TOM AND MARLA POLAK | INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA


PENNIES FOR ANNIE A


By Mickey Noah


62-year-old, tall, slender African American, Rob- ert Maul, forages the sidewalks, curbs and streets of


Indianapolis, pocketing lost coins—picking up a penny here, a nickel or dime there. His painstaking work—all on foot—will add up to a sac- rificial $25 contribution to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offer- ing®. At the time, Robert was homeless.


Poor in the pocketbook but not in spirit, Robert is a former heroin addict who liked to fight. He served five sentences in an Indi- ana penitentiary. He slept under bridges and interstate overpasses. But because of NAMB missionary Tom Polak, Robert was redeemed by the Lord.


“Robert came to a block party we had about a year ago,” recalls Tom. “He came, had his lunch, listened to music and somewhere along the line, somebody witnessed to Robert and shared the gospel. He was saved that day, a Saturday. The next day,


Robert was in our church service and he began to come every Sunday.


“He was baptized and he’s been very faithful. Now, a year later, you see the growth in him—he’s


inner-city, and as pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship.


“We are here helping people, ministering to peo- ple, praying, evangelizing and giving people a place to


We are here helping people, ministering to people, praying, evangelizing and giving people a place to go,” he says. “We minister to the people who live in the downtown Indianapolis area, who are homeless, low-income people—people who are struggling.”


ON MISSION • Spring 2011 25


very genuine, very sincere. He’s really been quite an encouragement to me to see what God can do in a person’s life,” Tom says. In 1995, Tom and Marla Polak left a Kansas City ministry for Indianapolis, where Polak began serv- ing as director of the Metro Baptist Center in the


PHOTOS BY TED WILCOX


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