Keir Moore has had it all, seemingly, and lost it only to discover what he once enjoyed was not nearly as fulfilling as is his current life.

    Life has a way of teaching us such lessons.

    “I was selfish and self-centered,” says the 36-year-old Moore. “I used to use my smile and charm to get what I wanted. As it turned out, I learned it takes very little time to lose your friends and family and a lot longer to get them back.”

    These days Moore is a supporter of Hunters for the Hungry, a program that started three years ago by Kirby McDonald that provides venison to organizations such as LOVEs Kitchen in Meridian that feeds the homeless and impoverished. Together, the two men who have known each other since they were teenagers, hope to help those more in need. It has become a ministry of sorts for Moore and a community obligation for McDonald.

    “Last year we provided more than 1,500 pounds of deer meat to the kitchen and this year we have expanded to include more sponsors so we hope the response is better,” McDonald said. “We have — through donations and our sponsors — been able to give LOVEs Kitchen two freezers to keep the meat so we are moving up to a level I had hoped.”

    If McDonald is taking the lead in moving the program on the ground, Moore is making headway in another way: by pushing Hunters for the Hungry to include ministry work.

    “I want to promote the Hunters for the Hungry while at the same time try to reach these people who are down and out like I once was through my spiritual beliefs,” said Moore. “I think me and Kirby have all the bases covered.”

    Moore cannot look at someone who is homeless or hungry without remembering his not too distant past. He’s a man who has been stabbed, shot, has eaten out of trash cans and battled the demons of drug addiction.

    He lost everything after working so hard to attain it. He had the degree from Ole Miss. He got the good jobs and lived on the beach in Florida, enjoying the good life. Unfortunately, the high Moore was experiencing was not of life itself but rather the drugs that began to control his life.

    Through his drug addiction came the downfall of a promising career. Moore says he lost everything including his first marriage and was in and out of rehab for much of 2006 and 2007. He finally got off the drugs and decided to join the Army as a combat medic but eight months in was granted a hardship honorable discharge because of circumstances surrounding his young son.

    “I was trying to put my life back together and then things happened that sent me even lower than I had been before,” Moore says.

    Working now for a trucking company, Moore was making a delivery in Memphis when he was robbed and kidnapped at gunpoint. After being beaten for more than an hour in an abandoned apartment complex, Moore fought back, determined to get free.

    “I was struggling with one of the guys who had a gun pointed at me and another one came up and shot me point blank with a 45,” Moore said. “They left me for dead but my medic training saved my life.”

    But that life would be tested again as the pain drugs prescribed to him led him back into the abyss of addiction and abuse. It came time that Moore had burned all the bridges behind him. He had no family support and no friends. Sitting in a homeless shelter, Moore says he cried himself to sleep praying God would just take him and end the suffering.

    “I realized then it was only me and God,” Moore said. “I picked up the Bible because I wanted to know if He did indeed keep His promises.”

    Opening the pages of a Bible to Moore seemed like opening up a new chapter in his life. He found the solace he was looking for between the thin sheets of paper. As he read, he says he found the peace he had been searching for in his life. Moore said that during the worst time of his life, he was the happiest he’d ever been.

    “I had nothing and yet I had everything,” Moore said.

    A relationship grew into a family as Moore met and married his wife Samantha. The couple has three children now. Moore says they have a home in Meridian and he is richer than ever before.

    “God does keep his promises and Jesus is real,” says Moore. “This is the ministry I try to bring to those who have nothing. I want to show them how to have everything like I do.”

    Moore remembers when he was 13 years old his Aunt Laura told him God had a mission for him. All the years, the good and the bad, Moore kept that thought in his mind and never once let God totally out of his soul.

    “I always knew God was waiting on me to come to Him,” Moore said. “He gives us choices and when we choose Him, He rewards us like He has rewarded me with my current life and family.”

    Moore points out Jesus performed all his miracles in the streets. He believes many problems are met and dealt with outside the church where the needs are greatest.

    “The church is where we have the pep rally and the streets is where we take care of our problems,” Moore said. “That is what I’m trying to do and that is the intent of Hunters of the Hungry.”

    In a two-pronged assault on poverty, homelessness and hunger, Moore and McDonald are teaming up and doing their part to help those less prepared to survive. It is a partnership through community responsibility and spirituality that drives the men to help in their own ways.

    For more information about Hunters for the Hungry, contact Kirby McDonald at 601-480-5456, or Keir Moore at 601-604-7264.