December 2, 2014

The Mission – December 2014

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I love gardening. Every day after work, instead of grabbing a beer, I grab the hose and tend to all the plants in my garden, examining each one, admiring the veins and the complexity in each leaf — each one a gift from God. It’s so peaceful and serene. And it reminds me how far I’ve come in my life.

It was my grandmother who taught me how to garden when I was kid.

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She also raised me, taught me how to cook, and gave me my values and morals. She was the center of my world and I thought she’d live forever.

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But one day in 2004, I got a call at work. When my aunt told me my grandmother had died, it’s like everything around me stopped. I didn’t know how to handle it. So I bottled up all my feelings inside — feelings of hurt, sadness, grief, and frustration. Then, as the days rolled by, all those feelings started growing into anger and rage.

I never talked to anyone about it. Instead, I turned to alcohol. I’d start drinking after work. One drink turned into two drinks, and two drinks turned into too many drinks. And the more I drank, the angrier I got. And violent. I started getting into fights and going to jail on battery charges. I also had two DUIs, in 2006 and 2010. But I couldn’t stop drinking.

One night, however, I found myself drunk, sitting at a train stop on the Green Line. I couldn’t live like that anymore. I screamed out loud that I needed help. And that’s when I went downtown and walked into Union Rescue Mission.

I immediately started anger management classes to get that under control. Then I took 8 months of classes to deal with my last DUI and get my driver’s license back. And I went back to school and studied microenterprise at Pepperdine University.

I also opened up for the first time about my grandmother. My chaplain helped me realize that she’s in a better place and that helped me let her go. I spent three years at Union Rescue Mission. In short, I grew up and today I’m moving forward with my life. I’m working for Toyota, I have a wife, and I’ve even opened my first bank account ever. I guess if I have a New Year’s wish, it’s to establish enough credit to buy a new car in 2015.

Looking back, I see now that Union Rescue Mission, like my grandmother, taught me how to garden — the garden of my own life.

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Union Rescue Mission’s Gift Catalog

Union Rescue Mission’s Gift Catalog is a wonderful way to give someone experiencing homelessness the gift of hope this holiday. And when you purchase a gift on behalf of a loved one, you can also send them an e-card to let them know you’ve made this special gift in their honor. Please visit our online Gift Catalog today at urm.org/GiftCatalog

SignUpPage The season of Advent and the days leading up to Christmas are a wonderful time for thoughtful reflection and joyful anticipation as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. This holiday season, please sign up to receive Rev. Andy’s Advent series of daily devotional emails. Each day from November 20 until December 25, you’ll receive scripture and messages focused on the joy of the season. To sign up for these special email devotionals, please visit urm.org/AdventDevotionals

Notes From Andy

Instruments of God’s Love

In her excellent book ‘Pursuing God’s Will Together’, Ruth Haley Barton writes, “One of the first lessons we learn about discernment — from Jesus, anyway — is that it will always tend toward concrete expressions of love with real people rather than theoretical conversations about theology and philosophy. Such conversations are valuable only if they eventually lead us to more concrete expressions of love for the real people who are in need around us.”

To me, that’s what caring people like you and your support of Union Rescue Mission — are all about. You don’t just talk about homelessness, you take concrete steps to do something about it. And in 2014, your faithful support led to a number of concrete expressions of love for those in need on Skid Row. You helped us expand Hope Gardens to house even more moms and kids.

To expand our jobs program and start a thrift store to help more men and women find employment. To open space to provide older men on Skid Row with permanent
shelter and care. And to improve our Learning Center to help more men and women achieve their academic goals. Working together, taking concrete steps, we’ll continue to make a real difference for people experiencing homelessness in 2015.

Blessings,

November 5, 2014

The Mission – November 2014

Every child loves to open presents at Christmas. Grace is no different. Yet she also knows it’s about much more than that.

“Christmas is a time to give to people who are in need,” she says with a wisdom far beyond her 13 years. “This year I plan to volunteer at Union Rescue Mission’s Christmas Store, just like I did last year.”

Grace, along with her mother, Sam, and two brothers, Adam and Daniel, know all about the Christmas Store. In 2011, they were guests at Union Rescue Mission after they escaped an abusive home and ended up losing almost everything. Before coming to the Mission, Grace and her family spent six weeks living in her family’s Ford Contour in Long Beach.

“I was scared,” Grace recalls. “But as long as we didn’t have to sleep outside, I was OK with it. The hardest part was having people see us sleeping in a car instead of our own home. I was embarrassed.”

When Grace and her family came to Union Rescue Mission in September 2011, she didn’t want anyone to know where she lived.

But she recalls the staff at Union Rescue Mission worked hard to make all the kids at the Mission feel special — especially at Christmas.

“They had Christmas parties and other events,” Grace says. “We got to pick a Build-A-Bear and decorate it. There were crafts, games, and Christmas carols. We even watched the movie Snowmen. My brothers and I were actually excited throughout the whole Christmas season.”

As Christmas approached, Grace’s mom, Sam, warned the kids there was no money to buy presents. But then Sam discovered the Christmas Store, where parents throughout Skid Row are able to shop for presents for toys and other items to give their kids for free. Grace and her brothers experienced the joy of opening presents after all.

“Union Rescue Mission did a lot to help me and my family,” Grace says. “Now that we have our own home again, I think it’s important to go back and volunteer at the Mission. We try to go back twice a week to inspire and encourage the other kids there. We made it, and we tell them they can, too.”

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A Mom’s Christmas Blessing

Grace’s mother, Sam, recounts her family’s journey through homelessness and their first Christmas at Union Rescue Mission

As Christmas approached in 2011, I was tired and depressed. I was a highly capable single mother with three kids. I’d always had good jobs, so I knew how to make money. But that Christmas, my children and I were experiencing homelessness at Union Rescue Mission.

How could this happen? I’d experienced emotional and physical abuse all my life — first at the hands of a sadistic aunt, then from my own parents, followed by a five-year marriage to a man who beat me to a pulp.

I thought I’d escaped all the abuse when I divorced my husband and left with the kids. But in 2010, I went back to live with my mother to help care for her after a serious car accident. She promised to pay me, so I quit my job.

But she never paid me and the abuse started all over again. She even laid hands on my kids. I couldn’t take it anymore. I asked other family members to take us in. No one did. With no more money, we had to live in my car for six weeks, until we moved to Union Rescue Mission in September 2011.

I cannot describe the peace I felt when we got there. For the first time, I could rest and not worry. Over the next several months, the Mission gave me my self-confidence back, I found a new job, and I started saving money to move out. But as Christmas approached, I had to tell the kids there would be no presents because we were still struggling financially.

That’s when I learned about Union Rescue Mission’s Christmas Store. They gave me the chance to shop for gifts for my kids at no charge. When I saw the joy in my kids’ faces on Christmas morning, what a blessing! I will always be thankful to Union Rescue Mission for that memory.

That taught me that Christmas really is all about family. I’d lost my own family, but now I’d found a brand-new one. Family is about more than blood — it’s about the people who go through life with you. And Union Rescue Mission did that for us. They will forever be my family.

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The holiday season is an exciting and special time for most people, a season filled with gifts, good food, and time spent with loved ones. But for men, women, and children on Skid Row, Christmas is little more than a reminder of gifts they will never open, food they won’t eat, family they won’t see — hope they’ll never experience.

This Christmas, however, you can help men, women, and children at Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center regain that hope. This holiday season, please show them that someone really does care. Your generous gift of $25, $35, or more will help provide special holiday meals, clothing, and shelter — and, yes, hope — to hurting individuals and families. 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/ChristmasHope

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Giving Kids Joy at Christmas

Thanksgiving and Christmas can be difficult for families experiencing homelessness. But for more than 20 years, Union Rescue Mission’s Christmas Store has brought joy into their lives when they needed it most.

This year, hundreds of precious children at Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center will receive brand-new gifts because of the 23rd annual Christmas Store.

On December 11, moms and dads with little or no income will enjoy the dignity of personally selecting a gift for their children, having it wrapped that day and being able to give it as a gift on Christmas morning. All year-round, Union Rescue Mission embraces people experiencing homelessness with the compassion of Christ, and offers healing and hope to help them find their way home. And thanks to the Christmas Store — and generous friends like you hundreds of families will find that new hope this holiday season.

For information about donating toys to the Christmas Store this year, please contact Alexandra Monsibaez at (213) 673-4882.

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Union Rescue Mission’s Gift Catalog

Because of You – Steven’s Story

I spent nearly 40 years of my life drinking, smoking crack, going in and out of prison, living on the streets, and eating out of dumpsters. I finally came to Union Rescue Mission in March 2011 and they helped me get clean and sober. But after I graduated, I found out I was dying from cirrhosis of the liver. In fact, on January 6, 2013, I was on life support. Doctors said it was over.

I was going to die.

But the very next morning, they found a liver donor — and suddenly I was given a second chance at life. Everything changed. I got married. I moved into a new house. I swim most days. I go to church every week. My life is beautiful and an absolute miracle, and I enjoy every minute of it, every day. Thank you for making it all possible.

Notes From Andy

Giving Joy to Families at Christmas

There’s probably nothing tougher for a young mother, like Sam, than to spend Christmas with her children in a shelter instead of their own home. There’s probably no way to take that burden away entirely, but I’m grateful that, with your support, we can offer young families like hers the chance to experience a bit of joy throughout the Christmas season, including providing gifts for children through our annual Christmas Store.

But Christmas is such a family time. And so many people, including Sam and her children, have lost connections to their extended families at this special time of year. So I’m even more grateful we can become the “family” precious folks experiencing homelessness don’t have at Christmas — to sit around a tree singing carols, exchanging gifts, watching movies, and eating holiday meals together.

Family homelessness is increasing to epidemic proportions here in Los Angeles. According to the Department of Social Services, more than 11,000 families are experiencing homelessness right now in our City of Angels — and many of them are coming to Union Rescue Mission seeking help. Please remember these struggling young families this holiday season — and let’s work together to offer them a little bit of family and Christmas joy.

Blessings,

October 6, 2014

Updates about the Mission’s Learning Center!

LAD2 Recently, the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) and Andre Ethier granted $100,000 to the Mission to support the renovation of our Learning Center – soon to be called the “Andre and Maggie Ethier Learning Center”!

After the room was cleared and permits processed, 50 volunteers from various Dodger departments, Dodger RBI players, and Habitat for Humanity of Greater LA joined LADF for a paint day. Since then flooring has been laid, cabinetry installed, signage designed and much more!

With a little over 3 weeks to go, all final inspections and installations are underway (finishing cabinetry, installing ceiling slats, window treatments, dividing wall between classroom and general work space, built in seating and computer workstations).

We hope for a ribbon cutting ceremony after the post season, potentially early November, when Andre and Maggie can join us to introduce this new space!

This remodel will allow the Mission to have a functional, comfortable and inviting space, providing inspiration to hundreds of homeless men and women. And thanks to the significant support of the Dodgers and several vendors this project is truly becoming a dream come true! A sincere thanks to the following partners who are transforming this room even beyond our initial vision:

Dodgers Stadium Operations – Steve Ethier and Tom Beacom – project leaders
Dodgers IT – Ralph Esquibel – donated 24 complete workstations and technical support
Dodgers Productions – a Go-Pro is capturing the entire process to add to the overall video
Habitat for Humanity – introduction to our designer and the Habitat Restore
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising – initial design concept
Ecovations – Darren Moore – project designer and contractor
Kimberlina Whettam & Associates – permit support
O’Bryant Electric Inc – electrical materials and labor
MS Rouse Company, Inc – flooring installation
Morrow Meadows Corporation – electrical materials and labor
Nahib Youssef – Structural Engineers – permit support
Design Materials and Encore Commercial Flooring – flooring materials and labor (Nike flooring similar to Dodger clubhouse)
Sherwin-Williams – paint and supplies
Interior Services | Draperies, Blinds & Shades – window coverings
WB Signs – signage, décor

October 1, 2014

The Mission – October 2014

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When I was a kid, Thanksgivings were never a big deal. There was never that much to be thankful for. We were so poor, our Thanksgiving dinners were made only from whatever food other people gave us.

But it wasn’t just Thanksgivings that were hard. We had so little money, we rarely lived in the same place for more than a year. We often moved from homeless shelter to homeless shelter. The few clothes we owned, we had to wash in the shower because we couldn’t afford a washer. I didn’t have many friends because I dressed so poorly.

I also grew up around a lot of violence. I often watched my mom’s boyfriends beat her. Sometimes they threatened to kill me. And a lot of other kids teased me for being fat.

I grew up embarrassed and angry, and I took it out on the world. I got in fights, I threatened teachers, and I robbed people for money. The only things that made me feel better were weed and meth. I was completely hooked by the age of 15 — and my only ambition was finding my next high. By the time I was 20, I was so angry and lost, I lived like a dog.

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But then I ended up in a different shelter — Union Rescue Mission.

That decision saved my life. It saved me from drugs. It reconnected me to God and faith in Jesus Christ. It gave me structure to do something with my life. And the program helped me face all the pain of my childhood and all the ways I’d messed up. Talking about that stuff really hurt. But I had to do it. And when I did, I felt all my old anger slip away. And I experienced joy for the first time. First, Rosie Perez, who works at the Mission, befriended me at a time I thought I had nobody. Then Alex Cornejo, their Volunteer Manager, became my friend. I immediately saw something in Alex I wanted — joy. He was the one who persuaded me to join their Christian Life Discipleship Program.

I spent last Thanksgiving at the Mission, and I helped cook several hundred turkeys for all the guests who came here that day. It was one of the most amazing days of my life. I saw thousands of people sitting at tables, eating good food and enjoying one another. And I learned something. Thanksgiving wasn’t about me and what I didn’t have. It was about giving joy to someone else.

So this Thanksgiving, that’s what I’m thankful for.

Click here to watch Alejandro’s story in our latest “Stories From Skid Row” Video!

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All year-round at Union Rescue Mission, your gifts offer hurting souls safe shelter, nutritious meals, long-term care — and even the help they need to find their way home. Thank you!

But right now, our busiest time of year, we’re experiencing an unprecedented food crisis, due to California’s ongoing drought and a rapid decline in food donations. We need your help!

Your gift of $28.92 will provide 12 holiday meals!

It still costs just $2.41 to provide a holiday meal to a hungry man, woman, or child. This season, we expect to serve more than 170,000 meals. Your gift of $28.92 will help feed 12 people, $57.84 will help feed 24 people, or any amount you can send will help.

So please give generously. Thank you! To put your gift to work even faster, go to
urm.org/ThxFamily

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Notes From Andy

An Honored Place at the Table

Alejandro has been through a lot in his short life — far too much. When he came to Union Rescue Mission, he was angry, lost, and desperate for some place to belong. But then some of our folks took him under their wings, loved him, and adopted him as “family.” Now, he’s the most likable young man you’ll ever meet.

I think his description of what happened last Thanksgiving says it all. For the first time, he experienced a real “family” Thanksgiving. And he learned the joy of giving. That’s what our Thanksgiving celebrations are all about here at Union Rescue Mission. We welcome thousands of people from Skid Row into our “home” and treat them like honored guests. We feed them good food, love them, and cherish them — just like we do with our own families at home. Just like you treat your family.

In fact, it’s what we strive for every day — thanks to generous family like you. Just as there’s an honored place at our table for the precious folks on Skid Row, there’s a special place for you, too. Thank you!

Blessings,

September 18, 2014

The Mission – September 2014

Culinary school taught me how to create good food,” says Darren, the 49-year-old lead cook at Union Rescue Mission. “But the one thing they couldn’t teach me was how to make soul food. I don’t mean African-American cuisine — I mean food cooked with love. My mom taught me how to do that.”

Over the past year, Darren has helped serve more than 1,300 meals a day to hungry guests on Skid Row, and every meal is served with passion, love, and compassion.

“I love to serve,” he says. “It comes from my upbringing. Our house was always the go-to house for the less-fortunate kids in our neighborhood. Mom taught me that food is a ministry.”

Last year, when Darren found himself out of a job, he found an opening at Union Rescue Mission that combined his two greatest passions — serving food and ministry to hurting people.

“When I first saw what’s happening on Skid Row, I was stoked,” he recalls. “I remember thinking, you mean to tell me I can get paid to cook AND serve these people? You’ve got to be kidding! I love every minute of this.”

Each morning when Darren arrives in the kitchen, he starts with a five-minute cry for the people he’ll serve that day, followed by the theme song from Rocky for inspiration and prayer with his staff.

“I love people on Skid Row,” he says. “I want to serve them the best meal I possibly can. And that’s soul food. Food made with love. And I tell you, every day I see miracles in this place.”

But Darren says the greatest miracle he’s witnessed was serving almost 4,000 meals at URM’s Thanksgiving celebration last year.

“I think I worked 85 hours the week before Thanksgiving, just to get everything ready. We had no idea where we were going to get all the food,” he recalls. “But just like Jesus when He miraculously fed 4,000 people, we found it. I worked 15 hours straight on Thanksgiving, but it only felt like three.”

Darren says his greatest reward is seeing people blessed by the food he serves. “Nothing’s more important to me than the people we serve who’ve come here to put their lives back together,” he says. “Working here is one of the highlights of my life, to get paid to work on Skid Row and serve soul food to these special people — and serve it with everything I got.”

URM 2014.09 September Newsletter (14URM09NL)_Pkg.indd Union Rescue Mission will serve more than 170,000 meals this holiday season and more than 4,000 guests at our Thanksgiving Celebration alone! It’s never too soon to start getting ready.

Great meals don’t just happen and they require far more than fancy techniques and perfect ingredients. The best meals are created with a heaping measure of love. And that’s Union Rescue Mission’s recipe for success at our annual Thanksgiving Celebration. Above is a brief peek at some of the other essential ingredients that go into this special day.

This Thanksgiving season, the Mission will serve more than 170,000 meals! In the past, thanks to hundreds of volunteers and generous donations from local markets, each meal cost only $2.08. But due to California’s ongoing drought, food donations have dropped and prices have increased, forcing the cost of each meal to rise to $2.41. In order to continue serving so many meals to hungry people on Skid Row this Thanksgiving season, we need your help now!

So please send the most generous gift you can today. Your gift of any size will be a huge help. Thank you!

Notes From Andy

I love Thanksgiving. It’s always been my favorite holiday of the year, especially at Union Rescue Mission. But this year, I’m looking forward to our Thanksgiving celebration with concern, as well as hopeful anticipation.

Thanks to California’s severe drought, food donations to URM have plummeted and food prices are skyrocketing. I’m sure you’ve noticed our cost to serve a meal here has risen from $2.08 to $2.41 per meal — meaning our budget for food this year will rise by more than $264,000!

And it’s likely to increase even more in the months ahead. I’m sure you’re experiencing the pinch of higher food costs, as well. So this could be a tough Thanksgiving season for all
of us. But I want to assure you that our commitment to serve “soul food” to all our guests, and our mission to transform lives, will never waver — not as long as generous, caring people like you stand with us and rise to meet this challenge.

As Chef Darren says, “. . . food is a ministry.” And “soul food” is food served with love. Well, YOUR love is what makes this “soul food” possible. So thank you for everything you do on behalf of hurting people on Skid Row.

Blessings,

September 8, 2014

Dream with URM this Upcoming Year!

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We’ve just completed fiscal year 2013/2014 at Union Rescue Mission and when I say “we”, I mean you and all of our partners, providing the resources, lifting us up in prayer, joining our volunteer team, and spreading the word of the excellent life changing work happening here on the streets of Skid Row as well as out at our Hope Gardens Family Center in the Valley.

These are some of the accomplishments your gifts made possible this past year:

• Grew and strengthened our Jobs program for graduates & guests at URM
• Established a Thrift Store (opening soon) as the first of several social enterprises we will use to train grads, hire grads, and provide a sustainable income for URM
• Installed Air Conditioning for URM guests for 1st time in 20 years in new building
• Doubled Return on Investment for URM fundraising events
• Completed renovation and opened up Concord building at Hope Gardens Family Center which significantly increased our capacity to help families in need
• Substantially increased URM Cash Reserves
• Hired two instructors for our Learning Center and obtained a grant from The LA Dodgers to upgrade computers and “Dodgerize” this important area of our program

These accomplishments, along with our everyday work of housing nearly 800 precious souls and serving over 2000 meals per day, would not be possible without your active involvement, participation, and sacrificial financial gifts. Thank you!

This is what makes me excited about the future, knowing you and Our Lord stand with us as we take on what seems to be an impossible task. The task of caring for and reaching many whom the world has cast off. One of our chaplains, John Russell, preached in chapel recently that the kingdom of God is like a shade tree, a big shade tree that invites people forgotten by the rest of the world into the shade. I realized as he shared that this is URM, a big shade tree that invites the least and the lost of this world back into the shade, into a loving environment, into a life changing environment. Thanks for making this work possible!

After 123 years of faithful service, we are not finished providing that shade, in fact, we are just beginning! Our overarching goal for the next 3 to 5 years is to: Decentralize Skid Row by expanding our services in outlying communities while measuring and sharing the outcomes of our life transforming work.

Specific plans for the coming year include:

• Strengthen our team by providing appropriate staff pay increases for the 1st time since the Great Recession.
• In an effort to decentralize services we hope to reach a capacity of 80% downtown, while reaching a capacity of 95% at Hope Gardens Family Center.
• In an effort to look after children until they graduate from high school and move to college, we are investigating long-term restorative housing for families who after graduating Hope Gardens do not have the means to move on their own.
• We will partner with Biola Professors to better measure and improve life transformation among our program participants.
• In an effort to further strengthen recovery we are investigating an offsite men’s and women’s recovery program. I believe we will soon have the means to make this a reality, possibly in fiscal year 2015/2016.
• We will continue to build our network by adding at least 1 key partner, like the incredible partnership with Pacific Coast Church of San Clemente, which mentors our men in recovery and holds Iron Man Conferences here at URM. We may enter into a local partnership with PCC helping them and another church establish a shelter in Dana Point in the future.
• We will establish partnerships with churches/agencies to engage neighborhoods which are producing most of our guests and the people on Skid Row. We want to strengthen young people and families, help them develop resilience to homelessness, to stem the flow into Skid Row.
• We will open our 1st URM Thrift Store in Covina in 6 weeks to train and hire graduates and provide a sustaining income for URM. We are hoping to find adjacent housing for our URM and Hope Gardens graduates who will be employed at The Thrift Store
• We will launch a race/walk to raise awareness and funds to alleviate homelessness.
• We will build reserves to 3 months of operating, and begin Phase 1 of a Capital Campaign to make improvements, i.e. new elevators downtown, and pay off mortgage of Hope Gardens. Though we plan to just begin this in fiscal year 2014/1015, my hope and belief is that this may be accomplished by fiscal year end 2015, and no later than fiscal year end 2016.

These are some planned bold steps, as we maintain our vital work on the streets of Skid Row while branching out into uncharted territory, but we know our God is faithful, and we know you will continue to stand with us as a vital partner.

We know none of our work could be accomplished without our Lord’s blessing and your generous gifts of love. Could you give your stamp of approval and your willingness to be part of the team that makes this happen by providing a generous financial gift today?

Bless you,

August 21, 2014

Exit Through the Thrift Shop

Many of you have been crucial partners in our work to fight homelessness in Skid Row, and have heard the many stories of Life Transformation that have written within these walls. But most of our guests today need more than a transformed life to escape homelessness — they also need a job.

With the opening of our new Thrift store in Covina, we are trying to help our program participants take the next step. We believe by getting them a job that they can truly exit Skid Row through the Thrift Shop.

How Can You Help?

1. Donate

When you donate your new and gently used goods to Union Rescue Mission Thrift Store, you know it is going to have a positive, long lasting impact. In fact, it is going to transform lives. Your donations, big and small, all add up to hope for men, women and children experiencing homelessness.

We are now accepting clothing, accessories, furniture, furnishings, household/kitchen items, jewelry, art, and many other new and lightly used items!

To schedule a pick-up, call 626-915-3417
Donation drop-off at URM Thrift Store From 9:00am until 4:00pm (Monday – Saturday)

2. Shop

Every item you purchase from the URM Thrift Store goes directly back into the lives of the people who are struggling with homelessness. From the man who walks into the Mission deciding it is the final time he will quit a life of drugs, to the mother and child who are running away from years of domestic abuse, your purchase will go a long way to see that they are all embraced by the love of Christ.

Early Bird Special
Every Tuesday receive a 25% Discount from 9:00am until 12:00pm.

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URM Thrift Store
280 E. Arrow Hwy
Covina 91722
Phone: 626-915-3417

Hours of Operation:
Monday – Saturday 9:00 to 6:00
Closed Sundays

August 6, 2014

The Mission – August 2014

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I was a single mom with four young kids, and I desperately needed a job. But I had been a drug addict for more than 10 years. I had been arrested several times for shoplifting. And I had just left prison. I wanted a second chance, but who would hire me?

It was my fault. Since the age of 18, I’d been on my own and I wanted to party, drink, and smoke weed. But I wasn’t irresponsible. I held good jobs. But then someone introduced me to “primos” — weed mixed with crack cocaine. It was love at first cough. Nothing else mattered.

Before long, I was smoking every day, all day. It got so bad, I couldn’t hold on to a job, so I started shoplifting. I hated myself for it, but I just couldn’t stop smoking. By the time I was 30, I had four kids and I knew they deserved better.

So when I went to prison in August 2004 for shoplifting, I turned my life over to God and determined that I would change my life. When I got out in May of 2005, I knew I needed a job to support my kids. But what hope did I have?

That’s when God led me to Union Rescue Mission. URM was more than just a shelter. They taught me how to write a resume, how to interview, and how to dress appropriately. They made me believe in second chances and even helped connect me to potential employers willing to give people like me a new start.

But little did I know it would be Union Rescue Mission who would hire me, and I’ve been here ever since! Today, I work in our Gifts in Kind department, helping the Mission secure everything we need — cleaning supplies, hygiene products, food and kitchen utensils, clothing, baby products, blankets, gym equipment, and so much more. And now I’m also helping find everything we need to stock URM’s new thrift store in Covina, which I know will help even more people like me.

Union Rescue Mission gave me confidence when I didn’t have any left. They gave me a second chance when I didn’t deserve one. They believed in me, supported me, and equipped me to live a brand-new life. And that means everything.

URM Thrift Store

A Thrifty New Venture

by Jeri Little, Vice President, Micro Enterprise

Caring people like you have been transforming the lives of hurting people at Union Rescue Mission for more than 120 years. But most of our guests today need more than a transformed life to escape homelessness — they also need a job.

With that in mind, URM is opening a new thrift store in Covina, which promises to provide jobs for some of our guests, and offer many other benefits, as well. Beyond this new thrift store, however, your gifts enable us to do much more to equip our guests to find employment. Thanks to you, our guests learn how to write resumes, get connected to job training opportunities, learn how to present themselves in interviews, and are even able to connect with valuable mentors and potential employers.

For more information about URM’s new thrift store in Covina, please contact Troy West at 626-915-3417.

August 2014 URM

The streets of Skid Row are harsh any time of year. But when temperatures rise above 90 degrees, life here becomes even more cruel. Right now, outside our doors, people are already suffering from life-threatening, heat-related illnesses. They desperately need your help.

Yet every summer, donations to Union Rescue Mission drop way off, and right now this lack of funding, coupled with increasing food costs, is threatening our ability to meet the needs of precious souls who need our help this summer.

You can make a huge difference right now. Your gift today will provide not just water, but also cool shelter, nutritious meals, and another day of hope — in Jesus’ name — to these precious people who need your help the most this summer. So please send the most generous gift you can today. Thank you!

andy

Notes from Andy

The Way Home Is Through a Job

Everything we do at Union Rescue Mission is designed to enable people experiencing
homelessness to leave here prepared to live a successful life. And a key part of
that mission involves preparing people for a job. You can transform someone’s life
and find them a place to live, but if they can’t pay for it, they’ll end up right back
on the streets.

That’s one of the reasons we’re opening a new thrift store in Covina, which I hope
is just the first of many we open all over LA County. Other nonprofit organizations
like ours, nationwide, have proven time and again how thrift stores can provide
valuable work skills, jobs, and a sustainable income for people once
considered largely unemployable.

And that’s where you come in. Your financial gifts to URM do far more than provide meals and shelter. Your gifts help transform lives and help prepare men and women experiencing homelessness with job-preparedness training, work skills, and even job opportunities with employers all over Los Angeles.

A life transformed, followed by a job, followed by a home. That’s our strategy. But you’re the one who makes it happen. You are the Mission.

Blessings,

July 2, 2014

The Mission – July 2014

cover sidebar

It’s not hard to understand why James holds tightly to Jesus’ parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15), the story of a young man who disgraces his family by living a wild life far from home and finally hits rock bottom — destitute, alone, and with nowhere to live.

“That’s my story,” says James, a 45-year-old native of Korea. “It’s hard to get disowned by a Korean family. But I was. And when that happens, the break is pretty powerful.”

James is the youngest child of a tight-knit Korean family. His parents had high expectations for him. “In the Korean culture, you respect your elders and do as they say. And my parents expected me to be someone,” James says. “The problem was, I just wanted to be average and normal.”

So James did the unthinkable. In high school, he rebelled against his parents, pursuing a life of parties and drugs — including heroin.

“I felt a lot of shame and fear,” he says. “Heroin made me feel like everything was OK. But then my life became unmanageable and dark for almost 20 years.”

He finally hit rock bottom in 2013. “I had burned all my bridges with my family. I had sold everything I owned, I weighed 100 pounds, and I realized I had no one else to rely on and no place to go. I actually had to sleep on the street,” James recalls.

That’s when he came to Union Rescue Mission. “When I got here, I was tired, ashamed, and hopeless,” he says. But everything started to change when James met URM’s Chaplain McIntire. For the first time, James felt like someone loved him and cared about him.

“Chap believed in me,” James says. “He gave me hope and something to live for. There was no way I was going to let him down. Love is a powerful thing.”

Today, James is drug-free and working as a coordinator for Chaplain McIntire. But his story is still unfinished. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the son returns home to a loving, welcoming father. Will James’ family embrace him when he returns?

“I still carry some guilt and shame. I caused a lot of disruption in my family,” he says. “But I also have peace I never experienced before. I’m no longer James the failure. I’m James — child of God. Now I just hope my family will forgive me and welcome me back.”

secondstory

The Love that Lifted James

By Mike McIntire, URM Chaplain

When James first came to Union Rescue Mission, I knew he was Korean and very out of place. We see very few Asian men come through here because many believe that coming to a shelter like this will bring shame upon their families. So I knew it was a big deal for James to be here.

So I immediately sat down to talk with James and shared that I’d like to be his chaplain and to work together through his struggles.

As a chaplain who works with addicted men at URM, I know that nearly all addicts are trying to cope with some kind of relational trauma in their lives — molestation, abandonment, abuse, neglect, etc. James was no different. He felt like he had deeply hurt his family and had been running from them ever since. And if relational trauma was the problem, I had to model a healthy relationship with him.

James arrived broken and hopeless. But I told him I loved him, whether he wanted it or not, and I would find a way to make him believe it. I was determined
to never do anything that would bring any more shame to James and to help him regain his honor.

Over the next year, James opened up more and more. And as he learned to trust me and believe I truly loved him, he began to change and to believe he was a man worthy of respect again. Today, he has hope that he can rebuild his broken relationships. And one day, I believe he’ll be a man who’s capable of reaching other hurting men with the same love and care he received here.

Inside

The Horrors of Heroin

Overdose deaths in California have doubled since 1990. They’re now the second-leading cause of accidental deaths in California for people 15-34 years old, second only to traffic accidents.
— Los Angeles Overdose Prevention Center

Heroin essentially rewires part of the brain, so when users try to give it up, they crave it even more.
— Fox News, LA

Heroin addiction is on the rise nationwide and in Southern California. It can be a deadly high, and young people are the most vulnerable . . . The number of heroin deaths increased by 250 percent between 1999 and 2009.
— ABC Local News

Police seizures of heroin in Los Angeles have almost tripled in the past three years.
— Department of Justice

In 2007, there were an estimated 373,000 heroin users in the U.S. By 2012, the number was 669,000, with the greatest increases among those 18 to 25. First-time users nearly doubled in a six-year period ending in 2012, from 90,000 to 156,000.
— Huffington Post

If you or someone you know is struggling with drug
addiction, please give us a call at (213) 347-6300 and we can connect you with someone who can help.

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

So many reasons lead to the desperation found on Skid Row; addiction and poor choices, trauma and abandonment, the lost of a job or death of a loved one are just a few. Everyone on the streets of Skid Row is broken and hurting. But just like you and I, they are made in the image of God and need a second chance at life.

And because of generous people like you, these same hurting 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.

Your generous gift of $25, $35, or more will help provide nutritious meals, safe shelter, and the real help these precious people need to put their lives back together and return to their communities healthy and whole. So I urge you, 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/ChangeLives

Notes from Andy

Instruments of God’s Love

They’re coaches, mentors, friends, and God’s instruments of healing and love in the lives of our guests struggling with addictions and homelessness. The eight chaplains who work here at Union Rescue Mission and at Hope Gardens Family Center, including Chaplain McIntire in this newsletter, are the very core of our Mission. I get tears just thinking about the work they do here every day.

One thing I’ve learned after more than 25 years of ministry is that the only way to truly end someone’s homelessness is through personal relationship and trust. Our guests need more than a roof or a meal. They need someone to believe in them, encourage them, cry with them, stand alongside them. They need someone to love them.

That’s what our chaplains do. That’s what James experienced when Chaplain McIntire took James under his wing. Not all our guests are ready to respond to that kind of love, but we nevertheless offer that love to our guests every day.

In that way, our chaplains are really YOUR hands and feet. They channel YOUR love, embodied in all your gifts to Union Rescue Mission, and offer that love to our guests. Thank you for being instruments of God’s love with us.

Blessings,

June 17, 2014

What I See Right Outside My Window…

This is the view just outside my office window on Skid Row in Los Angeles…

Heroin is being sold and used. The same with crack cocaine. And a new, legal “spice” is being smoked – causing violence everywhere on the street every day.

I’ve never seen so many precious people on Skid Row nor seen this level of mental illness, violence, and desperation. We need to take some bold steps.

Last year, your year-end gift helped us strengthen our jobs program & just last month 7 graduates were hired through Toyota by DTZ & affiliated companies!

We need your help again, and your partnership! Union Rescue Mission will always be committed to serving the precious people on Skid Row. In addition, we want to add services in outlying areas to decentralize Skid Row and help people who have worked hard to get clean and sober stay that way. If we can raise sufficient funds to close out our fiscal year ending June 30^th, we will have the resources and momentum to begin this strategic shift. Every gift given by June 30^th will be matched/doubled!

We hope to;

Build partnerships with several key churches that can not only be involved with guests at URM, but ultimately address homelessness in their local neighborhood with our help and support.
Begin an off-site(away from Skid Row) recovery program for single women
Investigate and implement an offsite men’s recovery program
Investigate long term restorative housing at Hope Gardens for the sake of our precious children experiencing homelessness
Launch social enterprises and Master lease apartments in outlying areas adjacent to jobs for our men and women graduates
Ascertain the neighborhoods sending people to Skid Row and partner with agencies to strengthen families and build resilient children to reverse this flow into Skid Row.
Along with this decentralized focus, we hope to strengthen our sustainability by investing in our staff with a greater focus on nurturing our future URM leaders, paying down debt, and building reserves

Our everyday life saving and life changing work and these bold initiatives will only be possible with your continued partnership.

Thank you!

P.S. Every gift you give until June 30th will be matched/doubled by other generous friends. We deeply appreciate and value your partnership.