"One Man's Dream"

History of the Good Samaritan Training Center

by David Cloxton

Way back in 1987, KCJH, your Christian Companion radio station, had a radio program called, "God's Storehouse." The disc jockeys who participated in that program were Jerry Blakeney and Darryl Seibold.  The theme of the program was to take calls from the listeners to encourage and pray with them, who had needs in their lives. One family called in a need of food, stating that there was no food in their home and their children had nothing to eat. Jerry and Darryl prayed through the airwaves, in the Name of Jesus, for that need to be met. When the prayer had ended, Jerry and Darryl both were pricked in their hearts by God to answer that prayer request for that family. They drove to a grocery store and purchased five large bags of groceries, using their own money. Through the information the radio station received from the family, they knew the address. They carried the five bags of groceries to the door of the home, set them down, rang the doorbell and hurriedly left so they could not be seen. They did not want to take credit for what God was doing through this prayer request.

That act of kindness and answer to prayer, birthed the dream of the Good Samaritan Training Center. In 1992, the Center opened its doors to our community, showing the love of God through food distribution and clean, mended clothing, as well as many other services, offered to our community through a Christ-centered ministry. Since that time, hundreds of thousands of families have been helped through the Good Samaritan ministry. 

Many years ago, Darryl Siebold tragically died in an airplane accident. On that fatal flight back to Stockton, Jerry was invited to fly along with Darryl and he declined. Since that day, Jerry Blakeney has been the President of the Board of Directors of the Good Samaritan Training Center. After many years of adversity and relocation, twice to two different locations, we found our new home at our current location at 1331 E. Fremont Street.

The original asking price for this property was 1.5 million dollars, but following God's will and being confident and determined in Whom we have believed, we purchased the property for $299,000. Jerry's desire was always to have a home to help rehabilitate men from their drug and alcohol  addictions. He stated that if the devil could destroy the man of the home, that the wife would no longer have a husband and the children would no longer have a father. His burden reflected that, and his desire was to turn the upstairs at our current location to a transitional housing, faith-based facility, centered around Jesus Christ, to be offered to the men suffering in our community. 

It took a few years for us to receive our Use Permit through the City of Stockton, but since we have acquired that status, we began our Restoration Station Men's Home Newsletter, which was named by Jerry Blakeney. The couple of years we have been fundraising through the newsletter, we have raised $300,000.

Jerry suffered through nine cancer diagnoses and kept his faith and love for God. A few days before he passed away, he came by the Center and the last words I heard as he was leaving was, "One regret I have is that I cannot help complete the remodeling of the upstairs men's home." The next day, he went into the hospital, and soon after passed away. Our former President and Founder of the Good Samaritan Training Center handed over the baton and the race that we are running, is to fulfill one man's dream that was given by God.