Pete Cunningham works with the needy for Green Pastures, a charity aiming to house 1,000 people a year.,,,
A former stockbroker was living the high life and partying hard until God got his attention through a preacher who seemed to know everything he was up to. Today he runs a charity that houses thousands of homeless and marginalised families.
Caught up in a whirlwind of drinking, parties, embezzling from his employer and dating three girlfriends, Pete Cunningham was living life in the fast lane.
London-bred Pete, now 79, had been a tearaway teen, partying hard as a stockbroker in the 60s before unexpectedly finding faith aged 21 at a church service.
“A man began to speak and it was like he had a book of my life – he began to touch on things that were happening in my life that no one else could know.
“I wanted the ground to swallow me up. I began to weep and said, ‘God, if you can love me you can have my life,’” Pete said in an interview with Life Stories Worldwide.
He went into full-time ministry, pastoring various churches before moving to Southport at the age of 57.
Here, the charity Green Pastures was born.
“The council asked for help with their application for European funding.
“They said, ‘We’ve got to put in some information on homeless people and those we’re looking after who live under the pier.’”
The funding duly arrived, but none was spent on the homeless. Pete was incensed.
“I said, ‘God, we raised this money and not one person who needed housing has been housed!’”
God’s reply came in the story of the Good Samaritan.
“The last verse struck me. The man said to the innkeeper, ‘If I owe you anything further I will pay you when I come again.’ The man he was helping could have relapsed, could have been there for six weeks, but he still guaranteed to pay for his health and well-being.
“I felt God say, ‘I didn’t tell you to go to the council for a handout. You should be helping these people yourself.’”
So Pete did just that. In 1999, when a desperate family knocked on his door, Pete cashed in his £6,000 pension. With his son Andrew and Green Pastures’ Vicki Woodley, Pete bought two flats.
They began by housing a man living under Southport pier after a terrible divorce which left him hitting the bottle and unable to see his kids. Green Pastures helped him back into work and to gain access to his children. He ended up marrying the second person the charity housed – a woman in an adjoining flat.
Pete has stuck to this mix of housing and practical support as Green Pastures has grown.
“We are able to purchase property across the nation to house people who are homeless – people who have just come out of prison, families in temporary accommodation and failed asylum seekers.”
Green Pastures is now active in around 120 towns across the UK, housing nearly 5,000 people. Pete aims to grow its reach until it is housing 1,000 people a year.
Under its business model, the charity’s 2,000-plus investors buy stock for up to 5% returns. The charity then partners with churches, buying properties to manage and let at affordable rates and relying on churches to provide for the social and spiritual needs of the tenants placed.
And while Pete is overjoyed to be providing practical help to people in the midst of an escalating homeless crisis, he is equally excited to be helping people find faith.
“The churches look after the people we house and the wonderful news is we’re about winning souls. This year we’ve seen about 1,100 people come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
“We see people coming to Jesus because we looked after them. This thrills me. The body of Christ needs to function together like this.”
