June 2. Bill Wilson. Bill founded Metro World Child, the largest ministry to children in the United States.
For more than fifty years, Bill Wilson has rescued hurting children, loved them, introduced them to Christ, and helped them stay in school and out of gangs. He offers a message of hope.
With headquarters in New York, Metro Ministries operates programs at more than 200 places in the United States, the Philippines, Romania, and South Africa.
Metro Ministries has the world’s largest Sunday school, serving more than 42,000 children. And it feeds children in 51 schools in Kenya and in 7 of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila. Here’s how it got started.
When a man reaches out to a boy, the boy gets a chance to become a man.
With the smog, despondency hung over the ghettos of New York City, and Bill often felt like he was fighting it all by himself.
With the smog, despondency hung over the ghettos of New York City, and Bill often felt like he was fighting it all by himself.
At the top of the stairs, the door burst open, and six-year-old Jerome launched himself through the door, across the hall, and into Bill’s arms, and Jerome held as if his life depended on it.
In that instant—at least for that instant—all Bill’s questions faded. Kids like Jerome endured poverty, hostility, and hunger. Jerome’s was an abandoned generation, and there were too many children for one man to save. But when Bill looked at a child’s aching expression, he saw himself.
At twelve, Bill had been abandoned on a street corner. Rescued by one man who cared. Changed by the love of Jesus.
When Bill started a Sunday school for the kids of inner-city New York, he had little financial support and a note in his pocket—written to him by an inner-city pastor. The note read: “I’ll give you six months, and you’ll be gone like everyone else.”
The negativity could have been discouraging, but Bill’s commitment made no concession to discouragement or any other lame feeling.
Bill rented space from a church, a pickup truck, and a Yogi Bear costume. Then he paid a young drug dealer $20 a day to drive the pickup, while Bill ran alongside it with a megaphone yelling. “Be outside on Saturday morning. Look for the big yellow bus!” he hollered. “We’re taking you to Sunday school.”
The first day more than a thousand kids showed up.
More children than space. The church who’d rented the space tired quickly of the arrangement, so Bill rented from another church, but they soon asked Bill and his kids to move on. Next, he rented a vacant warehouse, and when Sunday school started that Saturday, it was seventeen degrees outside.
Inside, it was also seventeen degrees.
Most of the children had no coats. Nobody had told Bill the boiler had blown up. Bill stood and announced, “Sorry, kids, it’s over.” He cut the program short, sent the kids home, and canceled his lease. They were devastated, and Bill felt he’d let everyone down. For almost a year—no Sunday school. He almost quit. But the question was always, “Whose child is this?” and the only answer was, “Mine.”
When Bill asked God for another chance, he found a building, but the down payment was $25,000. And Bill had $98.16. Not quite enough.
But when God told a pastor in Texas to invite Bill to tell his story, the church collected $10,000. Other churches joined. In eight days, God provided $28,000, and Bill placed the down payment.
The Sunday school, later named Metro World Child (www.metroworldchild.org), still ran out of room, so they turned small trucks into traveling stages and took “Sidewalk Sunday School” to more kids in harder-to-reach places. The kids and the staff loved it.
But space issues were the good problems. Other problems—especially the heartbreak—were harder. And when you served in the inner-city, heartbreak was a way of life.
Over the years, Bill has been beaten, stabbed, and shot. And when he was shot, people thought, “He’s tough … but he’s going to retire today.” But Bill had committed—no matter how bad it got, he wasn’t leaving.
Today more than 200,000 kids attend Sunday school in inner cities around the world. Consider 12-year-old Vincent, who started Sunday school at 3. Statistics say he’ll be carrying a gun soon, but Vincent disagrees. “What they don’t know is what a difference God’s made in my life,” he said. “You’ll never see me … shooting anyone … I am standing for Jesus.”
Someone once said Bill had a shepherd’s heart. “Thus says the LORD: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed’” (Amos 3:12 ESV).
What challenges threaten your commitment? When a man reaches out to a boy, the boy gets a chance to become a man.
Based on an interview with Bill Wilson, 2019.
Wilson, Bill. Whose Child Is This? A Story of Hope and Help for a Generation At Peril. Brooklyn: Metro World Child, 2016.
Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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