Month: May 2013
Bold Moves and Tenacious Tweaks
Dear Friends,
As you probably know, I have a bold faith in God and count it a privilege to witness the miracles He performs in the lives of people at Union Rescue Mission each day. This past year, I’ve also been humbled and amazed by God’s miraculous handy work in my own life.
About this time last year, I was a very sick fellow. Struggling between a damaged heart, and nearly failed kidneys, I was stuck in a bit of a twilight zone. Any procedure that could repair my heart would have completely wiped out my kidney function. I was hanging on, doing my best, just barely staying off of kidney dialysis thanks to a very strict diet I’d maintained for two difficult years.
Then, on June 29th, 2012, after helping our team raise $5.8 Million in the last 40 days of the fiscal year, I had a heart attack, and actually, experienced heart failure. My only option was a quadruple bypass. One group of doctors felt I was too high a risk, but a courageous doctor, Dr. Randall Roberts, took a chance on me, and successfully performed the life-saving quadruple bypass. I was able to bounce back quite a bit, attend a URM Board meeting after 16 days, and was back to work full-time approximately one month after surgery. The life saving quadruple bypass, however, helped lead to the eventual demise of my kidneys, and after finishing last place in a long charity bike ride, I knew that it was time for dialysis. I began dialysis on October 2nd, 2012. I continued working each day and spent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening from 6 PM to 10 PM on dialysis.
I did this for 4 and ½ months, and I was prepared to carry on like this for quite awhile. However, my dear wife, Bonnie, stepped forward, was tested, and found to be a near perfect match for me. That was a near miracle in itself. She tested as if she were my daughter or my sister. On February 13th, the day before Valentine’s Day, Bonnie provided to me the gift of life through her kidney, and another bold doctor, Doctor Jeffrey Veale, took a big chance on me and placed my dear wife’s kidney in me. I was in the UCLA hospital for only 5 days, and the day I was released, Bonnie, a friend and I walked 3.2 miles around the Rose Bowl. We did that for 8 days in a row. I returned to the work that I love at Union Rescue Mission 3 weeks and 2 days after receiving the kidney. This may be a new world record, and another miracle recovery, as the previous record was 6 weeks and the norm for returning to work after a kidney transplant is 3 months.
While I was in the hospital, unable to sleep, late one night, I signed Bonnie and me up for the Rose Bowl Reverse Triathlon, just 4 and ½ weeks after our surgery. Bonnie thought that decision was silly and premature, but when race day came, we both completed the event and Bonnie was 10th in her age group and 2nd among all of the women entered in the swim portion. After 11 weeks of recovery, I feel like a brand new man. My numbers show that my kidney is functioning like a normal healthy person’s kidney. The numbers also show my bad cholesterol is low and my good cholesterol is high! My hopes are that any heart damage or clogged arteries are reversing and getting healthy too!
I know this is all due to God’s grace & goodness, your prayers, bold doctors, caring nurses, and my own tweaks to an extremely disciplined life style. However, none of this would have been possible without Bonnie’s sacrificial gift of love to me.
That is why I am writing to you, today. I want to share with you, some other, much more important numbers, for Union Rescue Mission. In order to stay healthy, whole, transform lives, & move ahead with our goals, Union Rescue Mission needs some sacrificial gifts of love. To be all that we can be to our guests, and to reach our goals for this year, we need each of our contributors’ active participating in helping us make up a $1 Million gap in our budgeted revenue, and in the next 50 days ending June 30th, we need to work together to raise $5.5 Million. If we are able to do this together, these are some of the bold actions we can take in this year and next:
- Continue to house & serve 810 precious men, women and children each night
- Continue to feed 2000 precious souls each day
- Continue to provide medical services, dental services, legal help and mental health counseling to hundreds each day
- Bring Hope Gardens, Gateway, Women’s CLDP, to 95%capacity & renovate all living quarters at URM’s Hope Gardens Family Center-adding 12 to 20 more units for precious moms and children currently on Skid Row
- Develop Women’s Recovery Program for 40 women on par with Men’s 1 Year Christian Life Discipleship Program in every aspect
- Launch a jobs program that connects 30% of URM grads with Employment, including the hiring of a jobs developer, jobs assessor, and we are proud to announce that we’ve hired a director of Social Enterprises and should launch a Thrift Store this year that will help provide, sustaining income for URM, job training for our graduates, and jobs for our graduates.
- Develop a stronger training program for staff, managers and Senior Leadership Team
I want to encourage you, do not be daunted by the $5.5 Million figure above, nor the few days left in our fiscal year! Together, last year, we raised $5.8 Million in the last 40 days of 2012. Remember, we believe in miracles. I believe in miracles.
If you love our precious guests, and appreciate the life transforming work that URM does, it is not so important the amount that you give today, but that you join many others in giving. Together we can reach our goal and move ahead boldly with this life changing work and these life saving goals.
Bless you.
Your co-worker in Christ,
Rev. Andy Bales
Learning Center
The Mission Newsletter – May 2013
Richard Rozman, 62, is a wealth-management advisor and manager in Manhattan Beach, California, and host of the radio program “The Rozman Experience,” which addresses volunteerism and philanthropy. He is a frequent donor and volunteer at Union Rescue Mission.
Richard Rozman loves to talk about Mother Teresa. “People would often ask her,” he says, “‘How do you keep serving the poor, the sick, and the dying with such vigor?’ She would always answer, ‘Whenever I meet someone in need, it’s really Jesus in His most distressing disguise.’”
Richard understands her answer. As a volunteer, he often rubs shoulders with men, women, and children experiencing homelessness at Union Rescue Mission. “You have to believe in God when you come to Union Rescue Mission,” he says. “He’s in the faces of those whose lives are transformed here.”
For more than 10 years, Richard has volunteered his time to work in URM’s kitchen, cooked turkeys at Thanksgiving, sponsored fundraising golf tournaments, taken guests to basketball games, organized hundreds of volunteers from companies he’s worked for, and he’s even looked for ways to connect URM graduates with jobs.
But it’s been a lifelong passion for Richard. He grew up with a special place in his heart for people experiencing homelessness. His father was homeless and used to ride the rails during the Great Depression. And later, when he owned his own service station in Los Angeles, he would employ local men who were homeless and needed change.
“It was quite interesting to watch that,” Richard recalls. “So now when I see someone experiencing homelessness, I remember my dad. That was Dad’s legacy. And that’s why I chose to volunteer my time at Union Rescue Mission.”
As much as Richard appreciates the opportunities he has to give back as a volunteer at Union Rescue Mission, he knows that the men and women he meets here give him so much more. “They have something to teach me about courage, strength, perseverance, and hope,” he says. “They’re not here because they want to be here. They’re here because of circumstances that would have caused most of us to fold our tents before we got here. When I see what these people overcome, I know there is hope for everyone — including me!”
As a result, Richard is deeply grateful for the chance to volunteer at URM.
“Life is short,” says Richard. “Most people act like they’ll be here forever. But we have an end. And what will people say at our funeral? What legacy will we leave? When I leave, I just hope someone benefited in some way because I was here. I am so blessed to have the chance to do this.”
Someone Cared and I Changed
When you’re an addict and your life is in ruins, you think no one cares. That’s how I felt anyway.
I was a drug addict for much of my life. So was almost everyone around me, including my dad. I started smoking weed in elementary school and by age 15, I was smoking crystal meth. Soon it was all I cared about — and I couldn’t quit.
It cost me jobs, cars, relationships, apartments, and by the age of 27, I was living on the streets. I believed I had to get high just so I didn’t have to face how bad my life had become.
At the same time, my father was getting clean and sober at Union Rescue Mission. When he graduated, he asked me to come. I didn’t go. In fact, none of his family attended his graduation. He felt no one cared — and I believe that disappointment killed him. Four days later, he died of a heroin overdose.
I ended up going to jail three times that year. I was tired and ready to change. Like my father, I came to Union Rescue Mission. But would anyone care?
At the Mission, I worked in the kitchen, in the maintenance department, and I participated in vocational classes taught by caring volunteers. Step by step, they talked to me, shared their lives with me, and encouraged me. They told how much they admired and respected me, and I started to feel like a new person.
I can’t tell you how much they meant to me. I knew they had successful lives outside the Mission, and they didn’t have to spend time with someone like me. But they did — and their compassion and encouragement gave me something to live up to. I guess it worked, because today I’m not only clean and sober, I’m the Volunteer Manager at Union Rescue Mission.
The whole experience taught me something. I changed because people cared enough to write checks to support Union Rescue Mission or volunteer their time to help women and men like me. I changed because they believed in me. But I’m not alone. Everyone who leaves this place transformed says the same thing. Our lives changed because of people like you. Thank you.
Your Gift Doubles to Help Souls in Need
Growing numbers of people on Skid Row desperately need hope and a helping hand. They need YOU. And now, a generous friend of Union Rescue Mission has offered to match every gift we receive before June 30 — up to $200,000!
Your gift today will be doubled to help hurting men and women, and remind them someone
cares. You can provide TWICE the help — and receive twice the blessing!
Notes from Andy
There are many excuses to avoid helping people experiencing homelessness. But I think the real reasons are fear and a belief that people on Skid Row can’t change. So why try?
Rick Rozman, whose story is featured above, knows that’s not true. He has seen that with care and encouragement, people change every day at Union Rescue Mission.
Changing lives isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s messy. But every caring gift you send — every minute you invest as a volunteer or mentor — helps change a life.
This year, I hope hundreds more people like you make the commitment to stop making excuses and start caring. Together,we can end homelessness in Los Angeles forever.
Blessings,
Rev. Andy Bales, CEO