Father Bob’s Outreach is extension of the Gospel

On a hot August morning, LaVette Tolliver-Echols sat on the front steps of the rectory at St. Augustine Church as she waited for her name to be called.

She was among several dozen people who had arrived early that morning to put her name on the list for utility assistance from Father Bob’s Outreach.

Around the Hamilton Heights neighborhood — and frankly, just about anywhere on the northside of St. Louis — Msgr. Robert Gettinger (aka Father Bob) is a household name. And people know that St. Augustine is the place to go if you need help, Tolliver-Echols said.

“I don’t care if you’re from Denmark or Russia,” Tolliver-Echols said. “If you got a bill due, you can come here and get it paid Monday, Wednesday or Friday. He’s got committed staff because he’s been a committed man. He has always been in our life.”

Since Father Bob’s retirement, the outreach ministry continues from St. Augustine’s rectory. Father Jeff Harrison, SJ, meets one-on-one with visitors, offering them pastoral care. Longtime parishioners from St. Peter Claver and other volunteers keep everything running like a well-oiled machine.

Three days a week, up to 30 people receive utility assistance. In order to receive a check, they must bring the bill and $25. In return, they receive a check for $125, occasionally more, to help pay the bill. In all, about $8,000 is distributed each week; the money comes from private donations. The year-round outreach also includes ongoing funeral assistance and a Christmas gift program, which serves about 3,000 households.

Father Harrison, previously pastor at St. Matthew the Apostle in the Ville, said the neighborhood ministry helps people with basic necessities while offering spiritual support and simply listening to their stories.

“I take them in order and I sit with them in the room and ask, ‘Do you have anybody you want to lift up in prayer?’ Very seldom does anybody say no,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t want to listen to the news in the morning, because inevitably they show up here.”

On Mondays, volunteers from several parishes bring in surplus food from area grocery stores, including bakery items and canned goods, which is sorted and set out on tables; by noon it’s usually all gone. Clothing donations are sorted by type, and visitors can choose from items while they visit with Father Harrison.

“Father Bob realized a long time ago there’s way too much in one place and not enough in another,” Father Harrison said. “His whole ministry’s been trying to straighten that out a little bit. So what we’re doing is not charity. This is justice.”

Three days a week, Carmen Charleston sits at a desk in a small office just inside the front door of the rectory. She writes the checks, answers the phone, opens the mail and handles just about any other task that’s needed. The longtime volunteer and St. Peter Claver parishioner keeps everything in order — and sometimes that meant keeping Father Bob on track, too.

“The need is there, and Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep,’ and I feel like that’s what I’m doing,” Charleston said. “You know, just working in the vineyard. The harvest is great, the workers are few, and we just have to keep busy. So when (Jesus) comes back, He’ll say, ‘Well done, thy good and faithful servant,’ — and hopefully pat me on the head.”

Charleston also handles calls from people requesting funeral assistance to help cover burial costs. Those individuals make an appointment and typically come later in the morning. They need to show a contract from a funeral home, and they’re generally given about $200 toward funeral expenses, plus a grocery gift card to help with food for the repast or related needs.

Rowena Jones, who has known Father Bob since the 1980s through her own church’s outreach ministry, stopped by the rectory in August for help with a utility bill. With a looming dental surgery, she anticipated extra expenses and said the assistance would ease some of the burden.

She recalled a friend’s family who couldn’t afford a funeral after a hit-and-run accident and approached Father Bob for help.

“They were trying to get the money together to bury him,” she said, “So (they) came to Father Bob and asked if he could help, and he came on the scene and he provided a plot for him at Calvary, so they were able to bury their loved one.” That act “meant an awful lot,” especially to the man’s elderly mother, who desired to have a proper funeral, she said.

Lammara White has received utility assistance several times over the years. In August, she brought her 8-month-old son, Kameron, along and visited with Father Harrison, who offered to pray with her. While the assistance with her bill is helpful, she also appreciates the time to sit and talk with a priest.

“This helps me financially and spiritually, and it keeps me uplifted,” she said.

As for Father Bob, he remains involved as chair of the outreach, and volunteers regularly visit him at Mother of Good Counsel Home and keep him up to date on the ministry.

The 87-year-old priest said he never imagined the outreach would grow to what it is today. It began over 40 years ago as a simple act, when parishioners at the former Blessed Sacrament Parish handed him money and he handed it straight back to people who were struggling to pay their bills.

“People gave me the money. I passed it on, and the checkbook showed it for itself,” he said. What started as modest utility assistance eventually grew into a large-scale outreach that now helps dozens of families each week.

The outreach has always been an expression of the Gospel lived in a concrete way and entrusted to the whole community, not just to him, he said. He summed up the approach with a simple motto: “Go big, go broke, go home.” If there’s a gift to share, he believes the only response is to give it away generously and trust God with the rest.

Today, even as others carry on the day-to-day work, he’s happy to see the spirit of the ministry continue — parishioners walking with the poor, grieving and passing on the blessings they first received.

“We do it in the Lord’s name,” he said. “It’s all done in Jesus’ name.”

Father Bob’s Outreach

To learn more about Father Bob’s Outreach or how to donate, visit fatherbobsoutreach.com.