One of Lorraine’s fondest childhood memories is her mother’s cooking. Food was her mother’s way of saying, “I love you.” But no day was better than Thanksgiving and the magical aroma of turkey, ham, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, yams, and sweet potato pie. Lorraine was only 11 when the magic ended. That’s when her stepfather came into the family, bringing verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. Lorraine’s mother quickly became a drug addict. And love disappeared from the home. Then the unthinkable happened. Lorraine was 13 when she was raped by her stepfather.

Crippling Scars

“When I told my mom, she didn’t believe me,” Lorraine recalls. “She just said, ‘No way. He’d never do that.’ After that, I felt so alone. I didn’t feel like I was worthy of living.” A scar on Lorraine’s face, from a car accident, was just the physical manifestation of the wounds she felt inside:

 “ I hated myself. When I looked in a mirror, all I could see was how ugly I was.”

Lorraine left home at 15. She soon had her first child at 16, dropped out of school, and her life slowly unraveled — abusive men, alcohol abuse, more children, and severe depression crippled her. In August 2014, unemployed and a mother of four, she came to Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens.

Cooking Up a New Life

“I asked God to help me build a new life,” she says. “Hope Gardens was the perfect place for me. God answered all my prayers. The people here didn’t see me as a scared and ugly girl no one cared about. God used them to drive the clouds away in my heart and bring the sunshine out. They showed me I’m not Lorraine-who’s-ugly-and-raped. I’m just me. A brand-new person.” Today, Lorraine is also a cook on staff at Hope Gardens, where she serves nearly 222 meals a day to mothers, children, and senior women. “This is my dream come true,” she says. “When I cook, it reminds me of the magic of my mom’s cooking.” But no meal has been more important than Thanksgiving: “Last year, I got to cook all the things I remember from childhood: turkey, ham, mac and cheese, sweet potato pie, all of it. I cooked all night. It was my way of showing the women and kids here how much they’re loved. When we all prayed, I thanked God for Hope Gardens, for my new life, and for my chance to give back to these women. It was the best day ever.”

THANKSGIVING AT UNION RESCUE MISSION: The Recipe for Success . . .

Union Rescue Mission will serve more than 135,000 meals this holiday season and more than 4,000 meals at our Thanksgiving Celebration alone! It’s never too soon to start getting ready. Here’s a brief peek at everything that goes into making Union Rescue Mission’s special Thanksgiving Celebration a day filled with good food and a whole lot of love.

1. FILL THE PANTRY! It takes months to collect enough food!

2. VOLUNTEER! We need over 200 volunteers to help make this day special.

3. PREPARE FOOD We have to start prepping the food almost a week in advance! After all, we have to deep fry and serve more than 500 turkeys in one day!

4. SEE GUESTS SMILE We’ll serve hundreds of thousands of meals this Thanksgiving season. The meals we serve can open the door to a lifetime of change.

5. YOU ARE THE MISSION None of this is possible without YOU! Give someone a real reason to offer thanks to God in 2016!

Please give today so more people like Lorraine can receive the meals and family love they need at Union Rescue Mission. See how your gifts helped transform Lorraine’s life! www.urm.org/Stories

GOING STRONG FOR 125 YEARS BECAUSE OF YOU!

Union Rescue Mission is proud to celebrate its 125th Anniversary on October 24, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Please contact Karmen Herring at 213.347.6311 or kherring@urm.org for further details.

URGENT CRISIS ON SKID ROW! WE NEED YOUR HELP . . . Help Serve a Thanksgiving Dinner — and a Side of Love

This Thanksgiving season, Union Rescue Mission will serve more than 135,000 meals! And that number continues to climb, due to a growing crisis of women and children experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. This year, each Thanksgiving meal we serve costs only $2.41. Your gift today will provide precious men, women, and children on Skid Row with hot meals, safe shelter, hope — and even love. Thanksgiving is still more than two months away, but it takes months of planning and preparation to serve a Thanksgiving dinner for thousands of men, women, and children on this special day. Your gift will help provide holiday meals — just $2.41 each! So please give someone a real reason to give thanks this holiday season. Send the most generous gift you can today. Thank you! For more information, or to put your gift to work even faster, go to www.urm.org/thanksgivingfeast

Notes from Andy

The one word that describes Skid Row right now is “extreme”: extreme numbers, extreme violence, extreme desperation, extreme heat, and extreme danger. And no one is more at risk than the growing number of women and children we’re seeing here. As many as 4,000 people now call these dangerous streets of Skid Row “home.” It’s tragic to see anyone trying to survive here. But it’s the women and children who break my heart most. Fortunately, many of them are now seeking shelter inside of Union Rescue Mission. In fact, for the first time ever, more than half of our 1,163 guests are women and kids. The sheer numbers and need are challenging all our resources — financial, food, space, beds, increased security, and clean-up costs. And the months ahead only promise more desperate straits. But Thanksgiving is around the corner, and despite our many challenges, we still have much to be thankful for. And I’m especially thankful for the faithful generosity of people like you. You’ve stepped up in unprecedented ways to help struggling people in the past. And I know you will again, as we seek to ensure that every man, woman, and child who comes to Union Rescue Mission finds their way home again.

Blessings,

I hated my mom, because she started it all. I hated my grandmother for everything she did to me. And I hated my siblings, because they all ran off and left me alone with her.

My family was messed up. My mother slept with my grandmother’s boyfriend and had a child. Then my grandmother made life hell for my mom. It was so bad, my mom tried to commit suicide when I was 3. She ended up paralyzed from the neck down, which meant all us kids were left with my grandmother. All the rage she felt for my mom, she took out on us. She beat us so bad, we thought she’d kill us. There were times I prayed she would.

All my siblings ran away, leaving me alone with my grandmother. When I was 15, even she left. All I had left was my hate. I was on my own, living on the streets, drinking and sleeping from pillar to post. Eventually I learned how to use and manipulate women to get what I wanted. It was the pattern for the rest of my life.

I never married, never had kids, and even though I was a raging alcoholic, I had all the girlfriends I could handle. I always worked, too. But in 2007, I hurt my back and couldn’t work anymore. I ended up living in my van, depressed, angry, and drinking three bottles of vodka a day, trying to drink myself to death. Seven years later, I asked God to take this monkey off my back. He led me to Union Rescue Mission.

Leaving the Past Behind

My path was pretty clear. I learned, for the first time, how my childhood shaped me, why I hated myself, why I lashed out, and I learned new ways to deal with my anger and hurt. Then I confessed every terrible thing I’d done, and I left them at the cross of Jesus. I had to learn that not only God forgave me, I had to forgive myself.

And finally, the hardest part, I’ve had to go back to people I’ve hurt and ask them to forgive me for every rotten, dirty thing I did to them. I also had to forgive my mom, though she died long ago, and I wish I could ask her to forgive me for all my hate.

But it all changed me. Union Rescue Mission gave me a family I never had. I’ve learned that God is everything He says He is. I don’t have any more hate.

Fred came to URM after more than 20 years in prison. Thanks to the support of his chaplain, Fred was able to complete something for the first time in his life: our one-year life transformation program. Watch Fred’s amazing story at www.urm.org/Stories

HOLISTIC HELP

Thanks to YOU!

In addition to addiction issues, many guests come to Union Rescue Mission with many other difficulties, including health, dental, legal, and emotional issues that threaten their future. Thanks to the UCLA Primary Health Clinic, the USC Dental Clinic, and Pepperdine’s Legal Aid Clinic and Mental Health Clinic — and thanks to YOU — our guests are able to get the help they need right here on site. Here are some of the ways David benefited from these services:

Health care: “When I got here, I was diagnosed with degenerative joint disease and a torn rotator cuff. I also had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hepatitis C. Now I’m getting ready to get both my hips replaced, have reconstructive surgery on my shoulder, and I’m getting treatment for the COPD and hepatitis C.”

Dental: “Because of all my alcohol and drug use, my teeth were rotting, infected, and bleeding. The dental clinic gave me all new implants, top and bottom. Now I got beautiful teeth again.”

Legal Aid: “Over the past few years, I had some hefty fines for several violations on my driving record. There was no way I could pay them. Worse, I had at least five warrants out for my arrest and I was looking at jail time. But because I was committed to staying here at Union Rescue Mission for a year, the people in legal aid were able to get all my violations expunged and got my fines reduced so much, I can take care of them in small monthly payments. Now I can get my driver’s license back.”

GOING STRONG FOR 125 YEARS BECAUSE OF YOU

DR. CLAUDE MOFFITT’S STORY, 1933

I was born to Christian parents in 1914, in Southern Illinois. But despite my upbringing, I left home at a very young age to see the world and to experience the thrills that I thought life could offer me in Southern California.

But California was not as good to me as I had hoped. I ended up friendless, broke, and homeless. Fortunately, someone told me of the Union Rescue Mission. So I came here seeking food and a place to sleep.

But one evening during a worship service in the spring of 1933, God spoke to my heart. When the invitation was given, I made my way to the old altar where God forgave all my sins. Shortly after that, God called me into the ministry. I served as a pastor for 15 years, and I later served as the executive secretary of the Arizona Baptist Convention, working with some 50 churches.

HELP CHANGE SOMEONE’S LIFE TODAY

Your gift today will provide shelter, meals, and the real help hurting people need to live transformed lives.

There’s no one way to help people escape homelessness. Some need recovery from addictions. Others need counseling and
spiritual renewal. Many need education and job training. But they all have one thing in common: they need another chance at life.

Thanks to generous people like you, these same precious people find that chance for new life at Union Rescue Mission. They begin to live life the way God always intended, filled with joy and gratitude, and surrounded by friends.

Your generous gift of $25, $35, or more will help provide nutritious meals, safe shelter, and the real help broken, hurting people need to put their lives back together. So please send the most generous gift you can today. Thank you!

For more information, or to put your gift to work even faster, go to www.urm.org/ChangeLives

NOTES FROM ANDY: You’re the Fuel

People experience homelessness for many different reasons: addictions, lack of affordable housing, broken family
relationships, childhood and domestic abuse, and mental-health issues. Then there’s unemployment and underemployment, lack of job skills, lack of education, and legal issues.

That’s why Union Rescue Mission —thanks to you — offers a holistic program that addresses every area of a person’s life to help them escape homelessness. You help provide people with safe shelter and a nutritious meal. You help provide classes dealing with addiction, healthy relationships, financial management, and more. You help sharpen education and job skills. You support counseling services and spiritual nurture. And you make sure people get the health and dental care, and the legal services they need. And most important, you make sure people are surrounded by loving friends and a loving God. It takes an entire community to offer folks all these services.

It takes all kind of partners and strategic relationships. But in this community, no partnership is more vital than you. You are the fuel that makes everything that happens at Union Rescue Mission possible. Your financial support and prayers are changing lives — today and for eternity. Thank you.

Blessings,

To read Andy’s blog, please visit revandysblog.com

My parents loved me and raised me right. I was on a good path — until I got lost after my father died when I was 16. Without his guidance, I started hanging out with the wrong crowd, drinking, smoking marijuana, and eventually smoking crack. Before long, I lost everything and ended up on a path that eventually took me all the way to Skid Row.

On Skid Row, I could smoke all the dope I wanted. I spent my days on a sidewalk, and slept in the different missions here at night. I smoked crack all day, every day, so I didn’t have to face all my disappointments and failures. And I smoked crack so I could endure the horrors of Skid Row — a filthy, drug paradise controlled by the devil. A place that drives many people here to near madness.

I saw women get beat up and raped. I saw a man get his throat cut open. I saw people die out there every month. But the worst part? You get used to it.

In 2014, though, I couldn’t do it anymore. I came to Union Rescue Mission to get help. I give the chaplains and all the other guys here a lot of credit for helping me get sober. But what really changed my life was the day I looked at how bad my life had become and realized I had no one else to blame but me. I had to forgive myself and realize I could still live right, the way I was raised.

So I invited God into my life and let Him heal me and take control. God became personal to me. And when that happened, everything changed.

Now I want to get involved and be part of the solution for others. I’ve already gone back into the streets and persuaded three other people to get help like I did. And now I’m planning on going back to college to get a degree in drug and alcohol counseling, so I can help others get to where I am.

Union Rescue Mission offers much more than food and shelter — we resurrect the lives of men like Paul. Watch his story at www.urm.org/Stories

A Streets-Eye View of Skid Row

Everywhere there’s smoke, cigarettes, pee, and trash. It’s dirty everywhere. Nowhere is sanitary. When it gets hot, the smell becomes overpowering. — Marquesha, 15

The streets are horrible. There ain’t no respect for life. You can get someone killed out here for $5. — Tom, unknown age

Sometimes I lived in a tent on the sidewalk, other times I lived in a storage unit. In the winter, I can’t tell you how many times I went to bed wet and freezing. And I reeked because I rarely bathed.
— Guillermo, 41

Where’s Jesus on Skid Row?

by Dan Anderson, Director of Strategic Relationships

Some people say hell is wherever God is absent. It’s hard to look at Skid Row and not think that’s true. As a pastor, I spent much of my life in the suburbs.But last winter, I started working here at Union Rescue Mission and Skid Row. I’ve never seen anything like the pain and suffering I see on Skid Row. The sidewalks are crowded, elbow to elbow. Trash piles up everywhere. It smells like urine, and you have to be careful you don’t step in human waste. But for many, these sidewalks are their home. Even their bed. No human being should have to live like this.

Skid Row — The Final Stop
Every day, I walk these streets, praying for people. The heaviness of spiritual oppression overwhelms me. Many people I meet are filled with so much sadness and hopelessness. Their lives have been one giant fall through the cracks until they land here, the final stop, the end of their rope, where too often they give up on life, because they feel like life gave up on them.But God made these men and women. They’re God’s special masterpieces, made in His image. When Jesus walked the earth, these are the people He befriended — and healed. People the world labeled as prostitutes, thieves, outcasts, drunkards, sinners, people with broken bodies and wounded souls, the weak and powerless. The people here on Skid Row need Jesus’ healing touch today — but where is He?

See For Yourself
He’s right here. He never left. He’s out there on the sidewalks, and He’s inside the walls of Union Rescue Mission, transforming lives through people like you and me. He’s in every gift you send and every prayer you pray. I know, because I see it every day. In fact, I invite you to come see for yourself. Take a tour, meet the men and women whose lives YOU have helped transform in the name of Jesus, helping people who cannot give anything back in return. You and I, working together, have an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference on Skid Row. And through the power of Jesus Christ, we’re transforming lives. Thank you for being Jesus on these streets.

Going Strong for 125 Years Because of You:
A Testimony From 1996

“Please help me! I’ve never been to Skid Row,” said Jennifer, a young mother with three children, ages 3, 5, and 10. “I don’t know what to do. Someone told me Union Rescue Mission could help.” It’s hard to imagine the fear and despair she must have felt walking her kids through these streets. She could barely speak between her sobs of hurt, as her children cowered behind her. Delowesia, a URM staff member,tenderly put her arm around the young mother’s shoulder and held her hand. “It’s okay, you’re safe here.” Later that evening, as Jennifer stroked the heads of her sleeping children, she began to sob, “This may sound strange,” she said, “but my tears are really ones of joy. I can’t tell you the last time I went to bed with sounds of love ringing in my ears instead of hateful threats. This is a wonderful place.”

Notes from Andy:
There is Hope

On the surface, Skid Row is an overcrowded, post-apocalyptic world of chaos, violence, and lawlessness. The sidewalks are clogged with tents and makeshift shelters sitting on concrete stained with human waste. The people who call these streets home could be predators or prey. They’re hungry, desperate, and many are beaten, raped, and robbed over a dollar or a watch. That’s what some people see on the surface of Skid Row. But it’s not what I see. I see precious individuals, made in the image of God, who have been dumped into this vacuum of despair and left to die. I see hurting men and women who have a better future, if only they could see it and receive help. It would be easy to lose hope out here. But I don’t. That’s because every day I see lives transformed here, I see people who have escaped these streets and are now filled with joy and hope. And those lives change for one reason: people like YOU who care and who are willing to do something about it. This is God’s work. And as long as you and I continue working together here, there is hope.

Blessings,

It’s shocking. Tragically, as many as 4,000 people now call the filthy, dangerous sidewalks and back alleys of Skid Row “home”— and more come every day. Some are mentally ill and many are struggling with addictions, but all of them are precious men and women made in the image of God. No one deserves this kind of life. And for the past 125 years, thanks to thousands of caring people just like you, Union Rescue Mission has transformed the lives of countless hurting souls on these streets, leading them back to health and wholeness — and home.

Often, it doesn’t take a lot to help a hurting man or womanget back on their feet and escape Skid Row. But today, thanks to an extraordinary matching grant, your generous gift of $25, $35, or more will help provide TWICE the food, and shelter, and a fresh start at life for people experiencing homelessness. So please send the most generous gift you can today. Thank you! For more information or to put your gift to work even faster, go to urm.org/icare