It’s August 30th and we need your help.

Dear Friends,

The number of children coming to URM for shelter and services has increased 55% over last year.  This alarming trend makes the battle we are fighting to remain sustainable in these incredibly challenging times all the more difficult and…all the more important.

Weekly occupancy reports do not do justice to needs we are seeing every day.  For example, I made dinner for all of the moms and kids at Hope Gardens last week.  The campus is bursting with 70 moms and senior ladies and 100 children.  I was so thankful for the provision of Hope Gardens Family Center as we served these precious families in two shifts!  The next day, I greeted yet 1 more mom with her 12 year old son at URM bringing the total number of children downtown to 88.  That’s a total of 188 precious children currently depending on us for help!

 

Please stand with us, pray with us and support us during this

challenging time of great need by families and children!

Giving for July and August is almost 50% less than we budgeted.  This combined with, as of today, not being reimbursed by FEMA, $308,000, for providing last year’s Winter Shelters, has put us in a tenuous position for the next 45 days, when normal Fall giving should hopefully provide some much needed relief!

Could you find it in your heart,  despite these trying times, to give an early, generous gift to URM, to bridge the summer gap and keep this life-saving work going?

Thank you and God bless you.

Sincerely,

Rev. Andy Bales

Please Donate Now

On line► urm.org/donate

Via Smart Phonehttp://m.give.mobi/urm

Kids Learn to Surf with Malibu Gathering Church

A few weeks ago, members of Malibu Gathering Church invited URM kids to Malibu to learn to surf! They supplied wetsuits, boards, and lunch. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a blast.

Thanks so much to everyone at Malibu Gathering Church who made this opportunity and fun day possibly! You can view some great photos  from the day on our Facebook page.

Volunteers Needed For Skid Row Registry Week

Downtown Pathway Home – in partnership with the 100k Homes Campaign – is committed to housing 450 men and women experiencing homelessness in the Skid Row community located in Downtown Los Angeles. As a way of addressing chronic homelessness in Skid Row, Downtown Pathway Home is collaborating with social services agencies in the Downtown Los Angeles area and organizing a Registry Week to assess who the most vulnerable individuals are that are accessing the courtyards and dayrooms of Downtown shelters.

During the week of September 12-16, Downtown Pathway Home will conduct its official Registry Week with the help of 100 volunteers. They are currently recruiting dedicated volunteers to help survey our community’s most vulnerable homeless individuals. Union Rescue Mission is the host site for the event, and we would love to see your support in Downtown Pathway Homes Skid Row Registry project.

Here are important dates for the registry:

• Monday – September 12, 6-9pm Volunteer Training

• Tuesday – September 13, 6-9pm Survey

• Wednesday – September 14, 1-4pm Data Entry

• Thursday – September 15, 1-4pm

HOW TO VOLUNTEER: Sign-up at http://lacpc.wufoo.com/forms/downtown-pathway-home-registry-week-sept-1216/

Questions? Look us up on Facebook at Downtown Pathway Home or Email us at DPHquestions@urm.org.

Golf Cart and Utility Vehicle

We are in need of a multi-passenger golf cart (gas or electric powered) for use at our Hope Gardens Family Center. The staff use golf carts to transport families, senior women, residents, and donors around the property.

Along with golf carts our Hope Gardens Family Center is in need of two gas powered utility vehicles (4X4 preferred).  During the rainy season utility vehicles are used for transportation and to access parts of Hope Gardens that are otherwise very difficult to reach. Additionally they are used for fire-watch, nature hikes for the kids, and daily maintenance.

For more information, please contact Christopher Strode, Gifts-In-Kind, at (213) 673-4801 or cstrode@urm.org.

Thank you!

Refrigerated Truck

Union Rescue Mission is in need of a refrigerated truck (new or used) that will be used for pick-up of food donations.

If you can help or have any info regarding this need, please contact Chris Strode at (213) 673-4801 or cstrode@urm.org.

Thank you!

Strengthen Your Weak Knees

Have you ever been seemingly unfairly, severely disciplined?  How did you react?  I remember some severe times of discipline in my life, like not making the All-Star Baseball team as a Little Leaguer because of my bad attitude.  I shaped up the next year and was a unanimous choice! Another time I was wrongly accused of cheating in class, blew up at the teacher who was a former shot-putter in college, and threw my books at the chalkboard and walked out.  When we sat down and my mom explained all that was going on in my life – brother in prison, Dad losing his business and everything, and me being diagnosed with diabetes – the teacher, Mr. Klein and I became good friends. There have been times when I understood and deserved discipline, and times when I’ve been bewildered by it. 

Right now is one of those bewildering times.  I am doing my best, working too hard, and I am facing one challenge after another, poor health, a wicked economy, lots of criticism.  One problem after another.  I don’t even know whether I will weather next week!!

Surprisingly, I am thankful.  I’m counting on the Scripture verse found in Hebrews: 12:5-6:

Hebrews 12:5-6 (ESV)
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

The tough times make me certain that God loves me as a son.  I am also certain that it all will add up for my good, and draw me closer to the Lord.

Job 5:17-18 (ESV)
17 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.

A favorite song of mine is the new one, Blessings, by Laura Story.  I want this song performed at my funeral;

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

I believe these words with my whole heart, and I am thankful for the severe discipline that I am currently receiving from above.  I know that the only correct response is to do what I did in Little League baseball, get a good attitude, and strengthen whatever area is weak in my life. 

Hebrews 12:12-13 (ESV)
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Blessings,

 

Specific Need: 6-8 Large Flat Screen TVs

URM is in need of 6 to 8 large flat screen TVs to put up for our guests.  Four TVs would be placed in our men’s day room, one would be placed in our women’s guest chapel, and one would be placed on the fourth floor for our single mothers.

If you have any information or questions, don’t hesitate to call Christopher Strode at (213) 673-4801 or email cstrode@urm.org.

Thank you!

The Mission Newsletter – August 2011

“Uncle Al” Finds a Family

Al’s traumatic childhood left him alone and at war with the world — and himself. Love gave him a family.

Al never had a family to speak of. Both his parents were raging alcoholics, so Al was passed around 54 times as a child to various friends and family. Later his father and sister were brutally murdered. He grew up never knowing love, safety, or trust.

“I bottled it all up and retreated into myself,” says Al, 56. “I hated the whole world and everyone in it.” And he hated himself. He was an alcoholic and crack addict who went to bed each night with the muzzle of a loaded gun in his mouth, hoping to pull the trigger in his sleep. He took up skydiving, hoping the parachute wouldn’t open. He tried provoking police to shoot him. And he served three long prison terms for robberies and violent crimes. “I was hurting,” he says, “so I wanted to go out and hurt other people and society.”

Following Jesus

But during his third term in prison, Al found Jesus. “That was the beginning,” he says. “I started praying, ‘God, if you lead me, I will follow.’” In 2003, God led him to Union Rescue Mission. Recovery was the hardest thing Al ever faced. “When I came to the Mission,” Al says, “I already self-destructed in every area of my life. And I had no clue how to put it back together.

“Most of the time I found myself grasping the edge of my bed, repeating, ‘This is where God wants you, don’t fight Him.’” Soon, Al found friendship with two men: his chaplain, Steve Borja, and his supervisor, Bob Forney. “Those were the first two men I ever trusted in my life.”

Over the next four years Al experienced love, trust, and safety he’d never known. It transformed his life. But when his friend Bob left Union Rescue Mission and moved to Oregon in 2007, Al faced another crisis: “He abandoned me, just like everyone else. I didn’t take that very good.”

Moving North

But a few months later, Bob wrote Al a letter, saying, “I bought you a trailer. I want you to come up and live with me and my family.”

Al didn’t hesitate. Today he owns the only bike shop in Oregon City, near Portland, and he’s a leader in his church. He builds bikes and gives them to children in need. He leads a ministry that reaches out to men recently released from prison and he mentors men who are still incarcerated. But best of all, he’s part of a family he never had.

“Bob’s family adopted me,” Al says. “It’s not only Bob and his wife, I have dozens of nieces and nephews, and they all call me ‘Uncle Al.’ I never knew people could experience so much love.”

Love Saved My Father from a Hard Life

Al’s story in this issue of The Mission reminds me of my own dad when he was growing up. Life was cruel to my father.

Dad grew up in an alcoholic home filled with violence, chaos, desertion and homelessness. When he was nine, his mom deserted the family, and the Des Moines Register featured his story, describing a little boy praying by his bed for his mother to return home. Then he went away to Boy Scout camp one year, and when he returned home he learned that his entire family had left him.

What saved my dad was the love he received from a family that took him in … and later, the love of a wife who believed in that boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the most effective way to combat homelessness and hopelessness is through love. That’s why we work so hard to build healthy relationships with men and Union Rescue Mission.

Love gives them the courage to give life another try.

Blessings,

Andy Bales, CEO

A Very Special Day at URM

by Guest Bloggers Chris Strode & Scott Bonovich 

Thursday, August 4, 2011 will always be remembered as a very special day in the recent history of Union Rescue Mission.

On that day, four gentlemen from UGL Limited, an international Fortune 500 company, came to URM for the sole purpose of meeting and interviewing ten men who had graduated from our CLDP Life Transformation program. The  interview process was set-up and arranged through John Kennelly and Will Nicklas of Toyota Motor Sales, USA who took time from their own very busy corporate schedules to mentor the ten Alumnus over the course of eight weeks. It was a day that changed lives forever.

Brantley Wheeler – Senior Director of Operations, Rodney McSheridan – Director of Operations, Robert Pugh – Regional Facility Manager and Jason Rawls – Operations Manager from UGL Services along with our two friends from Toyota Motor Sales, USA met in the board room where they heard from Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, Chaplain Steve Borja, our Chief Programs Officer and Chaplain Rodney Tanaka, chaplain of our men’s graduate groups –  Apprentice and Nikkos.  Also present were the ten men interviewees.  During the presentation, Andy Bales shared, “…the best part of my job is watching living miracles like the men sitting with us today who have reached past the level of responsibility and accountability of their lives and job functions…they have taken ownership and remained teachable in the process.”

After a tour of our downtown facility, the men from UGL Services got a first-hand glimpse at what is involved in true Life Transformation, coming away from the tour with admiration for the participants as well as the manner in which URM utilized every available space to its maximum, “…far more,” they said, “…than so many other facilities they worked with”.

At the culmination of over 8 weeks of mentoring and job preparation, the ‘hour of decision’ arrived. Two offices were used for the interviewing with the URM alumni receiving last minute coaching from their mentors, John and Will.

The process took several hours with heightened tension and anticipation; “…like expectant fathers waiting for the delivery…” according to John Kennelly. Nobody knew the outcome, nobody really knew what to expect – least of all those ten courageous men going through the interview process, men who only a little over a year before, had come to URM tired of the mean streets, tired of their way of life and looking – needing – to be transformed.

By 4:30 Thursday evening the interviews were completed, and the UGL representatives met to systematically compare notes and began requesting specific men return to meet with them. We would have been delighted had even one of our alumni been offered a job; ecstatic with two. But that Thursday was a very special day indeed…THREE of our alumni were offered immediate employment and a further four were offered jobs in the immediate future! Seven out of ten! Had this been baseball it would have been a Hall-of-Fame day! And perhaps as important were the first words from Senior Director of Operations, Brantley Wheeler and Director of Operations Rodney McSheridan who chorused, “When can we do this again?”

Our hope, as time goes on, is to share even more about community involvement in Union Rescue Mission’s Life Transformation programs as we continue to build upon our Job Development Program.  Lives were changed on that very special day; the lives of 10 courageous and hardworking men, the lives of 4 unique executives from UGL Services, the lives of 2 very special friends from Toyota Motor Sales, USA…and our own.

Full Harvest Church Hosts Outreach

Union Rescue Mission sends out a special thanks to our faithful partners from Full Harvest International Church for hosting The Covering Community Outreach in our San Julian parking lot Saturday, August 6th.

The event was a blessing for people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Skid Row.  The day was full of exciting worship music, fun for the kids, and a BBQ for everyone with over 1000 hot dogs and 1000 hamburgers served!

Bishop Clarence E. Mc Clendon and 130 members of Full Harvest Church came out to make the day a success. We want to give a special thanks to Pastor McAdoo House, Lavinia Books and her team that put in a lot of work to make sure the outreach was a blessing for all!