Isaiah 58 Project: A Ministry Born From Grace
"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" — Isaiah 58:6-7
In Winchester, Virginia, there's a ministry that has spent nearly nineteen years simply trying to live out those words. And what a joy it was to sit with them.
Keep Coming Back
Jeff Beard remembers what it was like to be on the other side of that verse — cast out, and hungry for a whole lot more than food.
In the middle of his own addiction, a man named Father Haikuberger used to see him every Wednesday at noonday prayer. Jeff would turn up needing something, and every single week, without ever once preaching at him, Father Haikuberger offered a small kindness and the same four gentle words: keep coming back.
Jeff knew perfectly well he wasn't always coming for the right reasons. Didn't seem to matter. The welcome never changed.
That kind of patient love has a way of working its way into a person.
What Grace Grows Into
In time, Jeff found sobriety. He also found Kim, who had walked alongside people in recovery herself. Together they started wondering what it might look like to hand somebody else the same grace they'd been handed.
It started small — people finding their way to Jeff and Kim, just needing someone to sit with them a while. Then a local pastor, Miss Fry, asked if they'd help lead her small congregation on Cameron Street. When her health began to fail, the ministry quietly grew into what it is today: Living Faith Church and Outreach Ministries, still carried under the same 501(c)(3) as its first name and first calling — the Isaiah 58 Project.
Open Doors, All Week Long
These days the doors open in a handful of wonderfully simple ways.
Sunday mornings at 11:00, everyone is welcome — "no matter how you dress, no matter how you come."
Sunday evenings, there's a gathering they call a wrap session. It's for people who aren't ready for AA or NA, or who maybe aren't ready for God yet either. Just a place to sit down and talk about whatever's on your heart.
Saturdays bring hot meals and clothing for anyone who needs them.
A few times a year, neighborhood kids come by after school for homework help. And for a good while now, there's been a quiet, steady home where men in recovery can stay and start again.
There's even a golf tournament every August — sixteen years running — that helps keep the lights on and sends a few underprivileged young athletes off to college.
"I'll Give You What You Need"
Jeff is the first to say none of this has ever come from abundance. "I'll give you what you need" is how he describes the way God has provided, season after season — never more than enough, but never less either.
A recent trip to West Virginia brought an unexpected gift toward a van for outreach, and Jeff just smiled about it. God already knew.
If nearly two decades of this work has taught him anything, it's how to listen before he speaks. Some folks need the recovery conversation first. Some need Christ first. Most just need somebody willing to sit with them long enough to figure out which.
That, more than anything, is what the Isaiah 58 Project has tried to be — not a program, but a patient kind of welcome.
"Who am I to say when this is going to stop," Jeff says. "All we do is remain faithful, and do what He's called us to do."