By RICK BADIE | Thursday, March 1, 2007, 06:00 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He lost nearly all of his material possessions in a fire. He rescued his 5-year-old son, and suffered third-degree burns on his hands and arms. He has a copy of the incident report from the Jan. 31 fire at a Lawrenceville apartment complex. Eddie Jefferson, a single parent who works at a Publix warehouse, needs help. He’s starting over. “This is the first time something like this has ever happened to me,” said Jefferson, 36. Michael Johnson and his wife were evicted from a duplex they’d rented for 11 years. He’s not mad at the landlord, though. He was nearly $4,000 behind on rent, a situation he attributes to tragedies and mishaps. An admitted love for the bottle hasn’t helped, but the laborer - who said he’ll work any job - has sworn it off. “The Lord has got me here for something,” Johnson, 51, told me. “I’ve asked him to show me the reason.” Two men. Two situations. Both found help at the Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministry, which provides emergency aid to the needy. Volunteers at this center hear lots of tear-jerkers. Sometimes, fate plays an ugly hand - layoffs, sickness and, in Jefferson’s case, unforeseen destruction. Other times, poor choices and addictions lead to destitution, and sometimes to the doors of the county’s six co-ops. The road the clients travel doesn’t much matter, though. Volunteers don’t criticize and chastise. Their mission is to uplift - with food, clothes, shelter, sometimes money to pay a utility bill or fill a prescription. Before you criticize, start popping off about virtue, personal responsibility and choice, stop and think. About yourself. Maybe you didn’t know it. Maybe you deny it, or have conveniently forgotten. But somebody, somewhere along the way, gave you a hand, too. “A lot of people we see have made poor choices, said Linda Freund, director of the Lawrenceville ministry. “It doesn’t mean that we can’t help them and that a child should have to live without water or heat in their homes, and it doesn’t mean that people can’t change. “I’ve been here six years. It’s the exception for anyone to be here and not need help.” On Wednesday, the Badie Tour stopped by the Lawrenceville ministry. It operates out of a church on Church Street, behind Lawrenceville City Hall - the old Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. The ministry uses the pews for its waiting area. This operation doles out about 20,000 cans of food each month, and spends $16,000 a month helping clients with prescriptions, shelter and utility bills. More than 20 churches supports the center; 80 percent of its operating budget goes toward client services. Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 57 people sought help. Jefferson, the single dad, received a $100 check to apply toward rent on his new apartment. “I’m just blessed,” Jefferson told a case worker. Johnson, the evictee, praised the organization. On Monday, the ministry put him in an extended-stay hotel. Volunteers even helped him move his belongings to storage. “They’re beautiful people,” he told me. “They have halos over their heads.”