Pubdate: Sat, 25 Dec 2004
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Diane Bell
Note: Does not print LTEs from outside it's circulation area.

LOST SHEEP ARE NOW SHEPHERDS

Five years ago Tony Marasca was a drug addict sleeping behind a bush
outside a church in Ocean Beach. Today, he is a pastor of Set Free
Ministries, preaching every Friday evening from the pulpit of that
same church to many people who, as he was, are down and out.

Marasca's life journey was more like a slide than a roller
coaster.

He was just a few college credits shy of earning his BA when his
mother got sick. He quit school to care for her. When she died, he
slid into depression and purposelessness. He spent the money she had
left him on a van and for traveling coastal California.

When the money ran out, he settled, with his memories of boyhood
visits, in Ocean Beach. He played in a band, lived in his van and hung
out as his drug habit took control. When Marasca lost the van, he took
refuge wherever he could, often sleeping in church entries, begging
for handouts and Dumpster-diving for food.

About 4 years ago he met Pastor Jon Cabrera, who was reaching out to
the homeless through Set Free Ministries. Now Marasca is part of a
movement of folks who, like himself and Pastor Cabrera, after turning
their lives around, are helping other lost souls.

Set Free is dedicated to folks in trouble -- depressed, angry,
addicted to alcohol or drugs and, in many cases, homeless. The music
at its services is familiar rock 'n' roll tunes with positive messages
replacing the four-letter words and dark imagery. "People can wear
anything to our church -- T-shirts, shorts, sandals.

We don't care what's on the outside," says Cabrera. "It's what's on
the inside that counts."

One or two days a week, Set Free pastors and parishioners walk the
beaches at Mission Beach and Ocean Beach offering to help anyone
willing to be helped. Through arrangements with area churches,
breakfast is offered to the penniless on different mornings.

For those who really want to change, Set Free has a network in
place.

Its first church here was in City Heights when it was a tough
neighborhood. But, thanks to Sol Price and an influx of social
services, City Heights has a new start.

A new elementary school was planned for the church site owned by Set
Free's parent organization, the Southern Baptist Association. The
money from the land sale enabled the church to buy a 16.5-acre ranch
in Dulzura, a place for the homeless to launch new, more productive
lives.

The organization also acquired a 101-room hotel in El Cajon and has a
second facility, in Alpine, for women.

Those who want to change their lives first go to the ranch for two
months, leaving behind the negative friends and demons of their
immediate past. They maintain the ranch, attend counseling, join AA
programs, learn anger management, study the Bible and forge a new
support group.

When they're ready to re-enter society, they move into the El Cajon
hotel for at least two months.

They run the hotel, maintain the grounds, clean the rooms and learn
the business.

The church bought a restaurant next door where they also
work.

Marasca, thrilled at the transformation in his own life, spent two
years in Set Free's minister program before being ordained.

He is now one of Cabrera's chief assistants.

"I'm behind this group 150 percent," says Claudia Jack, a lifelong
volunteer in Ocean Beach who also sits on the OB Town Council. She
knew Marasca when he was strung out and a fixture at the foot of Ocean
Beach pier. Some nights, he stayed near her house.

She hadn't seen him around for about seven months, when one day he
tapped her on the shoulder. "Remember me?" he asked.

She turned to face a cleanshaven, polite young man. She hugged him.
Jack could not get over his transformation and it made her a believer
in the good the group is doing. She now calls herself a Set Free
partner. "We reach out," she says. "We don't wait for people in need
to come to us. We go out and find them." They pulled in 15 people on
their second annual Memorial Day reach-out.

Cabrera, like Marasca, was an addict.

His demon was heroin. He tried various help programs.

But it wasn't until he met Phil Aguilar, who founded Set Free
Ministries, sometimes referred to as the motorcycle ministry, in
Anaheim, that he found the perfect fit for him. That was in 1982. A
little more than five years ago, Aguilar sent Cabrera to San Diego to
see what he could accomplish. In addition to El Cajon and Ocean Beach,
Set Free now offers regular church services and "reach-outs" in
National City, Oceanside and Ramona.

Marasca's life came full circle the other night when he asked one of
his Friday night service attendees where he was from. The fellow said
he had been sleeping behind a bush by the church when he heard the
music.

It was a bush that had given Marasca shelter. "There's our next
pastor," said one Set Free staff member.

Maybe he will be right.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin