On Saturday, May 25th, Wells Fargo volunteers came to Union Rescue Mission for their annual Wells Fargo Acts of Kindness Day. Some volunteers took part in an Ice Cream Social, serving delicious ice cream sundaes to people in the Skid Row community. Others helped out by organizing storage closets and cleaning the Learning Center in our building!
Thanks so much to all the Wells Fargo Volunteers who gave up their Saturdays to serve – we appreciate you!
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:
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
More than 200 mothers and kids come to URM for help each month. Families in desperate need of a safe place to stay and help to get back on their feet.
Watch how lives are transformed every day. And see how your generosity can help rescue families from the streets, and help them find their way home.
I know what homelessness is like. I lived on the streets for 10 years. Heat . . . cold . . . rain . . . it’s hard. But the worst part? Everyone looks at you with disgust, even though they don’t understand. They all had family and friends. I had no one. One time, even my own brother drove past me on the street. He just shook his head and kept driving.
It’s hard to blame them. I was a meth addict. And meth drove me all the way to the streets. Thanks to my addiction, I ended up sleeping in parks, schools, abandoned buildings, and sometimes I’d burn out so bad I’d just collapse on a sidewalk. I lived in constant fear of being robbed, mugged, or murdered.
Winter was the worst, especially when it rained. Some nights it got so cold and damp I thought I’d freeze to death. Some guys did. They’d freeze in the night and never wake up. Nights like that, I had to find some way to start a fire. Or just keep walking. I wanted to die. In fact, I often prayed that God would kill me. But He never did.
In October 2011, I finally got tired of it all and came to Union Rescue Mission. It’s the smartest thing I ever did, because that’s when I started reading the Bible. Through counseling and studying God’s Word, I heard God knocking at my heart and I opened it to Him. And today my life is completely changed.
I’ve learned that God gives everyone a gift. Mine is encouragement. So now I plan on going to college to be a drug counselor. There was a time I prayed to die. Now I pray to live to see how God will use me. I want to save the lives of guys like me.
Tonight, more than 57,000 people experiencing homelessness will struggle to survive the Los Angeles cold. Without shelter, they suffer from cold-related illnesses, vulnerability to predators and crime, and even death.
Your generous gift provides precious souls with nourishing meals, a warm bed, and life-transforming programs. Thank you for helping them get out of the cold this winter.
It’s a hard world for men and women experiencing homelessness. Last summer, we found a man lying in a pile of garbage across the street — he’d been dead for days.
During the wet, cold, winter months, an average of one man or woman dies on these streets every day.
This winter, we’re offering 120 extra beds every night the temperature drops below 40 degrees or whenever it rains. It may not seem like much, but it means a lot to the man or woman who gets a bed — and it just might save their life. Thank you for caring.
Blessings,
Rev. Andy Bales, CEO
Dear Friends,
It’s been two years since we alerted you and our many contributors that Hope Gardens Family Center was in jeopardy of closing. In response to our plea, more than 5000 friends responded with financial gifts to keep it open and thriving. It didn’t matter what size the gift was, what made the difference was the number of caring people who responded generously. We raised $3.8 Million in 37 days and kept Hope alive. Thank you!
We are in a similar position today. We need to receive an outpouring of generous gifts from as many of our faithful friends as possible. Here’s why:
The first step towards accomplishing all this and much more, is to finish this fiscal year strong by hitting our budgeted income goal. To ensure our success, we need to raise $4.8 Million between now and June 30th. If we do not, our plans for the coming year will be put on hold. I can’t begin to express how devastating it would be to our team and to me personally if we do not raise these funds by June 30th.
For the last 3 years our dedicated staff has worked hard, sacrificed, and welcomed our guests with love. They’ve taken two 5% pay cuts, accepted increased work loads and had their wages frozen. And as disappointing as it would be to postpone the plans we have to improve our programs, what’s even more troubling to me, actually, heart-wrenching, is the thought that we will not be able to carryout our plans to restore a small portion of the benefits our dedicated team has given up for the sake of those we serve.
We simply must hit our budget goal for FY2012 by June 30th!
There are some who’d like to see Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens fade into the sunset and disappear. They don’t believe in recovery or life transformation. However, the 2700 guests who count on us each day for a good meal, and our 700 resident guests who are diligently involved in recovering their lives in our transformation programs believe strongly in the life saving work of Union Rescue Mission. I know that you do as well. Thank you!
I too believe strongly in the work of Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens. I’ve poured my life into it! As you know, I’ve stayed on, battling kidney failure, in hopes of helping URM & Hope Gardens move into the future in a strong position. It would be tough on me to not see us succeed.
As you consider giving an extra gift at this time, please consider the powerful life-transforming work of Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens, remember our miracle from 2 years ago that kept Hope Gardens going strong in the midst of the Great Recession, and give what you can to help URM and Hope Gardens move into 2012-2013 with great strength.
The size of the gift you send is not as important as simply responding. Your generous gift, joined with others will Keep Hope Alive in the hearts of our dedicated staff and make a huge impact in the lives of our precious guests.
Your co-worker in Christ,
Andy Bales
Ps. Your generous giving makes life transformation possible for the men, women and precious children living at Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center. Thank you!
To make your gift on-line go to urm.org/KeepHopeAlive
Because of the scope of what friends like you help us do at URM, everyday is a big event. From life transformation programs, to medical centers, to legal aid clinics, to kids programs….we do it all thanks to you.
Please take a moment to view Rev. Andy’s January End of the Month Update and consider a gift today. We can’t do this work without you.
Blessings
April 1st of 2011, Union Rescue Mission, in some eyes, made a controversial decision to ask our guests who were able, to begin paying part of their way. The decision was made with a lot of thought, planning, and prayer.
There is no question that the economy was a factor in the decision, but it goes much deeper than that.
Let me start by saying that I have long believed in guests paying part of their own way thanks to the influence of the grandfather of Christian Community Development, Dr. John Perkins, and his book, “Let Justice Roll Down.” John taught me that the dignity of people is affirmed when they can pay their own way, at least in part, instead of having everything handed down to them as charity. John and I both feel that people are empowered when they can learn to provide for themselves.
I also had the distinct opportunity to begin my Missions career at the Door of Faith Mission in Des Moines. A Mission, I quickly learned that was ahead of its time. My prior Missions’ experience was as a teenager accompanying my dad. He would preach and I would sing. We’d walk into a Mission he was scheduled to preach at , see the guys lined up, many of them intoxicated, and then watch as they moved to an area where they had to sit and listen to a message (my dad and I) before they could eat. Routinely we would see a fellow fall out of his chair. After the message, the men would be served a piece of day old bread and some watery soup, before they were allowed to go to bed for the night. That was the picture I had of a Mission as I walked in to The Door of Faith Mission to apply for a job as the Associate Director 25 years ago.
However, when I entered the Door of Faith, I noticed that the guys were all sober, neat and clean, and the food portions were substantial. I was intrigued. I learned that the Founder of the Door of Faith, George Holloway had experienced homelessness for 37 years. He had travelled the country and experienced Missions first hand. He found Christ at either the LA Mission or Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. And, when he arrived in Des Moines, he decided to start a Mission that was unique. George felt that it was hard to get sober when surrounded by people who were drinking or using so he had an expectation of sobriety, and instituted a breath test, and later I added drug testing to assist. George also felt that men would feel better about themselves if they worked and paid a part of their own way, so he instituted a $6 a day fee, and this produced about 1/3 of the needed income for the Mission each day, while the other 2/3rds came from generous individuals and partner churches. I later instituted a gradually rising daily fee after 3 months so that around 6 months later, when men began to pay $8 per day, they began to consider relocating to nearby apartments. George also believed that feeding men well helped them battle their addiction and strengthened them to go out and work hard to earn their pay, so he moved from what was known as soup kitchens to serving heaping portions at what we later called “The Faith Café”.
As I arrived at Union Rescue Mission nearly seven years ago, an impressive, historic place with a long tradition, I brought this idea of paying your own way with me. When I brought up the idea in my interview, I could tell it was met with a look of “We’ve never done it that way!”, so I dropped it until I at least got hired! J
Four years later, when the economy worsened and our finances tightened, I broached the subject again. It was again met with skepticism, caution, and the idea was put on hold.
Probably 18 months ago, the recession was putting a squeeze on URM and our future was not at all certain. I was being pressed by the Board of Directors to come up with a strong sustainability plan, and as part of the sustainability plan, I introduced a Pilot Program, the Gateway Program, to implement with only 10%, or 50 of our guest beds, ½ on the women’s side, and ½ on the men’s side. To assist in my proposal, I shared with the Board that the idea came not just from me, but from one of our front line staff members, who was frustrated that many of our guests had substantial incomes, even more than $1000 per month, yet they would fritter away and use up all of their funds in a few short days and rely on the charity of URM the rest of the month for their meals and bed. This hurt our not highly paid staff member to see this charity taken advantage of.
I was allowed to implement the Gateway program into 10% of our guest beds. It worked like this; guests who had an income from Social Security, Social Security Disability, Veteran’s benefits, or General Relief would pay $7 per day, of which $2 would be placed into their personal savings fund. The extra $5 would pay for more intense case management for the guest, there would be an expectation of sobriety, attendance at some educational and life transforming classes, we would add a foot locker under their bunk so that their belongings would be safe and secure, and they would be allowed to rest in their bunks at any time rather than retreating to the guest area each day. I blogged about the pilot program, Twittered and Facebooked in hopes of alerting the public of the change and receiving most of the questions and criticism up front during the trial rather than later when I hoped to fully implement this program. We did make the news and received good questions and some criticism up front.
We operated the 50 beds this way for a number of months, and then an even greater financial squeeze came on URM and even more pressure for a stronger sustainability plan came from the Board of Directors, and the only additional step that I could think of was to broaden the Gateway Program from Pilot to full implementation to all 300 guest beds. This would not only implement what I always believed as a philosophy, but would also produce about $40,000 of much needed funds each month; equal to 1 day of our operating budget. I also strongly believed it would have great benefit to our guests.
I’ve always believed that if you had 1000 beds for people to crash in any condition, you’d have 1000 people crashing in any condition, and if you had 1000 beds with high expectations for people to help themselves, you’d have 1000 people working hard and helping themselves.
We began to alert our guests of the change 90 days out. Again, I blogged about the success of the pilot and the coming change. We also invited community activists and bloggers in to discuss the change. One supported it strongly while others had doubts, but at least we had informed them of the coming change. Believe it or not, on April 1st, we instituted the change.
Men were grabbing the communications off of the wall and trashing them in disgust, saying, “is this a cruel April 1st joke?” One man asked me, “What are you trying to do to me?” I replied, “I’m trying to get you to help yourself and I am trying to keep this place open for all!” “OK”, was his response.
So, on April 1st, 2011, the worsening economy provided the opportunity to implement this new approach at URM. We eased it in with good planning and care. The first 5 days are free for all, allowing folks to decide between the Gateway Program, our free long-term Life Transformation programs in which they will not pay fees but they will invest a lot of time and effort, or relocating elsewhere. Immediately, our guest bed count went from 300 to 170, and dropped off especially significantly on our women’s side which surprised me. The women, many of whom had substantial resources, were more reluctant to give part of their resources and chose the cold sidewalk rather than handing over any of their income. This was and is heartbreaking to me.
However, many of the remaining guests came to me and said, “What you’ve done has transformed the Mission. Everyone who was causing problems and not working on their lives left and only those who care and want to try stayed.” Or “You’ve turned this place from a den of anger and rebellion to a place of peace.”
I was encouraged, but it was not without controversy. During a drive back through the mountains from vacation I received an alarming call from a big radio station about our “charging rent” to URM guests. This was followed by news agencies from all around, including the LA Times, NPR, and others inquiring about this new approach and it was difficult, though not impossible to share that it was not just the recession that brought this about, but a firm philosophy that we believe that people feel better about themselves and are empowered when they pay a portion of their own way.
The Results:
Soon, the numbers began to grow and today we have 295 guests. 132 men and 86 women are paying the fee. Another 58 men and 24 women are in the 5 day free period, and a few without an income of any kind are allowed to stay if they volunteer a few hours a week.
The number of men enrolling in our long-term program has risen 20% and 100 of our Gateway guests have secured permanent housing and moved on since implementation. Our emergency and police calls have been greatly reduced, and with this change and one other, we’ve been able to lower our security costs. Our front-line staff thanks me each day for reducing their workload, their stress and their efforts to keep the mission in clean working order.
The other change also goes back to the Door of Faith. At the Door of Faith, we fed guests staying with us 3 times a day, but the outside public only once, at lunch. URM had been feeding overnight guests and outside public visitors 3 times per day. At times it was dangerous and our daily meal count was quickly approaching 5000 due to the recession, a number that might not be sustainable and might take us under. So, we moved from feeding outside guests 3 times per day to only once, at lunch. In hindsight, it was wise that we did, because even with that move, our meals are only down 15% from last year. Can you imagine the numbers we would be feeding if we were still offered 3 meals per day to outside visitors? This also goes with my philosophy, that simply letting folks be on the street and report for 3 meals a day with no expectations is not helpful to them. Now we utilize the 3 hour window at lunchtime, 12 to 3, to recruit our outside guests and invite them to become part of URM and enjoy the 3 meals and all that comes with being part of our Gateway Program or Life Transformation Programs.
Despite the positive impact we are seeing, we’ve heard that a radical activist group, LA CAN, is preparing to sue us over our Gateway Program. They’ve even handed out flyers to our guests telling them that LA CAN will assist them in suing us for charging “rent”. All I can say is that some times when certain people attack you it is affirmation that you are doing the right thing.
Blessings, Andy B.
Dear Friends,
Earlier this month we began what will be a year long celebration of Union Rescue Mission’s 120th birthday! You’ll hear more about our plans in the coming months but as 2011 comes to end, I thought you would appreciate this quote from our history library:
“At a time when bread was only a nickel a loaf, thousands of men, women and children went without. Union Rescue Mission was there for them. In 1910 we served 5,693 meals and helped 875 men find jobs”.
Some might read this and be discouraged. After all, bread costs a lot more than a nickel and men, women and children are still going without. But for me, this passage from our history is encouraging reminder of God’s affirmation of our work and His love for people experiencing homelessness. He has faithfully sustained this ministry for 120 years through wonderful people like you. I’m humbled and blessed to work alongside you.
Our work here is far from complete. According to the latest counts, the number of precious people living on Skid Row has doubled since last year. By years end, URM will have served over 1 million meals. Thankfully, we have 120 years of victory in the midst of challenge under our belt. We will continue to embrace people experiencing homelessness with the compassion of Christ – giving hope and healing for a changed life – helping them find their way home.
Union Rescue Mission needs to raise $3.5 million by the end of the year to meet the needs of the men, women and children we currently serve; move forward with the expansion of our Women’s Life Transformation Program; and implement a robust Job Training, Job Development and Job Placement Program!
As you consider your final year-end contribution to Union Rescue Mission, I have some exciting news to share with you. One of our faithful, generous friends has offered to match every gift we receive between now and December 31st up to $200,000. This means any amount you share will go twice as far. Thank you in advance for giving generously.
May God bless you!
Rev. Andy Bales
Last night, November 17, 2011, was a fun-filled night with everything from popcorn and cake to a bounce house and back-flips. Zach Bonner of The Little Red Wagon foundation chose to celebrate his 14th birthday with the youth of URM, making for an unforgettable night on the URM rooftop.
A huge thank you goes out to all those who made this event possible. Fund a Field, Kohl’s Cares, and America’s Got Talent’s Sideswipe were all part of making this night so special for the attending youth. Children were given the opportunity to customize a teddy bear, play soccer, enjoy arts and crafts, and be amazed Sideswipe’s act – a mix of martial arts and acrobatics.
This event was a huge success thanks to all those who gave of their time and energy to bless the youth of Union Rescue Mission. Happy Birthday Zach, thanks for celebrating with us!
For all the great pictures please visit The Album Here
For live up-dates of future events please follow URM at:
At this time last year I did not believe I would be blogging about Thanksgiving in 2011. On November 20th after a busy night of deep-frying 200 turkeys from 11p.m. until dawn at Union Rescue Mission in preparation for our big Thanksgiving event, my kidneys failed and for a few weeks I wasn’t sure I would make it. I certainly believed I would have to retire and go on disability, as I signed up and began the necessary testing process to determine if kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant were options I could consider. My world was turned upside down.
However, with some encouraging words by Dr. Nirmal Kumar that I needed to “work until I dropped”, strong support from my wife and the Board of Directors & team at URM, tripling of my medication, drinking two glasses of water with a tea spoon of baking soda each day, and going on a strict low phosphorous and low potassium diet, mostly made up of vegetables, fruits and water, along with several rounds of shots of Procrit to boost my red blood cells and rid me of dizziness I was experiencing, my kidney function has improved from 15% to 24%, moving me far away from dialysis for the time being.
I’ve not only improved remarkably in kidney function, but I’ve lost 34 lbs, my red blood cell count has improved and my cholesterol is so good that hopefully the blockage in my heart and arteries is being reduced! I’ve tightened the control of my type 1 diabetes to the point that my tests almost ring true of a normal healthy person!
This strict regimen is the only way for me, as I’ve been dropped off the transplant list. It seems that I cannot get a transplant until I have an angioplasty to remove a blockage in my heart, and the dye put into my body for the angioplasty would destroy the rest of my kidney function. So I am stuck in a bit of a quandary, but I’ve decided to stay on the strict diet and regimen, and keep doing this work that I love so much.
I haven’t had a diet soda, chocolate, cheese, dairy of any kind, chips, potatoes, and my favorite sweet potatoes or baked beans in nearly 1 year, but it is easy to follow a diet when it keeps you alive and doing the work that you love!
I lost a dear friend this week, a hero of mine, who fell ill at the same time that I did last year. I don’t fully understand God’s grace to me through this difficult time, but I am so thankful. My wife shared with me last week, “that we have so much to be thankful for!”
So, again this year I will be up with the URM team, strong, and deep-frying 200 turkeys overnight on Friday and early Saturday morning, preparing to feed 4500 precious friends at our big Thanksgiving event at URM. And to top it off, I’m feeling well enough to spend the night on the streets with my precious friends tonight to raise awareness of the plight of our neighbors experiencing homelessness. The honor of serving in this ministry and spending time with my family and friends has driven me to do what it takes to survive, and I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Thanks, again, for your faithful prayers!