Fresno Rescue Mission

Description

The Fresno Rescue Mission endeavors to glorify God by meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the least, the last and the lost in our community.

History

The Fresno Rescue Mission was founded in 1949 as a non-profit, Christ-centered, evangelical charitable organization with the purpose of meeting the physical and spiritual needs of our area’s destitute. The Mission was born out of a vision by the Rev. Clifford Phillips, a prayer meeting, the “Fisherman’s Club,” and the loving and concerned hearts of many local Christians.

Parenthetically, it should be pointed out that the Fresno area, post WWII, was a mini-Bible belt with many zealous evangelical Christians. From this same group of men who founded the Fresno Rescue Mission, came Christian radio stations like KBIF and KRDU; Christian campgrounds Hume Lake and Hartland; the Fresno Bible House (now Berean); our sister mission, Fresno’s Evangel Home; and many other churches and para-church ministries.

Cliff Phillips was an Indiana farm boy who was raised by a devoted Christian mother. But he only became a Christian in his early thirties, while attending a meeting at Chicago’s Paul Rader Tabernacle. While doing business in Chicago, Cliff, who was early in his Christian experience, was burdened by the plight of homeless people.

Before coming to Fresno after WWII, he worked with the Sunshine Gospel Mission and the Pacific Garden Mission. Early on, Cliff saw the need to work with the homeless of the San Joaquin Valley.

Initially, the Mission worked only with Skid Row alcoholics and transient farm laborers. As time passed, the Mission developed into the multipurpose organization that it is today. They currently reach out to not only the homeless, but also those who are drug- and alcohol-dependent, impoverished families, neglected and abused children, single transient adults, and other displaced persons in the greater Fresno County area.