In October 1973, Bishop Odell Bradley and Pastor Rose Mary Bradley began their ministry as Princeton Deliverance Center promised a primary mission that focused on spiritual needs of parishioners.
The first location of the church originated in the Borough of Princeton on Birch Avenue and while the couple, now married for over 50 years, cultivated an enriched servitude there, God called them to Trenton in 1980, first to an area known as “The Five Points”.
Five Points offered a convergence of drugs, alcohol and poverty, a place where Jesus would have visited regularly. And, in the middle of all this struggle being waged near Princeton Avenue and Pennington Avenue? That famous message painted on the side of a building that read — “Don’t look down, look up! Jesus loves you!” The Bradleys called that message inspirational for people living in the midst of human troubles.
In 1996 Princeton Deliverance Center, Inc. relocated to its current Southard Street address, just up the block from the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) on Escher St. Though not as challenged as Five Points, this area includes a homeless shelter, transitional housing, clinics, and drug programs.
The building was formerly the ‘Trenton Lunchbox’ and the Bradleys note the building transformed from feeding the stomach to feeding the whole man. On Friday, volunteers pulled Sister Rose Mary Bradley from a backroom office where she performed her daily managerial and pastoral duties while living up to the Princeton Deliverance Center motto to “Reach the Lost at Any Cost”!
While Thanksgiving delivers more people to the doors of Princeton Deliverance Center for support, this food bank always appears busy while 600 families per month offset food insecurity here.
“We’ve never seen so many people in need,” Rose Mary Bradley said, identifying the throngs of people who arrive at Princeton Deliverance Center for physical and spiritual offerings as an opportunity to showcase God’s power and grace. Her acknowledgment of teeming numbers of people dealing with food insecurity and hunger, represents a statement being made by pantries, kitchens and shelters throughout Mercer County.
Pastor Bradley compared stretching resources to the Biblical tale of Jesus feeding thousands with several loaves of bread and some fishes.
“We make it work. For instance regarding protein. We don’t have to give out three items such as eggs, chicken and tuna fish. Bags may contain only two of those items. Thank God, we have a lot of support and volunteers,” Bradley praised.
Monday, Nov. 13 will challenge the Princeton Deliverance Center as the church distributes food baskets for Thanksgiving.
“Over 100 bags and boxes of food and 300 turkeys will be handed out. It’s a lot, a major operation,” Pastor Bradley explained. Bradley smiled before speaking about her ministry, about giving God the lead.
“When we started Princeton Deliverance Center the main focus involved the spiritual with some attention for food. Now, a lot of what we do involves the needs of people, food and shelter. Still, some of our members, our volunteers were led to Princeton Deliverance and joined the church because of our food outreach. That’s a blessing.”
For information regarding Princeton Deliverance Center food outreach including its Thanksgiving outreach or making a donation call (609) 392-9161.