Jeremiah and Tosha Hansen, her daughter Summer Sweet and Robert Lewis stand in front of the Last Stop Shop on Forest Avenue.
The One Stop Shop has a new home in Maysville at 1109 Forest Avenue.
The American Flag is painted on the stone building with signs out front that read, “Jesus From A Jail Cell,” and, “Last Stop Shop.”
The shop, which was formally in Tollesboro, gets its goods from pallets and donations. Rev. Jeremiah Hansen and his wife Tosha welcome folks as they enter and let them know that everything in the store is sold at half the retail price.
The Hansens explained that the business started out very small.
“We ended up buying a box of jewelry for $20 and we decided to start selling the jewelry to raise money to pay the bills,” stated Tosha.
Jeremiah added to Tosha’s remark.
“Then we, we actually went around with a little wagon,” said Jeremiah.
The pair eventually were blessed with their Tollesboro property and have recently moved all of their merchandise to the new location. The pair insisted that the opportunity seemingly fell into their laps.
“I’m gonna say it was all God. Everything, it all just came to us. We didn’t go looking for it. It definitely came to us,” stated Tosha.
The Last Stop Shop is a part of Jesus From a Jail Cell and Last Stop Missions which work to help get homeless people off the street. The funds that are collected from the shop all go toward paying to house the homeless individuals.
As the founder of River Outreach, Jeremiah said he is known by many in the community to be someone who helps individuals who are homeless or in need of help in the middle of addiction.
“They call me straight up off the road. I’m well known in the community,” stated Jeremiah. “We take people off the street who are still trying to get clean, we help them get their lives back, we help them find jobs. We try to get their IDs and everything else. We work together with them and we teach them, even coming in here and giving an hours time of work. They come in here and give their time back. We teach them trades.”
The Hansens said when they branched off from River Outreach, they still felt the pull on their hearts to be involved with helping those in need so it was not a question of if they were going to help but how.
Jesus From A Jail Cell was created from that.
Jesus From A Jail Cell Missions has purchased two houses for struggling individuals; a house for men at 505 Pelham Street and a women’s house at 410 Buckner Street.
“We have people come in all the time. It’s like a revolving door,” said Tosha.
Jeremiah added to Tosha’s statement.
“Or we pick them up sometimes,” added Jeremiah.
“Yeah, like the jail, Mason County Detention Center, they call us and say, you know, we have somebody. Probation and parole, we work with them a lot. Like I say, we have somebody that, you know, don’t have nowhere to parole out to. They have to have a home placement, they have to have an address so they work with us and we house them when they’re coming in out of jail,” said Tosha. “But not only just the jails and that’s why we put Last Stop missions at the end of it because sometimes this is people’s last stop. They have nowhere else to go.”
Jeremiah added he is saddened by the amount of individuals who have overdosed on drugs in our local area which is one of the reasons why they feel the need to intervene.
Tosha has found herself in a jail cell so this is a personal mission for her.
“We help people ‘cause you know we’ve got people living out on the street in the cold. We’re doing nothing, I’m just being truthful, as a society we’re doing nothing. We throw a few bucks at it and put them in a hotel room. That ain’t fixing the problem. The problem is getting them in there, getting them clean, getting them showered, getting them clothed and getting them out where they can get a proper job where they can go out and get their lives clean,” Jeremiah stated.
Tosha and Jeremiah Hansen personally own the houses that they keep the homeless individuals in.
“We concentrate everything we have to get them into housing,” said Jeremiah.
“I sold my car, I sold my rings, all my jewelry. I sold everything I have to make it happen, and he has too,” said Tosha speaking of Jeremiah.
Tosha and Jeremiah Hansen encourage folks to come shop at the One Stop Shop to be blessed and be a blessing.
“It’s a blessing to the community, you know people that can’t afford to pay full price. It blesses them and it blesses the people who are homeless with nowhere to go. So it’s a blessing all the way around, a double blessing,” concluded Tosha.
