Rev Andy’s Blog

How Will We Ever End (Slow) Homelessness?

Andy's Blog

A few years ago URM came up with a 10 step plan to end homelessness that we really believed in. Our goal was to get all people off the streets of Skid Row by 2016. You can view the well thought out plan at You Are The Mission.

Our Federal government, local Chamber of Commerce, United Way, and others also came up with a plan called Home For Good LA—they believed this would end chronic and veteran’s homelessness in Los Angeles by 2016.

Despite the well intended plans of many, homelessness has increased by 16% in the Los Angeles area in the last two years. Though veterans’ homelessness has decreased with the increased attention, single male and female homelessness has increased in spite of the increased Home for Good focus on these two groups of individuals experiencing homelessness.

Prior to 2012, there were several years where the number of people residing on Skid Row in Los Angeles was decreasing. This year, the numbers of people on the streets have jumped dramatically. In fact, I have never seen so many people on the streets of Skid Row in my nearly 14 years of volunteering or working here. It is frustrating to admit that whatever we are all doing; including the Federal Government, local government, local Chamber, United Way, Home For Good LA, and others — we are not ending homelessness.

The theory of focusing on the “anchor” people (who have been chronically homeless for years) and getting them off of the streets, so that homelessness would end, is simply not valid.

By shifting most of the resources on the few (10% to 20% of those experiencing homelessness – the Chronic and Veterans), most of the resources have shifted away from the other 80% to 90% experiencing homelessness; families, children, those on the edge and falling in and out of homelessness—and left them out in the cold.

Studies of adults experiencing chronic homelessness suggest that they were once chronically impoverished or homeless children, which may very well mean today’s chronically impoverished & homeless children will be tomorrow’s chronically homeless adults. This leads me to predict that efforts put forth by all of those focused only on the few right now will actually lead to increased homelessness — not only in the now and near future, but in the long run. In fact, I would declare right now we have an epidemic of homelessness that will only increase.

One of my respected and trusted peers, Larry Adamson, CEO and President of The Midnight Mission, says our Federal Government’s plan calls for people receiving housing and depending on the government in perpetuity. Neither Larry nor I believe this is a sustainable plan now or in the future as homelessness continues to increase.

Another knowledgeable trusted colleague has a more cynical view toward our Federal Government’s plan. He and others believe the plan is to make people experiencing homelessness obscure and out of sight, stuck away in very small quarters without the services they so desperately need to turn their lives around. Union Rescue Mission believes in ending homelessness, one life at a time, through Life Transformation. We believe our role in this challenge of homelessness is life transformation, followed by a job, followed by a home.

I’m not here to put the blame on anyone in particular. The truth is no one can keep up with the increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness our American Culture is producing.

One of the most common denominators for homelessness is isolation. Too often we hear “I have no ties to family” as the first of many issues that led to a guest becoming homeless. Families were disintegrated or bridges were burned, young people have ended up in foster care and then left foster care only to end up homeless or in prison and on their own. The reality is that broken relationships result in broken lives. Broken people lose touch with their humanity, their dignity, and their value as a person created by God. They are truly lost.

Many of the people who come to us are lost and don’t know it. Some are lost and have ceased to care. At Union Rescue Mission we believe our job is to reach out to them one life at a time with the most potent alternative, a relationship with Christ. It is our job to present the Gospel in words, actions, and commitment. Then and only then can the cycle of isolation, lack of family, lack of community that can lead to addiction, mental illness and yes, even homelessness be broken.

Until we address our families and culture of isolation, and develop a heart that will not allow even one person to be on their own living on the streets, we will not end homelessness.

Blessings,

andysig

 


Rev. Andy Bales

Written with assistance from URM teammates: Chaplain Steve Borja, Jacqui Groseth, and  Kitty Davis-Walker.

Bold Moves and Tenacious Tweaks

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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

 

Transforming Power

As we’ve spent this Easter season focused on the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, in our graduates, in the life of Moe, even on my own life following a heart attack, quadruple bypass, and kidney transplant just 6 weeks ago, I hope you’ve been reminded and encouraged by our Lord’s amazing, transforming power.

This transforming power is the foundation of our life-changing, life-saving work at Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens, but we could not begin to carry out this work without your participation and financial support. Volunteers fill this amazing place with love and friends like you provide the resources that fuel this ministry.

I hope you’ll take a moment to Watch our End of Month Update and consider making a gift of love today, before this Easter season ends.

Though there are only a few days left before the celebration of the Resurrection, it is not too late to join us in our Easter Restoration Campaign! Please join the campaign today or consider making a gift to an existing campaign. Thank you!

andysig

Rev. Andy Bales

Moe: Renewed and Restored – So Let’s Rejoice!

I’m honored to write about my long time friend Moe, during this Easter Resurrection Season!

I first met Moe when I worked in Pasadena as the pastor of Community Outreach at Lake Ave. Church.

We started a small meal outreach and bible study on Sunday evenings at the church for people experiencing homelessness. The meal quickly grew to 300 people each Sunday. A faithful few attended the bible study.

Moe was one of the precious people who attended the meal.  Moe and others in Pasadena still call me Pastor Andy even as I’ve worked in downtown LA at Union Rescue Mission for the last 8 years.

I received a call about Moe nearly 2 years ago. Friends of URM from a local church, San Gabriel Community Church, were concerned about a man on the corner who was experiencing homelessness and asking for money and assistance. It was indeed Moe.

I told our friends that giving Moe money to feed his addiction would not help. Even helping him find a job and renting an apartment for him would not help Moe for long. His addiction would cause him to lose his job and his apartment. He didn’t need change out of someone’s pocket, Moe needed real change through a recovery program like the intense one year life transformation program at Union Rescue Mission. I was so proud of this group of friends who listened to our our advice, became true friends of Moe, invited him to their church, and encouraged him to enroll in URM’s recovery program.

More than that, they stayed alongside Moe on each step of the journey. This kind of friendship is one of the most effective ways to end homelessness one person at a time. Real change is what is often needed. I hope you will join us in our Easter Restoration Campaign and help bring that real change to other precious people like Moe. Take time to watch Moe’s story and take action today.

Blessings,

andysig

Rev. Andy Bales

New Creation

My friend, Pops, walked into my office at Union Rescue Mission a few months ago, just as I was returning to work after a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery. Pops said, ‘I need this place more than it needs me!’ I responded, ‘I know exactly how you feel!’ As he left my office I wondered to myself, how does a murderous, drug dealing, heroin addict of over 50 years turn into a God-fearing, sensitive gentleman who now only wants to serve and encourage others who are struggling? I knew the answer.

2 Corinthians 5:17

New International Version (NIV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

When Pops wandered into the back door of Union Rescue Mission nearly three years ago, trying to save his life and escape the 50 years of addiction that had destroyed him physically, mentally and spiritually, he not only saved his life, but he found new life and became a new man through the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ. Watch Pops’ Story to hear Pops tell more of his amazing story of transformation.

That is what happens at Union Rescue Mission. Precious men like Pops don’t just get well through our mental, medical, dental and legal clinics, discipleship, learning and PE classes, they come face to face with the transforming power of our Savior Jesus Christ!

We are so thankful you are willing to be a participant in this work that transforms men like Pops.

Please join us in our Easter Restoration Campaign and participate by making a one time gift of $56 or better yet, set up your own Easter Restoration Fundraising Page and have your friends and family join you in this transforming work that helps struggling folks like Pops become a new man who wants to only serve God and others.

Bless you

andysig

Join Our Easter Restoration Campaign!

As you may have heard, I’ve had a difficult year health-wise. On June 29th, I had a second heart attack which led to heart failure. The doctors and nurses at Glendale Adventist Hospital saved my life with quadruple bypass surgery on July 5th. The bypass led to complete kidney failure, 4 and 1/2 months of dialysis, and two weeks ago I received a life saving kidney transplant – my wife was the life providing donor.

The good news is, I am feeling like a brand new man! I’m walking 3.2 miles around the Rose Bowl every day. I am two pounds below my high school wrestling weight! As I’ve gone through this complete restoration, transformation, almost resurrection, I’ve realized I am much like the men and women who come into Union Rescue Mission. Often, instead of just needing physical restoration like me, they are in need of complete restoration, body, soul and mind.

On Sunday, we will celebrate 25 men, who will graduate from this transforming, restorative program. I’ll watch as men, who previously slept on the sidewalks, addicted to crack cocaine, heroin, or meth for up to 7 years. step on the URM stage sober, confident and full of Hope for the future-new men!These men have been on quite the journey.  a journey in which they have become Renewed, Restored, and can now REJOICE!

I am writing this because I want to tell you about our Easter Restoration campaign.  As we focus on the death and resurrection of Christ this Easter, we want to remember that it is the power of His resurrection that transforms and restores lives here at Union Rescue Mission.  It is so important that you join us in our Easter Restoration campaign.  It costs $56 a day to sponsor someone who has entered our year long recovery program.  We can’t do this without you.

We would like to invite you to start your very own fundraising page and help us kick off our Easter Restoration Campaign.  It is simple.  Click on this Easter Restoration Link and set up your own fundraising page.  Invite your friends and family to join you in this restoration campaign.  Join us as we Renew. Restore. Rejoice!

Easter Restration Button

Blessings,

andysig

Rev. Andy Bales

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Update – Kidney Transplant

I reported in my last blog regarding my upcoming kidney transplant surgery.  My wife, Bonnie, has decided to donate her kidney to me.  If that is not humbling enough, the transplant procedure will now happen on January 30th, my wife Bonnie’s birthday.   I’ve tried to convince her I’m fine on dialysis and continuing to work, as I’m doing now. I’ve even tried to get in some hot water by spending too much at the Bass Pro Shop, but my wife seems very determined to make this huge sacrifice of love.

I’ll be out of the office, beginning January 30th, for approximately three weeks.  In my absence two of our Senior Leaders, Linda Wood, and Steve Borja, will take turns as Acting Directors.  If you, as a contributor to the amazing work of Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center, wonder at all about what you could do for my family and I during this life changing event, please know that besides praying for us, the absolute best thing you could do for my health and well-being, would be to financially support URM during the time that I am out of the office.

We met with the team of surgeons this week and I negotiated permission to begin light work; phone calls, conference calls, and writing personal thank you notes on receipts, shortly after surgery.  I’ll be returning to the office for limited duties after three weeks away.   This will be difficult for me, as I love the work that I am privileged to do at Union Rescue Mission, and I look forward everyday to coming to Union Rescue Mission to witness the Life Transformation that takes place here each day.

Thank you, for all of your amazing support!  If you want to keep up with our adventures, follow me at twitter.com/abales.

God bless you!

How Do You Say Thanks for Too Big a Gift?

Just before Christmas I heard an outstanding message by Pastor Chuck Swindoll on our local Christian radio station, KKLA 99.5 FM. He was discussing the definition of gift, with baby Jesus in mind. He started with the Merriam-Webster definition of gift; something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation. I felt this was an excellent definition. A gift is given without any expectation of compensation or anything in return. In the case of the gift of baby Jesus, Chuck went on to say that sometimes we receive extraordinary gifts that dwarf anything we could give or do in return and gifts that make a simple thank you seem like not quite enough.

This is how I feel about the many generous contributors to Union Rescue Mission. You
overwhelmingly responded with year-end gifts and helped us reach a daunting $4.5 Million goal! We had to reach this goal in order to move ahead with launching a much needed jobs program for our graduate men and women, and moving ahead with our plans to relocate 12 moms and up to 30 precious children from the dangerous streets of Skid Row to the safety and peace of Hope Gardens. There was absolutely no way we could do this without your extraordinary gifts. We were completely powerless on our own. Your extraordinary gifts dwarf anything we could do or say to properly say thank you, but all we can do is say Thank You, from the bottom of our hearts! We can also express our thanks by helping URM move ahead with our good plans to bless our graduates and our moms and children.

In Acts 20:35, Paul says that Jesus taught, “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. I would agree with that completely. I’d add, “It is much easier to give than to receive”. It is easier to be on the giving end and it is more difficult and humbling to be on the receiving end, especially when the gift is extraordinary and overwhelms anything you could do to return the favor.

With all of the practice I’ve had with 34 years of ministry and 34 years of depending on the gifts of others you’d think that I would have developed a certain level of humility and become an expert on saying “Thanks”. However, when the gift is too big, like the gift of baby Jesus, or too big, like gifts of a much needed $4.5 Million, my words of thanks do not seem like enough.

I’m getting ready and struggling with accepting and saying “thanks” to yet another too big of a gift. My wife, Bonnie, is getting ready to donate her kidney to me and give me the gift of a longer life. I get tears in my eyes even writing this. It’s a humbling gift, and causes me to crumble. It’s so big and such a sacrifice that I’ve tried every way that I can to talk her out of doing it – to no avail. I’ve told her that I don’t mind the 12 hours a week of dialysis, that I feel fine, and that I appreciate the extra time I have during dialysis to write personal thank you notes to our URM contributors. I thought I had her on the ropes and ready to say no in front of the surgeon when we were discussing potential complications, but then the surgeon said to me, in front of her, “As a type 1 diabetic, you only have a 50% chance of lasting only five years on dialysis. That sealed the deal.  We find out Friday, January 4th, the January date of the transplant surgery.

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for the protection of my wife, Bonnie, as she shares this too big of a gift with me. Pray for me, that I will somehow know how to humbly accept this too big of a gift, and live up to being the man that she must think I am. Sometimes, it seems, thanks is not enough.

Thank you!

Rev. Andy Bales, CEO

Giving 105 Percent

I spoke to a church yesterday about our work here at Union Rescue Mission and I have to admit just how thankful I order generic viagra was to be alive and representing URM and Hope Gardens.  After a year in which I had a heart attack, a quadruple bypass surgery, and kidney failure, I am thankful to be strong enough to continue in my job as CEO and to energetically get up and speak about our involvement in transforming the lives of our precious guests.

This may sound odd, but when I was battling for my life for several months, especially the entire month of July, my wife will attest to the fact that what I was most concerned about was not my life, but being able to return to this work and the people that I love so much.  I know it does not make sense.  You can’t return to work if you’re not alive and well!

However, this work and these precious people are what drove me to persevere, listen to doctors, follow a strict diet, work through cardiac rehab, step into dialysis, all in an effort to gain the strength to carry on in this ministry.

In this Christmas season, I am most thankful for the strength to carry on.  I am so thankful it is difficult to put into words.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

I am definitely strong, however, I am concerned as well about having enough resources to carry on in this ministry.  Our URM Board of Directors has mandated that we raise 105% of the budgeted revenues by January 1st, in order to open a newly renovated 16 unit building at Hope Gardens and before hiring a jobs assessor and a job developer to serve URM graduates.  The board of directors wants to be certain that we can sustain this ministry. The 16 unit building will serve at least 12 more moms with 30 precious children, rescuing them from homelessness and Skid Row.  The jobs assessor and developer will pave the way for our graduates to escape homelessness in the best way I know, a life transformed followed by a job, and then a home.

In order to reach 105% of our revenues by January 1st, 2013, we need to raise $4.5 Million in December.  That may seem impossible, however, in December of 2005, we raised nearly $5 Million!  We need not only some miraculous large gifts, but we need many of our friends to give what they can, and it will all add up to enough and will change lives!  Please, in this Christmas season, consider giving all you can to transform the lives of our women, children, and graduates.  Your gift could make all of the difference in the world for someone.

Thank you,

Your co-worker in Christ,

Rev. Andy Bales, CEO

He Has Written You On His Hands

I recently received a call from the leader of another Mission.  He was enduring a difficult time in leadership much like one I experienced not too long ago.  It has really shaken him up, and I understand his pain. Not long after that call I received another call from a loved one who just didn’t know how he could carry on in this life.  He’d attempted suicide twice in the last few weeks and was focused on ending his life.

It is difficult to know just what to say to someone who is so discouraged, especially when you are facing lots of challenges yourself.  However, I was really helped by the daily devotional that I send out to my team every day.  It is called Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon, and some times it hits me right between the eyes! The scripture and lesson that helped me know what to say to these two gentlemen, and to myself, came from Isaiah 49:16.  I shared it with both of these men and I also shared it with about 300 people experiencing homelessness when I preached in Union Rescue Mission’s back parking lot last Sunday for the Love LA Service.

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”

-Isaiah 49:16

“I have graven thee.”It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but that is not all: “I have graven thee.” See the fulness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when He has graven thee upon His own palms?“

-Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening.

If you believe God has forsaken or abandoned you, don’t be mistaken.  Not only has he not forsaken or forgotten you, but he has written you on the palm of His hands!  Wow, how encouraging is that?  What a picture that is of Jesus Christ, even from the Old Testament, in that when He took those nails into his hands on the Cross, He wrote us into his hands, all our pains, all of our sins, and all that we are, into His hands.  I hope this will encourage you as much as it has me.

Bless you,

Rev. Andy Bales, CEO