Mel Trotter

MELVIN ERNEST TROTTER
1870 - 1940

Perhaps many people fail to realize the importance of the city missions to the human derelicts that inhabit the slum areas of our larger cities, but Mel Trotter knew - for it was just a mission, the Pacific Garden in Chicago, that lifted him from a drunken, pointless existence and set him on the road to becoming one of the world's great evangelists. Intoxicated to the point of complete incomprehension, Mel Trotter stumbled into the mission in Chicago one snowy night in 1897, and was shown kindness, care, and consideration. After three days of proper treatment Mel had reached a sober status but with sobriety came a feeling of resentment against the sermons he thought were forthcoming. The Director of the Mission neither preached nor criticized, however, but merely invited Mel to stay at the mission as long as he liked. Mell stayed, and a week later, through the silent example of these Christian workers, Mel Trotter made a decision to give up his former way of life and become a follower of Christ. From that time Mel Trotter was one of the most diligent workers in the evangelistic field, and during his lifetime, established more than sixty-seven city missions in the United States.