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Blessings under the bridge
12/23/2008 12:00:07 PM
By Hope Brumbach
Splash Editor
Profiles:
Mike & Jessica Kovac
The bed was made of layers stacked on top of one another: used U-Haul moving covers, ragged cardboard, blankets and discarded rugs. The crude padding helped stave off the cold seeping up from the concrete.
It was a makeshift bed for a makeshift home that would be gathered together - in a shopping cart or backpack - and trundled to the next spot on the streets of downtown Spokane.
Mike Kovac |
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Jessica Kovac
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That's the lifestyle of the people who Jessica and Mike Kovac encounter each Saturday, when the Liberty Lake residents bring sack lunches and an offer of friendship to those who are homeless in Spokane. Advertisement
"What you would think or see in a movie, it's there," Jessica Kovac said.
Just over a year ago, the Liberty Lake couple started a nonprofit organization, called Blessings Under the Bridge, to minister to hundreds of those less fortunate.
For the few months leading up to Christmas, the pair hand out food, coffee, coats, shoes and socks every Saturday to the homeless under the Interstate 90 bridge between Division and Browne streets. For the second year in a row, they also are planning a holiday feast under the bridge, with a Christmas meal, entertainment and handing out of clothes and other basic necessities.
Last year, volunteers helped feed about 250 people. This year, on Saturday, the couple hopes to feed more than 400 with the help of scores of volunteers and business donors.
"I want to bring Christmas to their house, which is concrete. I just want to do this for them," said Jessica Kovac, 36, a part-time server at the Melting Pot. "People think we're blessing the homeless, but we're the ones who are blessed to be able to help these people."
Blessings Under the Bridge is named not only for the location but also the bridges of relationship that the organization strives to build, the Kovacs said.
"Underneath all their layers of coats and hair, they're just beautiful people," Jessica Kovac said.
She didn't always feel that way, though. Two years ago, after her sister gave her a book called "Driven by Eternity," Kovac said she made her Christian faith a central part of her life.
"It opened my eyes. …My heart, my eyes, my mind just changed," she said. "So I've been praying ‘Lord, what is it that you want with me, through this process, (to learn)?' I realized he wanted me to know the only love for the world, unconditional love."
As a waitress for 18 years, "I knew how to serve people," Jessica Kovac said. So she decided to take $40 a week from her serving tips to buy sandwich ingredients and bottles of water. Every Saturday, she ventured under the bridge, where she handed out sack lunches.
Her husband, Mike Kovac, went along with her, although he was reluctant at first.
Submitted photo
About 60 volunteers helped serve hot meals last year during Blessing Under the Bridge's Christmas feast. |
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Submitted photo
About 250 homeless people were served hot meals last year during Blessing Under the Bridge's Christmas feast. Organizers this year hope to feed more than 400.
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"When I started seeing these people freezing cold and handing lunches out … my heart just went out for them. It just crumbled," said Mike Kovac, who is on long-term disability because of a back problem. The ministry gives "people a glimmer of hope that things will get better, trying to give them confidence."
The ministry has taken off, drawing TV coverage and even plans for a big-screen movie, tentatively titled "The Bridge," the Kovacs said.
"The one thing that people have spoken to me that I tried to deny is it's going to get big, it's going to get big," Jessica Kovac said. "I know God has been preparing me for this a long time. We're starting to see the bigger picture for things."
The pair is dreaming someday of a resource center with showers, a laundry facility, café and a connection to rehabilitation and housing resources.
"I know I'm supposed to do this full time, I just don't know when the day is to do that," Jessica Kovac said.
In the meantime, the pair is continuing to befriend numerous people who are homeless, inviting them into their home to watch football, responding to phone calls for help and even working alongside a handful to get more permanent housing.
"Everybody knows us as the husband and wife," Mike Kovac said. "People defend us and (say) watch your mouth and this is the husband and wife who come down to help us."
Teresa Clouse, 48, met the Kovacs a year ago when she was living on the streets. She appreciated the clothing and kindness the couple doled out. She now is living in a duplex, off the streets for the first time in five years.
"They do a lot of good; they try to get help for people and make them feel good," Clouse said. "As far as I'm concerned, I told her she was doing God's work to help out."
One man, named Homer, has become like a father to Mike Kovac. Homer, who is in his 60s, has been on the streets for 20 years off and on, the Kovacs said. They helped him get a shave, haircut and new clothes. He came to their Liberty Lake home to watch TV with the family.
"I will forever have a bond with him," Mike Kovac said.
Profiles:
Mike & Jessica Kovac
Ages
Mike, 38
Jessica, 36
Married
For almost 20 years
Family
Two daughters, one grandchild
Lived in Liberty Lake
Three years
Web site
www.blessingsunderthebridge.org
Blessings Under the Bridge still needs volunteers and donations of socks, toiletries, winter gear and baked goods for the Winter Feast at the "boardwalk" from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Contact Mike Kovac at 869-6584 for more information.
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