For several years, when people in Barton County and the surrounding area have needed a place to stay or a helping hand, they’ve turned to Bryan “Buzz” Birney and his wife Clifann at Live Like Jesus Today Ministries (LLJT). Starting from their home in Ellinwood nearly 15 years ago, they went on to open a Discipleship Campus, Kingdom Campus, and My Father’s House Church in Great Bend. Now, LLJT is expanding again, with plans to open the Haven for Her Campus – a home for young women who are pregnant or have small children – and the Caring Heart Campus — which will one day house their church, food ministry and more.
The Haven for Her
The Haven for Her, located just outside of Great Bend on Barton County Road, is being prepared for its first occupant, a pregnant woman who was in jail at the time of this interview. It should open in about six weeks.
“We’re going to ask (the occupants) to live like they were created to live. They won’t be homeless, and they will be able to mother those babies. It won’t be like they were mothered. We’ve got to break generational curses,” Birney said.
“We have four rooms that we can fill right now, but we know the rooms will fill up pretty fast. Our goal is, God willing, to build another building on the property and put more bedrooms in because the needs are huge.” They’d like to add a small childcare facility and playground if finances can be found.
Caring Hearts Campus
The Caring Hearts Campus is going up at the former Healing Heart Ranch, located at 155 SE 1 Ave. The church will move there in the future.
“We’re going to do a lot of stuff there,” he said. They will operate Heaven’s Kitchen, where women from the church will cook meals to deliver to the needy and homeless. Clifann will start another ministry called Bread of Life, making and delivering homemade bread.
“And then we’re going to start a ministry out there that’s called House of Hope.” It will consist of five one-bedroom cabins for inmates reentering society. They will be involved in all aspects of the ministry, its Bible studies and church services.
“We’ll be a family for them like they never had,” he said.
From kitchen to campus
Birney says the LLJT ministries started years ago in the kitchen of their Ellinwood home. “We started cooking for and inviting in the homeless, hungry and broken in our area.” On June 11, 2011, they gave up his 21-year career as an insurance agent and went into full-time ministry. Today, LLJT Ministries serves thousands of people each year, meeting them right where they are in life, he said.
“We show and tell many, many of them about the life-changing love of Jesus Christ.”
The Kingdom Campus at 700 South Patton Road in Great Bend has a thrift store, food pantry, gardens for growing produce to give away, and an outdoor stage area for Christian concerts. Its warehouse is filled with items that are donated, and having the warehouse allows LLJT to receive semi-loads of donated items from international nonprofit Charity of Hope. Recently, people showed up when the warehouse received thousands of eggs as well as Hostess-brand snack items; those that weren’t given away on-site went to area schools and other venues.
“We’ve probably brought – in retail value – probably $3 million in product that we’ve given away in this area. It’s food, clothing, staple products, you name it.”
Then there are the discipleship houses in town and Sunday church services at My Father's House, located at 2521 10th St.
Birney also works with other ministries. During some of the coldest winter weather, LLJT Ministries has organized warming shelters. The last one was at the Central Kansas Dream Center. There are also mission trips, prison ministries and helping a homeless shelter in Wichita.
The reason they do all of this is to help people, Birney said. “There’s so many hurting people, and they don’t know that their life matters. A lot of people think that nothing matters, nobody cares. We want to tell them their life matters, that they are somebody and that Jesus loves them, you know. We do all kinds of counseling, all kinds of ministry, helping people. People’s lives are changing. That’s why we do this.”
