PREACHING TO THE MASSES

Ministers In Action Program Inspires Drug Addicts To Reform

The Rev. Michael Johnson stood blocks from his pulpit at Union Star
Baptist Church, but his preaching voice boomed while talking to a man
on a street corner.

"You have already given me the information that you know God, that you
know Christ," Johnson said to Sammy Williams, a man who says he
expects to go to hell and wouldn't want to stand before God. "Stir up
your faith because you know God. He has a blessing."

Johnson knows what it's like to feel like Williams, having made the
transition from drug addict to man of God.

"I was a walking garbage can," Johnson said. "I've kind of had an
in-and-out style in the church."

But since he started attending Union Star in 1999, Johnson has risen
fast in its ranks, becoming a leader in the church and spending much
of his free time ministering on the streets and in drug rehabilitation
programs.

Johnson said he's been clean for three years, and now he's focusing
his efforts on spearheading the Ministers in Action program, a
partnership with other church leaders in East Palo Alto who use the
Bible to inspire drug addicts to reform.

The program started in response to an outburst of violence in East
Palo Alto over the last three months, said the Rev. Bob Hartley, also
of Union Star. Hartley one day came home to chaos on his street after
gunfire broke out. He immediately got in touch with other religious
leaders in the area, and they laid a plan to reach out to the young
people of East Palo Alto.

What started as a prayer vigil has grown into a multi-pronged program
by multiple faiths from Muslims to Scientologists to Baptists to
Methodists. The group not only takes part in the Ministers in Action
program, which is led by Johnson and officially kicked off late last
week, but it also helps people on probation and victims of crime. They
visit hot spots in the community -- an effort made possible by the
East Palo Alto Sheriff's Department, which offered the preachers a
vehicle.

"Part of it is communicating to people that there's an end to this;
there's a light at the end of the tunnel," Hartley said.

"Praise God," Johnson said to that.