DECATUR - Jerry Aldridge knows what it is like for a family to suddenly need help.

"We had a fire in 1989 and lost the biggest part of what we had," said Aldridge, 64, as he takes a break after helping load a couple of dressers onto a truck.

About six years after the fire, Aldridge and a couple of friends founded Central Illinois Christians in Mission, a ministry that distributes goods to needy people.

The ministry, now sponsored by New Day Community Church, on the city's northeast side, has grown into an operation of majo proportions.

In June, the ministry removed furniture, blankets and sheets from 223 rooms at the Chancellor Hotel in Champaign, just before it was demolished. Ministry volunteers worked for a week to haul more than 15 semitruck trailers' worth of merchandise to a storage facility.

The ministry works with agencies such as Dove Inc., Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Faith in Action.

"Since October, we've helped 50 families," Aldridge said.

While many New Day members are involved in the ministry, Aldridge, a retiree, is its only full-time volunteer.

Jerry Pelz, director of Northeast Community Fund, which provides food to low-income people, said Al ;dridge also helps his group, sometimes using the ministry's trucks to haul food.

"He is one of the most willing, open, spirit-led people I have ever met," Pelz said. "He will do the most menial thing and also do tough things to help.

"He has a willingness that is very unique. He helps us here with moving things, picking things up, doing repairs, whatever needs to be done."

Aldridge retired from Decatur Pattern Works in 1997. He began working at the company when he was in his 20s, and owned the company by the time he retired, 32 years later. He sold it in order to devote his energies to ministry work.

"God worked everything out," he said. "I knew it was supposed to be."

Aldridge, who was raised by a single mother in Cerro Gordo, said he was poor as a child, but "didn't know it." He always had clothes to wear and a place to sleep.

He has a soft spot in his heart for children, which propels him to put long hours into the ministry.

"A lot of what we do out here is for the kids," he said. "We see kids sleeping on the floor."

Each child is given a stuffed animal, with a tag on it inscribed with a Bible verse.

"When you see the situation they're in, you want to help them as much as you can."

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.