June 15, 2012
Todd Murawski, Port Austin Village President
P.O. Box 336
Port Austin, Michigan 48467
Darcie Finan, Port Austin Township Supervisor
8265 N Van Dyke Rd
Port Austin, Michigan 48467
John A Nugent, Huron County Commissioner District No 7
1076 Bayside Trail
Port Austin, Michigan 48467
Huron Daily Tribune
211 N Heisterman
Bad Axe, Michigan 48413
Dear Todd Murawski, Darcie Finan, John Nugent, and Huron Daily Tribune,
Thank you very much for your efforts to bring about communication between Port Austin Bible
Campus (PABC) and the leaders and citizens of the village, township and county. While we may
not all agree, we all understand each other much better now. Please realize that there are also
many people who have long appreciated our ministry:
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those who have been served by it
the numerous government agencies and private organizations that help the poor
other caring citizens.
Nevertheless, we have clearly heard the message that some people want us to stop
housing homeless people here, especially ex-convicts and sex-offenders. We understand
everyone’s desire for a safer living environment and we want that as well. However, we differ on
how to accomplish that. We believe we prevent problems and expense for the people and the
government because the alternatives to homelessness without PABC are:
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Committing crimes (theft, drug sales, prostitution) to get rent and utility money
Sleeping in public places or on private property without permission—this often results in
police action when it is discovered
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Living with abusive friends, who may demand sex, food stamps or help with crime
Faking, or really having, a mental breakdown so one can stay in a hospital
Committing crimes so one can live in jail—the state pays for medical care
Moving to a big city shelter.
When families are involved, all of the above options frequently cause them to break up.
Child Protective Services will take away children when parents are living on the street, in the
hospital or in jail. The “family rooms” at the big shelters are usually full, and older children must
stay with a parent of the same sex, so some children of single-parent families must go to the
foster care system.
Another message we heard from the meetings and articles is that we need better staffing
or funding to carry out our mission properly. We thank everyone for their interest and concern
and hope to improve our ministry, implementing some of the many suggestions made to us. We
also encourage the leaders in this county to use their much greater resources and expertise to
produce a program for the homeless that is up to the standards that have been requested of us.
Once a superior shelter is functioning, everyone will want to go there and we can stop the shelter
aspect of our ministry.
Until that time, PABC intends to continue our ministry as we believe God commands us
to help the poor and needy. PABC will continue to help former convicts and sex offenders whom
it determines are safe to work with as they are often the most in need of help. They are much less
likely to repeat crimes when they can see a way to a successful life outside of crime. Our daily
Bible teaching, and the Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings at PABC
provide a lot of help. As the Bible teaches:
A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (Proverbs
11:25, NIV).
“Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to release the oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
PABC is not “soft on crime”, but has cooperated in helping obtain convictions. However, once
criminal penalties have been paid, then we must help them return to society. The PABC Guests
are not threatening, as the Tribune headlines made them sound. At present, here is what we have:
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man on parole from prison on the sex offender registry
man on parole from prison who is in wheel chair
woman on probation
man on probation
woman married to the man on probation
other single men
other single women
in one family with a 12 year old and 2 small children
in another family, dad and 4 children 10 to 16
in another family with children 10 to 12 and two babies.
27 Total
Nearly all of these people would be in a much more difficult situation if we stopped
serving them right now. We believe this is the reason why the Federal Constitution and the
Constitution of Michigan provide that laws shall not be made restricting the free exercise of
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religion. The state has its goals of peace and economic prosperity for its citizens, the church has
numerous biblical commands to help the poor. The two can coexist together.
We are willing to meet with any of the local governments that are interested so that we
can work together, but each maintain our autonomy. We would consider requests to notify the
police or governments when certain types of offenders are accepted by PABC. We could add
rules for guests, requiring that they stay out of certain places that make other citizens feel unsafe.
We want to be the best neighbor we can be while still carrying out our ministry to those in need.
But we do not want to depart from what we believe God has given us to do.
We hope the leaders of our civil governments will adopt the advice of a wise man named
Gamaliel, when the leaders of the Judean government were not sure what to do about the early
ministry of the apostles. Even though they considered them “uneducated and untrained men”
(Acts 4:13), Gamaliel said:
"And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this
work is of men, it will come to nothing…" (Acts 5:38).
We want to thank you for your time and attention. You can reach me at 989-738-7700 or
Nedwards@portaustin.net.
In Christian Love,
___________________________________
Norman Scott Edwards
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