers six days a week at a year-long warming and cooling center, helping those who have fallen on hard times.

“I was called to this ministry," Nailon said. "My life was tore up. I was in a mess.  We think everybody’s got it all together, we see smiles on the outside but they are hurting on the inside. This is a place you can come and just talk to somebody. No story will go out.”

Three years ago, Greater Faith Baptist Church opened a facility next to Respond Now in Chicago Heights called SOUP, which means Serving Our Ultimate Purpose.

“One of our members, Beverly, got blessed with some finances," Nailon said. "She wanted to give back to the people. She would come down and make soup. We were not feeding the homeless at the time but our church brought them out of the cold. Beverly got blessed again, came and brought more soup and from there, it all took off.  A lady wanted to give back from what God has given to her."

As the reverend spoke, a young pregnant woman passed by. He told me a little bit of her story. Her mother passed away, and she is struggling. She was told her father was dead, then recently found out he is still alive. Nailon and the SOUP volunteers are trying to help find her dad and to give her direction. She was one of fifty people of many ethnicities and backgrounds in the room, each with a story.

Nailon has his own.

“At one time I worked at Howe Development Center and got hurt," he explained. "After that I was out there partying and living a raggedy life. I tore up my legs."

Coming to terms with the mistakes he was making, Nailon said he realized something about his fate.

"I knew that God had something better for me," the reverend said. "I said 'Lord, I know you’re talking to me. What is it that you’re trying to tell me?'"

Nailon said messages began to come to him through other people.

"The more I started talking to God, the more people began to evangelize to me," he explained. "Strangers told me 'God is going to do something in your life.'  I thought, 'How can God use me with the stuff I’ve been doing?' I went with my mother to church and from then on, I’ve been to every service. God has changed my life and I know without Him I would still be drinking and doing drugs. Until I learned how to serve and be humble, after that I am an associate minister, I’ve been here ever since.”

Nailon said he and the volunteers at Greater Faith try and bring some sort of stability to the lives of those who enter the doors of SOUP.

"It’s nothing fake," Nailon said, explaining the motivation behind the program. "It’s just doing God's will to love them. God said  'When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was naked, you clothed me, when I was sick, you visited me . . . What you do for the least of them you do unto me." 

Nailon says they are still looking for more volunteers. SOUP is also looking for donations of food and clothing for both men and women. 

"A lot of times we don’t have donations coming in," Nailon said. "This has always been funded through our church and through our pockets. We only have about 50 members and out of those only 50 percent are working."

The reverend said he sees the program's continued existence as a proof of everything he believes.

"We don’t have the funds to really make this happen, but it does," Nailon explained  "That’s why we know God is in the midst of this. The funds say this is impossible. We say, 'With God all things are possible.'

Everything in Nailon's life has brought him to this point, giving him a unique perspective when it comes to helping people. His humility is almost as strong as his connection to the people he helps.

“I consider myself a wretched sinner that God is using to love on these people," Nailon said. "I love them.”

According to Mike Wasserberg, executive director at South Suburban PADS between 1,000 and 2,000 people are homeless in Chicago Heights. 5,000 are homeless in the south suburbs.

SOUP is located at 1417 Emerald Avenue, open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A free meal is served Mondays and Thursdays from noon until 2 p.m.