Godliness always has a ripple effect. Revival leads to action. Another ripple effect may have been the opening of City Union Mission. Our only clue is the coinciding timing, as waves of caring for the poor swept over the city. We can only guess that as a member of the clergy, Rev. Bulkley would have been present at the downtown gathering and part of the wave of Christian men and women fighting for righteousness and reform in the city.
At the time, Kansas City controlled by the mob allowed a vice district where illegal businesses could flourish as long as they paid a monthly fine. As the Society for the Suppression of Commercialized Vice worked to end prostitution, their reform efforts successfully shut down many brothels, leaving behind empty brothels in the vice district.
Three years after opening City Union Mission, the Bulkleys moved into one such building at 4 th and Wyandotte. She had met the Bulkleys as her neighbors and given her heart to Christ through their ministry.
Upon her death, she bequeathed her mansion to the mission. City Union Mission kept growing over the decades, expanding their operations to serve women and children as well as men. Today, nearly years later,City Union Mission still runs as a homeless shelter, serving thousands of men, women, and children every year.
It is one of 84 Dream Centers nationwide, the first of which was founded in by Matthew Barnett. Action following revival is the typical pattern of Christians. Whenever hearts truly turn to the Lord, their actions follow suit. Their gaze shifts from inward to outward. Isaiah says,. Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
