Doin’ The Dive: Missions in America

By Kristy Crill

“I called and the Lord heard me. He is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  Psalm 40:1

I cannot recall a time when I audibly said “Here I am Lord, send me,” but I must have—because here I am. I do recall the time when I realized that I had a unique love for the homeless and a desire to serve them somehow. I was just a young girl on a summer mission trip to New York City with other youth groups from all over the nation. Our goal was to spread the gospel, and on my last day there I sat down and had a conversation with a homeless man I had passed each day. I sat alone with him on the street and asked him many “but why?” questions. I wish I could say that trip was also my reckoning with a call, but it was not. For many years after that trip in many forms, I went another way and lived very much like the people I serve today, at times believing that I was so far gone from the love of Jesus that the “good news,” although true, most certainly did not apply to me. 

When the world shut down in 2020, I was still recovering from life-saving emergency open spinal surgery for a central nervous system disease I did not know I had until it almost took my life in 2019. While I was healing from that operation, God used the brokenness of my body (which I had to learn to use a lot of all over again) to give me the time and tenacity to see that my daughter’s desire to go to school at Truett McConnell University came to life. That persistence quickly yet surprisingly landed me on a TMU board, and that walked me into working with international mission students—including my own daughter, who had a desire to serve the Lord all over the world. 

Although things seemed to be going very well, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic all I had to my name financially was $300. I was deeply troubled for myself and for my daughters, and also by what I was seeing unfold in our country and in the streets of my town. So, mostly out of concern for my own family, I typed up a simple menu and sent it to five friends who knew that I was a good cook.1 I promised them that if they would help me stay afloat, then I would serve them weekly with contactless porch drops, and that I would take part of the money and help people suffering on the streets. 

Within three months, my daughters and I had earned more money from our home kitchen than we had ever had. The most beautiful thing, though, was that I was healing, and for the first time in my whole life I was doing what I said I would do (and way more)! I treasured this miracle, but it was hard to believe that I was providing for my family while at the same time encouraging, through my work, the spirits of those I had found on the street to feed.

As we moved through 2020, the Lord continued to grow my work (then simply called “Personal Chef Services by Kristy”). That December, I got a call from a stranger who had heard about me. She wanted to tell me about homelessness in Savannah, GA. She could not have known that she was talking about my favorite place on earth, but she was! After hearing what she had to say, I made a trip down to a homeless camp she had pointed me toward. I had passed by it dozens of times over the years as a visitor, without seeing. The half-day visit to the camp was my reckoning, and I knew within two weeks after spending a half a day under that bridge2 two things: that my daughters and I were coming, and that God had provided the financial way to start what is now called “The Dive.” He had blessed the work of our hands and trusted that I would return his gift right back to him, for him to use as he saw fit.

So, in 2021 we came to Savannah to “Do The Dive.” Whatever plan we began with back then did not look like what we are doing today. We did not really know what we were doing then, and, in some ways, we still do not know where we are headed! Yet with every step, God has given us enough light for the step we are on. He has given me the courage to take each next step because he is and always has been with me.

When we started, God used a radio interview at the Savannah Chamber of Commerce to connect us to Christ Church Anglican, who became our host church (and eventually my own church family), enabling us to prepare meals and go into the street one day a week, to feed the homeless and remind them that Jesus knows their name. Today, almost four years later, we are a local, state, and national award-winning, record-breaking, non-government-funded not-for-profit, with a small business arm. We are affiliated with and trusted by more organizations than anyone in Chatham County. We are known for ethics and being gifted at helping people get off the street using the simple-to-understand parables of Jesus Christ.

On “Walk-in Thursdays” homeless people line up out the door—and sometimes down the road—to get inside. The rest of the days I work in the streets directly with first responders and in hospitals, detox wards, crisis centers, the jail, and veterans affairs to take the love of Jesus to those who need a miracle. I also bring with me all the services available, and make them easy (or easier) to navigate for those who cannot come to us. Although we still feel so new and so small in many ways, we are cherished and celebrated all over the city, state, and nation. In some places, though, because the devil is always seeking to steal, kill, and destroy, we are despised because of our witness to Jesus.

It is still full of challenges, but I am very thankful for this life the Lord has given me, and I love how it is still unfolding for me today. Above all, I must thank my Savior Jesus for his grace and relentless love, which brought me out of darkness and into his precious and so-trustworthy light.