Nahant resident and Lynnfield’s Calvary Christian Church Pastor Leighton O’Connor has been the driving force behind Mission For Hope since 2018 when he founded the organization.
Mission For Hope is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which has united Jeep owners across the country to prepare food and deliver supplies to homeless people throughout the North Shore and 49 states. O’Connor noted that the sole state he has not reached yet is Hawai’i.
O’Connor said he had a pickup truck in 2018 that was dying, and he wound up trading that for a Jeep. Around the same time, O’Connor, 61, said, “God kind of put it on my heart to use the Jeep for mission work to help the homeless because I’ve been helping the homeless since my mid-20s.”
O’Connor said this spiritual message is what led him to pursue a 6-month mission trip where he helped homeless people in 43 cities across the country.
“We’d go and hand out the stuff to the homeless in whatever city I was in: Miami, Skid Row in LA, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, as far up as Anchorage and Fairbanks — all across the country,” he said.
He explained that he would pre-arrange meetings with people who own Jeeps in different cities and designate someone to take lead. He added that, often, the person chosen to be the leader was also a Jeep owner.
“I had a storage unit in Lynnfield filled with different things like hygiene kits and socks, and I had a sponsor of Beantown Blankets, and then we shipped 50-100 blankets into each city I was at, so by the time I got to the city, my donations were there, the blankets were there, and we had people who filled up the stuff,” O’Connor said.
He added that Steve Ford, who has been volunteering with Mission For Hope for five years, was responsible for shipping the supplies from Lynnfield to wherever O’Connor was.
Ford said, “Every time we go out and do something, it’s the hardest day of my life and the most rewarding day of my life as well.”
He spoke highly of the homeless people he has helped over the years, noting, “It’s hard because you see these people who have nothing, living on the streets, no clothes, no food, but then when you get to meet them and talk to them, they’re some of the most genuine, gracious people that you meet, who have nothing.”
When considering why he continues to be part of Mission For Hope, Ford said, “Jesus calls us to serve and to be servants to the people. That’s one of the reasons that drives me.
“But I want to, for me, to see these people get a better life, try to get them out and just talk to them and speak to them and make sure they’re seen and valued as a human being. You may be the only nice voice they heard here in a long time, so that impacts me.”
O’Connor said he centers Mission For Hope around homeless people because he has “always had a burden in my heart to help the homeless.” He shared that his first encounter with a homeless person was when he was 15 and photographing a Celtics game. He said that encounter has stuck with him over the years.
He added that “part of my mission is not only helping the homeless, but making people aware of the homeless and why they’re homeless.” O’Connor is specifically passionate about educating others on the misconception that homeless people are lazy and don’t want to work.
O’Connor said that, sure, there are homeless people down in Key West, Florida, who would “rather drink a beer on a palm tree than go out and work.” But he added that plenty of people don’t work due to serious mental illnesses or other circumstances, like a “nasty divorce” where they “lost everything.”
When thinking about the impact Mission For Hope has had, O’Connor said simply that he is most proud that he has “inspired other people to do similar work even though I’m not there.”
He added that he is also the founder of the Christian Jeep Association, which has 43 chapters that are all consistently providing support and resources to homeless people.
Since O’Connor is not in the position to travel much nowadays or go on long trips like he once did, he emphasized Mission For Hope’s current local outreach.
“We’re going out once a month, and it’s usually outside of My Brother’s Table,” he said. “One of my passions has always been to be able to serve a hot meal, so earlier this year, somebody donated a military trailer to Mission For Hope, and I had a cabinet maker at church (and) built a cabinet on this trailer so we can serve hot meals.
“We’ll cook a meal at the church, slide it into an insulated food warmer, then we’ll arrive somewhere like outside My Brother’s Table and serve a hot meal as well as giving out clothing and snacks and backpacks and shoes and socks and all kinds of things.”
To connect with O’Connor about Mission For Hope, email him at leighton@missionforhope.us.
