THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 114 lines
The Rev. Oliver S. Robinson doesn't care if people think he's crazy.
He insists that a revelation from God pushes him to repair an old house in a blighted neighborhood. The house is not for himself. It's for his ministry.
``God gave me this vision to reach people on the street. The drunk, the drug addict, the poor - they're why I'm out here,'' he said while watering newly planted flowers in front of the house at 515 S. Road St.
At 65, Robinson is at the age when most people want to relax into retirement. He is just getting started.
He founded the Tabernacle of Faith Church two years ago and directed services in his home on Foreman Bundy Road. Feeling the need to do more, he started the Soup Kitchen on Wheels. That wasn't enough.
When heirs of the house on South Road Street asked him last March if he wanted the property for his church work, he accepted. He believed that God had just expanded his calling in a big way.
``I said, `Lord have mercy, what are you doing?' God is like my old school teachers. One assignment is not enough.''
The home, believed to be more than 100 years old, is a major undertaking. Its wood siding, roof, plumbing, wiring, windows, walls and floors need repairing or replacing.
Robinson has no stash of funds to draw from and no government grants.
``We operate by faith,'' he said. ``We have no money here. When we need something, He always provides.''
Robinson began fixing the outside first so people could see what it was going to be. A large sign over the weathered porch reads ``Tabernacle of Faith Church, Outreach Center.'' On the small front lawn, another sign advertises the center's purposes: temporary shelter for the homeless, drug and alcohol counseling, recreation for troubled youth and spiritual counseling.
Robinson isn't alone in the undertaking. His wife, Jessie, and four other members of the small church - Jean and Henry White, Herman Shannon and Juanita Wilson - help with the restoration. Lester Perry has done much of the electrical and plumbing work. Several businesses have donated materials.
Robinson hopes to see more community involvement.
The house sits a block south of Ehringhaus Street among a tight row of houses, many vacant. Drug dealers operate openly, and the unemployed cluster along the sidewalk day and night. Motorists on the busy street roll up their windows and lock their doors. They hope the traffic light at Ehringhaus and Road doesn't detain them for long.
The area wasn't always like this. Leola Morgan, 79, has lived just down the street for 50 years. She said the neighborhood was nice until about 10 years ago.
``The dope pushers started parking over there,'' she said pointing to a vacant lot across the street. ``They'd pass right through my yard, but I broke that up in a hurry. I'd ask them `Where you going? You better get right back.' Then I'd call the police.''
Morgan supports Robinson and the Outreach Center. They've barely met, but she's convinced he'll do as he promises.
``I fully expect to see our neighborhood back the way it was,'' she said.
Good things are happening already. A few weeks ago, Robinson began to clean debris from the yard of a vacant house next door. One by one, people began to join him. Soon he had a crew of nine. They gathered trash on both sides of the road for two blocks and filled 15 extra-large garbage bags.
``We must have found a thousand beer and wine bottles,'' he said.
Robinson has befriended a boy who lives next to the center. He took him bowling and promised him more rewards if he behaved and made good grades. He offered him a raking job that he must do for six straight weeks. In return, Robinson will buy him a fishing rod.
``I try to teach a good work ethic,'' explained Robinson.
``You should go to work on time. A 15-minute break should not stretch into a 30-minute break. Give your employer a good day's work.''
Robinson puts in about 10 hours a day, six days a week working on the house or the Soup Kitchen on Wheels.
William Joyner, who grew up around South Road Street, believes in Robinson. He is helping with the repair work.
He admits he drank heavily and took drugs at one time but quit after seeing the effects drugs were having on him and his friends. Church helped him stay sober, he said.
Not that his life is totally in order. He's still unemployed.
``I'm like everybody else around here,'' he said.
``They want somebody to care.''
Yet, Robinson has had several hard-core street people tell him to mind his own business and forget trying to improve the place. The same guys come to the Soup Kitchen on Wheels for a meal, and he gladly feeds them.
``Feeding is only part of the ministry,'' he said. ``Ministering is the most important part of our ministry.
``You can feed a person, and he still might be no good. But if you change the heart of a person, you've done something.''
Robinson knows what it's like to change.
In 1980, he had retired from the U.S. Postal Service in New Jersey and was in his words, ``Going about doing my own thing. I liked to have a good time.''
He used to gamble on Sunday, but one day his wife decided to go to church and persuaded him to come with her.
From then on, Robinson lived a new life and became an ordained minister.
In 1984 he came to Elizabeth City to be an assistant pastor. He didn't feel he was doing enough. In 1992, he took his ministry to the street with the Soup Kitchen on Wheels.
Robinson rarely wears a suit. Most of the time he is in a ball cap, T-shirt, jeans and brogans.
Robinson and volunteers feed an average of 35 people a day. Often the meal comes with a message. Since February 1995, he figures he's counseled about 4,000 people, fulfilling his church's mission to ``help fallen humanity.''
``People ask me how I do it without any money. They say, `You must know somebody.' Yes, I do. I know Him,'' Robinson said, pointing to the sky.
Why will he succeed when at least five other churches within three blocks have not made much difference on South Road Street?
``Because we will go to the streets to meet and serve the people,'' Robinson said.
``As God is my witness, people are going to come around here in awhile, and they'll shake their heads. They won't believe it's the same place.
``We believe next year you're going to see a difference in this neighborhood. Yep, you'll see a difference.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Jeffrey S. Hampton
Rev. Oliver S. Robinson
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB