The Bowery Mission

Description

Founded in 1879, The Bowery Mission’s purpose and goal have been to provide help and hope to the homeless and impoverished in New York for 137 years. Their children programs roots go back to 1894, when a group of children from poor families were taken by horse-drawn carriage to Mont Lawn Camp.

The Bowery Mission is called to minister in New York City to men, women, and children caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see their lives transformed to hope, joy, lasting productivity and eternal life through the power of Jesus Christ.

History

Christian Herald traces its roots back to 1878 when Joseph Spurgeon, cousin of the great British preacher Charles H. Spurgeon, sailed to New York City to establish an American version of the British weekly, Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times.

The newspaper slowly, but steadily increased in circulation, thanks primarily to topnotch preachers such as Spurgeon and T. DeWitt Talmadge, thorough reporting and the application of scriptural principles to current events.

In 1890, Dr. Louis Klopsch, a German-born entrepreneur with a vision for the power of the printed page, bought the magazine. With Klopsch at the helm, Christian Herald sharpened its reputation as exceptional Christian family reading and developed into a large charitable enterprise, meeting the needs of suffering humanity in every corner of the world.

The focus of this widespread charitable effort, however, started here at home. In 1894, the Christian Herald began publishing regular reports of the suffering among New York City’s poor. A winter “Food Fund” was launched to help the destitute survive the winter. Many of these poor souls had just immigrated to New York City and had not yet found adequate means of making a living.

When spring arrived, Klopsch faced a problem — What would he do with the several thousand dollars left over from the food drive? It was suggested the money be used to give a summertime outing to the children of the families that had been helped through the Food Fund.

Klopsch enthusiastically embraced the idea and within a month arranged to bring children to an estate in Nyack, New York belonging to his friend, the Reverend Lawrence Jewett. The first children arrived at Mont Lawn Camp by horse-drawn carriage on June 14, 1894.