What I Do With My Many Hats

Hi Friends,

I thought if I was writing about being a bivocational pastor you should know what I do on a day to day bases.

The Family

My wife Esther and I have 12 children is a good starting point for conversation. Yours, Mine and Ours and Adopted for clarity sake... all ours for goodness sake. Five are grown, Four of the grown are married. All of the married have children, Melissa 3 children, Lora 1 child, Becky 1, David 1, Brian is not Married and does not have children. John will be 16 in January. He is as Independent as any Down Syndrome child could be. Daniel and Deborah are approaching 6 feet tall. They are 13 and 12 respectively, Timothy is our 11 year old stand up comedian, Emily our 10 year old super athlete. Angelina and Giada are not yet adopted but by God's Grace will be soon.


The Ministry (Gatesofpraiseministries.com)

Gates of Praise Ministry started in Fall River in 1994. It is an Urban Centered store in front in downtown Fall River, MA. Current pastors there are Bil and Gail Powers. The church is small but does a great job of ministering to the mentally ill and drug addicted that pass through its doors. More about this later.

Faith Fellowship is in Portsmouth, RI. We average about 30 folks on Sunday morning. The congregation is about 45 or 50 people. A lot of it is family. The Presence of the Lord shows up every weeks and we greatly enjoy serving him.

We have two small Messianic Congregations established by Rabbi Esther, me wife. One is Kehilat Yisrael, ((Kehilatyisreal.com) for more information, the other is The House of Perpetual Light, in Providence, RI

Pastor Jack Osteen, is planting ConnecXion Church in Providence, RI under the auspieces of Gates of Praise Ministry

We have a weekly Public Access Televison show called Harvest Time. It is very well received. We have broadcast the show on radio as finaces have allowed.

The New England Christian College and Seminary is a accredited Bible College we established in 1998. Classes are held at Faith Fellowship Church. We offer Associates and Bachelors Degrees and Biblical Studies and Thelogy.

Our Overseas Work is centered in Ghana and Liberia West Africa. Our e mail blast are sent to approximately 10 different countries. We are in Africa approximately 2 weeks out of every year. We have an Orphange and Ministry Center being established in Bawku, Ghana and a network of about 30 churches we oversee in Liberia.

Work Life

I have three secular jobs essentially. I manage a 21 employee homeless placement orgranization called Housing First RI. We have approximately 130 chronically homeless individuals that we have placed in permanent housing. Our success rate, for clients maintaining housing for more than 1 year is 90%. The program has a budget of approximately 2.3 million dollars. Most of my blogging will be related to the work that I do at Housing First RI. The program is part of Riverwood Mental Health

I also work for the Center of Behavioral Health from 5 am to 9 am 4 days a week as a Methadone Counselor.

Lastly, I do some consulting work on the concepts of Harm Reduction and Motivational Interviewing.

I hope to have a lot to share with you. I hope you find valuable and I hope it further inspires men and women to do bivocational ministry.

Don Boucher