One Life At A Time: Rudy's Story

ONE LIFE AT A TIME: RUDY'S STORY

Rudy Rasmus learned the family business from his father when he was just five years old. His dad brought home a set of blueprints and unveiled his business plans. He said, "This a motel and other people's husbands are going to come and give us money to spend time in one of our rooms."

Seventeen years later, Motel Houston opened its doors right next door to the family's home. The motel strictly catered to prostitutes and their customers. With Rudy in charge, the business took off. Rudy calls it a borderline bordello, because he says he never took a cut of the prostitutes' profits." But it was about making money. Yet there was definitely something missing in his life.

Then one day when he was at a funeral, a woman caught his eye. She was a Christian and they began dating but Juanita never really understood what Rudy's business was. She was admittedly naïve by the grace of God she says because she was able to see what was in Rudy's heart. They fell in love and married.

Juanita wanted to have a godly family and took Rudy to church. "The preacher reached out to Rudy and mentored him,. Rudy joined a Bible study. Juanita prayed for her husband. He eventually became a Christian though still ran the family business. Eventually his changed heart helped him to change his career.

Rudy and Juanita volunteered to pastor an inner city church in Houston, Texas, that had just nine members. They founded the Bread of Life program to help the most disadvantaged communities in the city. Twenty years later, St. Johns UMC and The Bread of Life have changed the landscape of Downtown Houston by providing 9 tons of fresh food weekly to hungry families, 12,000 hot meals monthly and nightly housing to hundreds of chronically homeless men and women. They built an apartment complex which provided 43 formerly homeless residents a permanent-supportive home to take significant steps in improving their lives.

Rudy has since coordinated his domestic and now global anti-hunger initiatives in conjunction with Beyoncé's worldwide concert tours with food drives held during her concerts. Thousands of pounds of food were donated to food banks in each tour city. Last year, General Mills Foods and Feeding America (the nation's leading hunger-relief charity), further partnered with St. Johns and Beyoncé to help battle hunger in America. The goal was to deliver more than 3.5 million meals to local food banks in her tour cities. And Pastor Rudy says, "I am committed to touching and changing the world...one life at time."