Helping The Homeless

Friends, Family, and Colleagues:

I’m writing this email to tell you about a project for homeless people that I’ve been involved with. I’m excited about what’s been happening, and I want to share the news with people who I think might be interested.

Since January, I’ve been helping to serve bowls of hot chili, bread, and coffee to hundreds of homeless and low income people in Santa Ana every Thursday night. This is a program that my friend, Roy Gerber, started. Roy is a chaplain who spends his days taking his two “therapy” dogs (golden retrievers) to hospitals, foster homes, schools, and the Orange County Rescue Mission. His non-profit organization is called Paws For Cause and its mission statement is to “bring hope, love, and encouragement to challenging circumstances.” He’s remarkably gifted at this. Kids love his dogs and it offers him an opportunity to talk to them and pray with them about their challenges or illnesses.

Back in December, Roy organized an effort to bring a group of volunteers to downtown Santa Ana one night and serve chili and coffee to the many homeless people that live in that area. It soon became a weekly event, and I started going with him in January. In just a few short months, a lot has happened.

· The Huntington Beach Waterfront Hilton is now making the chili every week so that volunteers don’t have to make it at their homes. 30 managers at the Hilton have committed to making the chili and cleaning up the containers every week for the next year.

· The Market Broiler restaurant has regularly donated the bread that we serve with the chili.

· We’ve expanded to a second location. Wednesday nights are in Huntington Beach and Thursday nights are in Santa Ana.

· The Orange County Rescue Mission now sends its mobile medical clinic to Santa Ana to offer services to people who come to eat dinner.

We usually serve between 200 and 300 people a night. Some of them do indeed live on the streets, but many of them live in the surrounding neighborhood and are struggling to make ends meet. There are also families that come with kids. With the economy the way it is, I imagine it’s nice to know that on Thursday nights, they can get a hot meal that they don’t have to pay for, in a setting that is safe and friendly.

I initially volunteered because I knew Roy from church (Mariners Church in Irvine) and he asked me to help. I was a little intimidated the first time but now I look forward to it. I’m always impressed by how gracious and respectful the group is that we serve. They make sure that the handicapped people in wheelchairs get served first, and they help those that aren’t able to stand in line.

Why am I telling you about all of this? I’m excited by what Roy and our little band of volunteers have done in such a short amount of time. There have been so many things that have fallen into place at just the right time that I’m positive God has His hand all over this. So mostly, I just want to tell my friends about something I’m doing which I’m excited about. And if you believe in the power of prayer, I would ask that you include this ministry in your prayers. I would also humbly ask that you consider joining us on a Wednesday or Thursday night. Let me know if you’re interested in coming down and I’ll fill you in on the details.

And finally, I’m going to graciously ask you to consider donating to this ministry. It’s a little awkward for me to ask people to give money, so needless to say I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe in what we were doing and also in the leadership that Roy provides. This is a man who is truly doing God’s work, and I can vouch that he’s a very responsible steward of his nonprofit’s financial resources. Even with the volunteer support of the managers at the Hilton, the monthly budget is already several thousand dollars. Paws for Cause purchases all the chili, serving dishes, utensils, and containers. Also, Roy has turned his RV into the “Chili Mobile”, so there are the costs associated with maintaining that vehicle, i.e. fuel, upkeep, and insurance.

If you’d like to take a look at our current budget, please click here: http://www.pawsforcauseoc.org/forms/budget.pdf

If you’re interested in making a donation, or even setting up a monthly donation, you can do so at the Paws For Cause website, here:
http://www.pawsforcauseoc.org/donations/

Or you can send a check here:

Paws For Cause
9114 Adams Avenue, # 197
Huntington Beach, CA 92646

Finally, I recount a response from a homeless man who was in line for a meal. This man gave one of the volunteers $2 to pay for the meal. When the volunteer tried to give it back to him, he said “I wish I could give you more, but this is all that I have. We have to keep the blessing going. If everybody would give, we ALL would be okay.”

Thanks for taking the time to get to the end of this email. I truly appreciate it!

Bryan Crain COO

WISE BROTHER MEDIA