(dramatic music)

- Well as co-founderof the LA Dream Center,

Matthew Barnett has beenserving the homeless population

in Los Angeles for more than 26 years.

It's a community that has been hit hard

by the coronavirus.

Matthew is meeting the needsof those vulnerable people

by following the nudge to the Holy Spirit

one small step at a time.

Take a look.

- [Andrew] 26 years ago,

Pastor Matthew Barnett'sdream became a reality

when he co-founded theDream Center in Los Angeles

with his father, Tommy Barnett.

The center reaches morethan 30,000 people weekly

with its needs-basedministries and outreaches.

But Matthew says this dream

might have never become a reality

if he had chosen to ignore God's nudge

to help those around him.

In his latest book, "One Small Step,"

Matthew encourages you tobring life to a broken world

by focusing on the needs of others,

even when it doesn't always make sense.

- Well please welcomeback to "The 700 Club"

the author of "One SmallStep," Matthew Barnett.

Matthew, your Dream Centeris working in Los Angeles

where over half of the California deaths

of COVID-19 have occurred.

Why do you think LA's been so hard hit?

- Well I definitely thinkthe homeless population

has played a major role.

We're about a mile away from it.

And we're just seeing somuch need every single day.

Right here at the Dream Center,

we're feeding people sevendays a week, 11 hours a day.

Can you imagine?

Every day for a 11 hours,we're feeding 14,000 people

that are driving by, thehomeless that are walking up.

To be honest with you, it almostlooks like a horror movie,

where people are so broken,they've lost everything.

They're coming throughour line to get food,

walking up to get food from the streets.

I've never been in an eralike this in my entire life

in 26 years of ministry.

And to be honest with you, we shut down

a long time ago, California,and when they decided

that they were gonna shut down services,

I thought, "This could bethe end of the Dream Center,"

in the flesh, and then Ithought, "You know what?

"We're gonna go out fighting.

"If it is the end, we'regonna go out fighting."

And so I put my desk on the sidewalk.

I said, "We're gonna feedas many people as we can

"on Monday," three days afterthe announcement was made.

Well, to our surprise,God began to bless us

and we've been able notto go for 45 straight days

of feeding people everyday for 11 hours a day.

- You know, in your book, you talk about

following the nudge of the Holy Spirit.

How did you get involved?

You didn't have any money,

and here, this big property is available.

How'd you get the money?

- Well, it started withjust moving my desk

on the sidewalk as a pastor.

That's all the ministry I had was a desk.

And then we had one little house.

I started taking in peoplethat had drug problems

and ministering to them.

And then one day, I was drivingdown the Hollywood Freeway.

I see this big old landmark hospital,

the icon of Los Angeles,called the Queen of Angels,

and I went in and I justtalked to the Catholic Church

and I said, "We have adream to have a church

"that would never sleep, thatwould be open 24 hours a day.

"Would you sell us the building?

And they agreed to sell usthe building for $3.9 million

rather than $16 million thatHollywood was gonna buy it for.

And I called my dad and said, "Dad,"

it's good to have a dadwho can do things, right,

and I said, "Dad, I need you to help me

"come up with $3.9 million in 18 months.

"That's all I'm asking you.

"Not a big deal, right?"

But he actually stepped upand we started to preach

and go across the country.

And I really feel like the reason why

that this building's happening

is because God has allowed me

to be a pastor's son ofthree great generations

and, as a part of that responsibility

of being a pastor'sson, is to give resource

to people in our communitywho have no voice,

and that's the purpose of the influence

I believe God has given me.

- Well your father,Tommy, is a dear friend,

and what he's done, I mean,- Yeah.

- he just started with busesand the next thing you know,

he got more buses and more buses

and he's got that huge churchin Houston as I see it.

You see it and it looks like something

from outer space landed on the mountains.

It's a huge church.

So you had a good background.

- I do have a very good background

and I think it's causedus during this time

that we're in right now to really just,

you know, respond to thenudges of the Holy Spirit,

those little things in your heart

that don't make a lot of sense

but you know that it requires faith.

And we're seeing it happen.

I mean, 425,000 people

we've been able to feed during this time,

45 days, again, in a row.

And I just can't even tellyou that I think we were born

for a moment like this,though, as a church.

We were born to step out.

Even our mayor andeveryone's coming together

saying, "How in the worldhave you guys been able

"to be three days earlierthan the public school system

"that started feeding meals?"

We were there three days before them.

That's making up theneed of these children

that don't have meals.

Growing up around Tommy Barnett,

it's taught you tounderstand that man's need

is God's call for the dayand to step and to respond

and to be willing to takea chance and take a risk

on risky situations whenit comes to helping people

and making a difference andwe're seeing that happening.

- In this book, "One Small Step,"

you talk about a man who challenged you

to run a marathon in sevendifferent continents.

And you were injured, you kept doing it.

How did you do it?

- Well, I was running for thepeople at the Dream Center.

It was during a time whenwe were really struggling,

the ministry, 'causewe added 200 more beds

for the homeless people.

And so we were, I had toliterally empty my bank account

to keep the ministrygoing for one more month

'cause I think we expandeda little too fast.

But a guy sent me a text message

and he said, "Hey, why don'tyou run seven marathons

"in seven continents in sevendays like these people are?"

and I said, "That's crazy.

"I've never done anythinglike that in my life."

And he said, "I'll givethe Dream Center $100,000

"if you say yes to this," and suddenly

I felt led through the HolySpirit to go do it, right.

I trained for nine months.

I know the Dream Center had tons of need.

We started in Antarcticaas continent number one.

We went to Chile, Miami, Madrid,

Morocco, Dubai, and Australia.

I tore my patella tendonon marathon number four

and found a way to lock my left leg

and run like Frankensteinthe whole rest of the way,

all the way to my seventh marathon.

I finished all seven, seven days

on every continent of theworld, even -30 degrees,

50 mile and hour headwinds in Antarctica.

It's just all these things that...

The Dream Center should notbe alive in this climate,

in this neighborhood, inthis community for 26 years.

It doesn't make sense.

But when your heart is into something,

when you're willing to giveyour entire life to something,

anything is possible when God knows

that you're not gonna give upon the people that you love.

- Well I think the Lord'shand is on that whole thing.

This book, "One Small Step,"- Yeah.

- you've written quite a time.

What's the main message

you want your readers to get out of it?

- Just not to be afraidto step out on ideas

that are maybe against what you think

you're capable of doing,and not being afraid

to minister to people in ways

that might be outside the ordinary,

and not to negotiatewith these impressions

of the Holy Spirit thatcome into your life

that tell you to do good,

that's maybe even against your nature

or the familiarity of your life,

and to get outside your comfort zone

and start to say yesto more things in life

rather than justifying all the reasons

why you can't do something.

- Well you said yes to a lot of 'em.

The Dream Center is fantastic,ladies and gentlemen.

It's renowned all over the world.

And Matthew's book iscalled "One Small Step."

It's available wherever books are sold.

Matthew, God bless you.

Thank you so much for being with us.

- Hey it's a joy to be with you.

If people want to be apart of the relief efforts,

they can go to DreamCenter.org

and it would really help us go a long way

to feed a lot of people.

This is gonna be going downuntil the fall in California,

so we're up against a big challenge.

- Well they're thereand isn't it wonderful?

God bless him, what a great guy.

- What a great guy.

What an incredible ministry.

I'm still trying to figure out

how he did the seven marathons

in seven days.- He had to lock

his leg in place and hetore his patella tendon.

- Only the Lord could've helped him

- Oh man.- to do that.