West Cocoa Chat

Pat Pugh's church is called "C.U.M.O." which stands for "Cincinnati Urban Ministry Organization." CUMO sits in the middle of "the hood" as locals refer to it. As with many "hoods," drugs, alcohol, gambling, and crime are your next door neighbors, even the church. Every day that we drove up in our church bus, in the morning, after lunch, or in the early evening hours, there was always a group of guys smoking weed and gambling literally on the steps of the church. Can you think of a better place that needs Jesus or where He might hang out.


The guys were always respectful of our space and would usually walked down the steps and a couple of houses down from the building. One day I was driving the community kids back to their community Center in our church bus. As I tried to get away from the church, several law enforcement vehicles flew in from all directions causing me to try and get a very large bus out of the way as they converged on the same house that our "guys" were using as a hang-out.


Officers with guns drawn and drug sniffing dogs swarmed the area in what appeared to be a major drug bust. I was amazed at how much respect Pat and his wife have in that community. It was apparent as he walked among the gathering crowd with the way he was greeted, "Pastor Pat."


Our days started at the Millvale (http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/crc/pages/-36131-/) Community Center. There was a Summer Recreation Program taking place that we were allowed to participate in and literally play with the kids. These kids were starving for attention. Some of the younger ones physically clung to our teens, getting piggyback rides, and playing games with them.

Now I know some of you will have a hard time believing this but yours truly was somewhat of a "Rock Start" at the Center. My part of the VBS was to play the Apostle (check out my picture on Facebook) Paul in prison each day. Each day I showed up at the Center I was greeted with a chorus of, "Hey Paul." There were also questions such as how could I be hanging out at the Center if I was in Prison? Most of the kids seem to be O.K. with my temporary pardon to hang out with them and invitation to come back to "Pastor Pat's church" to see me back in chains and in prison.

I tell you, the men and women who work at "the Center" are providing a service that you can't put a price on - safety, stability, love, and fun. Sounds like a good call to ministry, yes?