On a mission from God: Ex-addicts turned ‘God’s Special Forces’ pluck drug users from the fire w/ God's Special Forces video, slide show and Community Conversation radio show

By Scott Meeker

smeeker@joplinglobe.com

The yellow school bus rumbles down the narrow entrance as evening falls on the mobile home park south of Joplin. It slowly navigates a tight turn and comes to a stop at the side of the road.

Its passengers — about 15 or so — disembark and gather on the street in front of the bus, where Daryl Long begins separating them into teams of three or four.

They wear matching camouflage T-shirts. Some carry Bibles, others a stack of yellow flyers that advertise an upcoming anti-drug rally. Daryl directs each group where to go and they fan out down either side of the mobile-home park.

Many of these homes have seen better days. Paint is peeling on some, several sport Confederate flags in the windows. This neighborhood has been the scene of a number of drug-related incidents in recent years, as well as a murder in 2006, according to police reports.

Click the player below to watch video of God's Special Forces on the front lines in Joplin.

Daryl is in a group that includes Kenny Arnold — an imposing figure sporting a biker mustache, a church deacon who is sometimes known affectionately as “Big” — and Kenny’s wife, Terri, a slight woman who wears her hair pulled back under a ballcap.

They spy a group of people sitting outside one of the homes and make a beeline for them. There’s an acrid smell that wafts along with the breeze, one that’s not unfamiliar to some of the visitors.

“This is new territory for us as a group, but some of us have a lot of history here,” says Kenny.

“Yeah,” Daryl says, looking around as they walk. “I used to cook meth out here.”

“And I used to pick it up here,” Kenny says.

The members of a group calling themselves God’s Special Forces continue toward the home with purposeful strides. They’re on a mission and they won’t be turned back.

They’ve been where some of these people are, they say. And they know a way out.