The pastor of an influential Sacramento, California megachurch has said he will live on the streets for two weeks or until $100,000 is raised to start a homeless shelter in the area.

Rick Cole says that he feels God calling him to take the step to raise awareness of the need for a winter shelter for the homeless of his community.

“Tomorrow, I’m going downtown on light rail, I picked up my light rail pass today…I’ve never ridden light rail in my life, not even once, not even for fun, and so that’s gonna be my mode of transportation for the next two weeks and we’ll adjust as we go along the way and we’ll communicate to you as we go along the way,” Cole explained in a sermon to his congregation Saturday.

“That’s what I believe God wants me to do and what we’re gonna do together,” Cole went on to say. “I’d like us just to make our prayer about God’s power to touch our city…This idea is not very old, probably about two or three weeks old and every step along the way it’s only gained momentum and excitement. My wife even has grown Ok with it. That was a miracle all by itself so we are excited about the many things I think God wants us to do with this particular project and how we can grow and impact this community.”

The shelter, which will be called Winter Sanctuary, has an overall goal of $300,000.  A website has been created at www.revonthestreet.com to allow people to donate to the mission.

“The ultimate goal is there are some hurting people, really hurting and we’re taught by God to help ’em. Go to them, make a difference. When you do this to the least if these Jesus said you done it to me. You want to get close to Jesus get close to some hurting people and when you help ’em in His name then you’ve just touched him in the most profound way,” Cole told his congregation Saturday.