When a couple in our church opened the door to their home one night in 1989, they didn't realize they were embodying the distinction between faith-based ministries and traditional state welfare.

They were just scared.

In the darkness of their living room was a crouching man holding a kitchen knife. They recognized him as Vic, a homeless crack addict they had taken into their family as part of The Dallas Project ministry of Trinity Foundation. He had lived with them for months, but now it was apparent he had fallen off the wagon, gotten high and was hallucinating.

After a few tense minutes, they were able to talk him into relinquishing the knife. He broke down in tears. They talked with him until he was able to go to sleep.

In other circumstances the police might have been called and felony charges would have been filed. More than likely he would have been convicted, and because he had at least two prior felony convictions, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison, dying alone.

Instead, the people in our community helped get the man into a drug treatment center long enough to dry out and return to us. Years later when he died of AIDS, the whole community gathered for a memorial service. They had grown to love Vic. He was a friend and a brother who through the vagaries of life had become homeless, hopeless and in dire need. They missed his baritone harmonies on Sunday nights.

He was not a "client."

Over the years, we have found the things we really tried to do never panned out, and the significant ministries we became involved in – like helping Vic – happened apparently by accident, in response to some need that seemed to fall into our lap.

That has proved true again with the ministry we're calling the Oklahoma Project.

In 1976, as our fellowship group was becoming larger, many of the members had a desire to live closer to one another (God knows why). We didn't yet talk about "community," and I certainly had no desire to give up my privacy. But occasionally a homeless person or family would cross our path. And we had no good place to put them except on a fold-out sofa or a pallet on the floor. However, sometimes we slept on the floor and the homeless person got our beds.

So we prayed for an apartment house, a place where we could live in close proximity, still retain our own space (and our own bed) and have a place for people in need to stay temporarily or long-term.

Nothing came of that search for an apartment house. Instead, some of our members with real jobs bought houses in a transitional area of east Dallas. Our ministry to the homeless went a different direction as families opened their homes to the needy and we saw people breaking out of the cycle of dependency. Hundreds of people have stayed with us over the years, though their stories were usually not as dramatic as Vic's. For 22 years, we never gave another thought to our prayer for an apartment house.

Then in 1998, a friend asked if we would be interested in owning 2,045 housing units in13 apartment complexes in Oklahoma City. We said sure.

We didn't realize that it would be the start of a ground-breaking method for allowing faith groups and other non-profit organizations to provide affordable housing for the needy and the homeless.

And we didn't remember until now it was the belated answer to our prayer.

The offer came only because in 1986 Congress changed the IRS guidelines to permit qualified charities to become the recipients of multifamily housing, financed through tax-free municipal bonds. It was the government's attempt to rescue affordable housing that was built in the '60s and '70s for the truly poor and distressed. But its potential has been pretty much ignored.

The complicated funding this new IRS ruling makes available is not easy to explain, unless we want to turn this column into Wall Street Week in Review. One Dallas reporter keeps referring to our plan as helping the poor with "fairy dust" for backing. Suffice it to say, enough investors believe it works that the bonds were sold almost immediately.

This opportunity comes at a crisis point for the poor. Much of America's housing for moderate- and low-income people consists of apartment complexes built 30 to 40 years ago, with financing subsidized by the federal government as a part of the War on Poverty program. Many apartment building owners are paying off the government loans and are no longer bound by provisions for requiring a percentage of the units to be rented to people below the poverty level.

As rents increase and these private apartment complexes are upgraded or sold to make way for housing for the affluent, a housing crunch is forcing more low-income working people out onto the streets. The number of affordable rental units in the United States decreased by 372,000 units, a 5 percent drop, from 1991 to 1997. Millions more will disappear in the next few years unless something is done..

When we acquired the apartments in Oklahoma City, we contacted the different faith groups in the city to challenge them to begin ministries in the apartment buildings. The response surprised us. Many different churches have adopted all the 13 apartment complexes and provide drug counseling, latch-key kids programs, adult education, GED training and free medical clinics, all without government funding. The willingness of the people of Oklahoma City to give of themselves has far exceeded our expectations

When a series of devastating tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City area in May 1999, hundreds of volunteers from faith groups in Texas and Oklahoma helped us make ready 58 unused units in a matter of days so storm victims could have a place to stay.

The Oklahoma project has turned out to be so meaningful that we were offered another set of apartments-160 units-in Dayton, Ohio. We've begun a similar program to challenge churches there.

Maybe the most important result of all this has been a new Bible study group in Oklahoma City led by Ron Black and his wife Suzanne. A seminary graduate and former Marine from Ohio, Ron hooked up with us – again by accident – just at the time we needed someone to head up this new work. They have been the driving force behind recruiting faith groups to become involved.

The experience of seeing these apartment complexes – which all had serious problems – being turned around with the help of people of faith and the residents themselves is extremely gratifying for all of us.

At the very least, it's been a powerful confirmation of the power of prayer.

More important, what is happening in Oklahoma can become a blueprint for churches and faith groups around the country to insure that people like our friend Vic will always have a sanctuary.

Oh, and one other thing: Be careful what you pray for!