David Newman stands outside the Astoria Rescue Mission on Bond Street.

There is a passage from Deuteronomy posted on the Astoria Rescue Mission’s website that, at first blush, reads like a request but really is a command.

“If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them,” Moses instructed. “Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.”

David Newman, the mission’s executive director, takes the command literally.

“We help the least, the last and the lost,” he said.

In January, the mission, which includes separate men’s and women’s houses on Bond Street, recorded 884 nights lodged, 3,185 meals served, seven salvations and seven baptisms.

While Newman is grateful the mission can offer shelter and food, his favorite statistics by far are the salvations and baptisms. “You betcha,” he said.

The Astoria Rescue Mission provides three- to five-day shelter for the needy but steers people who want to get back on their feet toward six month, one year and two year programs infused with the gospel.

The mission also hopes to open a family house on Bond Street, potentially filling a gap in the patchwork of social services for the homeless.

Newman and his board of directors are unapologetically Christian, believe in the power of prayer, see God’s hand in their victories and God’s lessons in their struggles.

Marlin Martin, the co-director of Clatsop Community Action, a nonprofit social services group, helps direct food to the mission.

“It’s taking people who are without homes and shelter off the street,” he said of Newman’s work. “It’s getting them safe and getting them comfortable and helping to preserve their dignity.

“There are a lot of people in this world who look down on those who are the victims of poverty, thinking they did something wrong, it’s all their fault, they’re bad people.

“They’re not. They’re victims in many cases of the world, of what happens in our country.”

Lean and intense, with the evangelism of a convert, Newman, 44, can speak from experience.

He describes himself as a foster child and former drug abuser who had four children out of wedlock before a personal collapse led him to the mission.

Tom Jones, the mission’s longtime executive director, became his father-in-law. Newman and his wife, Amy, who runs the women’s house, have three children.

“It’s about life change,” said Newman, who is also a contractor. “I can give a guy a job. I can put him to work. I can put him in a house.

“I can do all those things, but if that person doesn’t have a life change, he will lose the house, he will stop showing up to work …”

Newman measures success by salvation. “The success here is Christ,” he said.