CHURCH MEMBERS VOW TO COMBAT DRUGS, CRIME

"They sound like street warriors," said Sarah Duncan, a resident of
White Street in Thomasville who received a visit Wednesday from
several of these men clad in fatigues and matching T-shirts that read:
MOSES, or Men of Standards Excellence and Service. MOSES is a group
started by the Rev. Frankie McLean to combat the spread of drugs,
violence and gang activity in neighborhoods surrounding the church,
which is at 103 Church St.

The men of MOSES spent Wednesday evening walking around a neighborhood
known for drug activity and violence.

The walk was a kick off of many efforts to come.

McLean said the men's ongoing mission is to save someone and let them
know there's hope out there.

"Our generation is in trouble," he said. "We want our community to
know we want to help. Our main goal is presence."

McLean said the men put on military fatigues because they wanted to
symbolize their fight for a better community.

"We want to set a tone," he said. "It's war on the streets. We're
coming out there as warriors for Christ."

The men of MOSES knocked on doors, stopped cars and sat on porches to
invite the residents to church on Sunday. The men chatted with a man
fixing his car in his front yard and summoned a lady in the middle of
dyeing her hair to talk to them.

Duncan said she was delighted to see the street ministers. She said
the community is filled with drug trafficking and violence and several
young men have been killed in the neighborhood.

Many of them have dropped out of school and have no where to continue
their education. Many of them resort to drug dealing after they become
fathers at a young age.

Duncan said the young men in the neighborhood need to realize that
there are other opportunities in life.

"Our young black men need role models," Duncan said.

For some of the men in MOSES, this feeling is all too familiar.

A little more than a year ago, Jonathan Gladden was immersed in a
place similar to the one he visited Wednesday.

He said he spent about 10 years in a world filled with drugs, alcohol
and violence.

He said the lifestyle he led seemed glamorous, especially since it
mimicked what television often portrays through music videos and
risque shows.

"It's easier to get addicted to selling drugs than to the drugs
themselves," Gladden said. "But you affect kids, you break up
families." Gladden left that lifestyle behind when he joined First
Missionary Baptist Church about 14 months ago and joined MOSES.

"God saved me," he said. "That's why I'm not ashamed to tell my
story.

"Now my thing is to reach the young people. I want to let them know
there's a better way to do things."

Gladden said he probably wouldn't have responded initially to an
outreach effort such as this one, but he did respond to his faith. If
he can initiate that response in anyone, he said, then the day's
efforts were worthwhile.

Gladden is not alone. He estimated that about 20 percent of the men in
MOSES have been addicted to drugs, sold drugs or spent time in jail.

Tony Clark, now a deacon at the First Missionary Baptist Church, is
part of that 20 percent.

"I was addicted to marijuana," he said. "I was drinking real bad." But
Clark said he turned his life over to God and has been alcohol and
drug-free for two years. He is now married with two children and is a
football coach at Thomasville High School.

"I'm not ashamed of my past because this church has meant the world to
me," Clark said. "I just want to let people know God is real. No
matter what your problem is, he can help."

The men hope to continue their campaign at least once a month.