“We just did it in the name of the Lord,” Brian Beals said. “Because, for a change, He had something to smile down about on us for. Instead of frowning at us, this is one time; He maybe smiled because we did a good thing.”
Beals and Larry Moore are members of Angelic Ministries Job Corps, where they are working to rehabilitate their lives after a history of drug use and subsequent homelessness. Angelic Ministries Job Corps program assists men who have come out of homelessness or other situations and have a genuine desire to get on the road to responsibility and self-sufficiency.
No stranger to temptation, Beals and Moore faced a new challenge earlier this year. The two were on a furniture delivery job for the organization, which also provides furniture, clothing, linens, and kitchen supplies to those in need, when they stumbled upon a bank bag with more than $11,000 cash inside along the side of Chapman Highway.
Moore remembers the immediate temptation, and recalls that, for a moment, he contemplated what to do.
“I knew what our old selves would do,” he said. “I’d have gone out and spent the money on partying and stuff.”
Beals said the men turned to each other to talk through their decision.
“We wanted to do the right thing,” he added.
They called their ministry leader at Angelic Ministries, who was able to use the bank receipt to track down the money’s owner. It belonged to Kevin Welborn, a father of six children who lives in Seymour.
Most of the money was for a down payment on a new house. He had mistakenly placed the bank bag on top of his truck and drove off.
“Anyone else could have found the cash and may have even kept it. In fact, the two men who did find it probably would have six months to a year ago,” Tony Earl, Executive Director of Angelic Ministries, told The Focus.
The ministry, supported in part by Christian Men’s Job Corps, has a number of homes in Knoxville where men such as Beals and Moore live and receive Christian discipleship. They are trained in marketable job skills, and mentored in a caring, structured environment. These men also serve in the organization’s primary ministry by picking up, sorting, organizing donations, and helping those they serve load the items given to them.
As token of gratitude, Welborn donated $300 to Angelic Ministries for the good deed carried out by Moore and Beals.
Angelic Ministries receives no money from any government fund or agency, and operates solely on the support of caring churches and ministries, private companies and organizations, and individuals. To learn more about the organization or to become involved visit www.angelicministries.com.
