HOUSTON -- Debra and Kenneth Walker made a commitment nearly 18 years ago to not only help the homeless in downtown Houston, but to also deliver hope and show them a path to change. That's why they were selected as this month's Jefferson Award winners, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

The Walkers handle the material as well as the spiritual.

Every Saturday night on the corner of Fannin at Commerce, an army of volunteers joins Heaven's Everlasting Promise ministry, known as HELP, guided by the Walkers.

The couple said they were once on the wrong path in life before they found God.

Then they found a purpose.

"Everybody wants to know that somebody cares about them. All I'm to do is let them know that there's hope. That there's a way out," Kenneth Walker said.

"I was only on the streets a couple weeks before I heard them singing and it was kind of rough," said David Drude, who has been on the street for seven months. "When you're in the situation that I'm in, a lot of people are in, you need hope. They keep me full of hope and my heart light."

"I see them as a blessing from God because they work for us, so that we'll have hope to live," said Fernando Rodriguez, who has been on the street for three months.

The Walkers said they know everything is in God's time but it can be difficult.

"As a mother, I'd like to just shake them and say, 'How long is it going to take? How far down do you have to go?'" Debra Walker said.

The Walkers said they have success stories, although they wish there were more.

A bright spot came two years ago, when they performed a wedding on that street corner for two people whose lives they helped change.

"We see people get jobs, see them get their family back, get their wives back, their kids back and it's not a lot, not a big number, but it does happen and that's what it's about," said Terry Strack, the pastor of Gideon Baptist Church.

"It's not up to us to change them. We just have to keep telling them there is hope and that He can change their lives," Debra Walker said.

The ministry has never missed a Saturday night -- not even the floods from Tropical Storm Allison could stop them.

"God allowed us to go into Houston and the great thing about it is when we got there to that first stop, they were there (during Allison)," Kenneth Walker said.

The Walkers said it was their privilege to accept the Jefferson Award on behalf of all the people who make up HELP Ministries. They also stressed that they have received 100 times more than they have given, and will continue with the ministry as long as they are able.