“Landy Calfee had been married 13 years and worked as a landscaper for 26 years. He had a home, kids and the American dream. Then four words ended it all. “I want a divorce,” his wife blurted out one day. “It came from out of the blue,” says Landy. “I was so stunned ... I went into a tailspin. I started drinking and didn’t stop for two years.”

Landy no longer cared about anything, not even himself. He lost his family, his home, his job, his life savings and finally his apartment. He had never had a drinking problem before, never slept outside, never been homeless. He was scared. That morning he prayed, and a man he happened to meet the next day told him about the Orange County Rescue Mission. Landy went.

“It was culture shock,” he says. But two people he happened to meet made him feel welcome and comfortable. “My life is totally turned around,” he beams. “I pray for help and almost immediately I meet three people with just the message I need? Years ago I would have called it a coincidence. Now I know it was a miracle from God.”

I’ve survived horrible car accidents,” says Mike Wright. “But that’s not what I count as my major life miracles. “The last time I got out of jail — with no money, nothing but the clothes on my back and no idea where to go — I knew it was time to put things in God’s hands 'cause I failed miserably managing my own life.”

Mike walked to the bus stop and someone there told him about the Orange County Rescue Mission. Today Mike’s life is on a whole new, positive path. He says,

“Miracle No. 1 in my life is the birth of my son.
Miracle No. 2 is getting into the Mission.
Miracle No. 3 is that, not only have I survived here for six months, I have a job interview on Monday!”

YOU, the donor. You experience the blessing of helping others.
OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN and family who get a good example of Christian charity.
GRADUATES of our Men’s New Life Program who are freed from their former lives.
WOMEN who graduate from our House of Hope program.
CHILDREN whose destinies have been changed as their parents break the cycle of poverty.
WORKING POOR FAMILIES who don’t have to choose between rent and food anymore since you provided a food basket.
OLD MEN who are rescued from sleeping on cold park benches.
1.5 MILLION PEOPLE who have been indirectly affected by the lives changed here over the past 44 years.
ORANGE COUNTY TAXPAYERS who are spared the costs of welfare, prison, crime, unemployment and emergency room visits from homeless people.
OUR STAFF who let God work through them and are changed in the process.

When it came time to partner with a local public high school for Disney's Show Your Character Program for 2007, the Orange County Rescue Mission already knew who to turn to. OCRM is privileged to have developed a relationship with Lutheran High School (LHS) of Orange County over the last year. Not only did they assist OCRM in Disney's Show Your Character Program for 2006, but they partnered together for six additional projects for their own service days.

The ambitious, service-centered school of 1,200 students is always on the lookout for volunteer opportunities that truly make a difference right in their own backyard. In fact, each student commits to a minimum of two full days of community service activities during their school year. When OCRM called activities director, Tim Odle, he was enthusiastic about partnering up again for the Disney Show Your Character Program. In the following days, many volunteer opportunities surfaced, and plans began to materialize between OCRM and LHS.

With OCRM preparing to move to their new location at the Village of Hope, there was much opportunity for service. The first plan was to utilize one of LHS' service days for a major clean-up at the Village of Hope. This service day incorporated 140 students accomplishing 12 major projects within a 3 hour window. The students worked incredibly hard to tackle grounds and landscape cleanup, road sweeping, kitchen cleaning, fence and flooring removal, furniture and equipment moving, sanding of hand rails and weeding, as well as immense cleanup of many other rooms and buildings on location. This project not only accomplished a vast amount of practical service, but it helped to solidify the relationship OCRM continues to enjoy with LHS.

Many thanks, once again, for the dedication and hard work of the LHS volunteers!

Transformation. Recovery. A second chance. People have lots of ways to describe what happens here, but to me they are all miracles.

Big and small. Miracles are not just something that happened in the past. They happen here every day. A miracle is people who have been wandering for years but wander in here at the moment they are ready to change. A miracle is men addicted to heroin for a decade quitting cold turkey. A miracle is having no holiday food boxes left for a desperate family and a donor shows up at that moment with last-minute food boxes. A miracle is a staff member having strength to love one more angry, hurting, intoxicated person in the name of Jesus. A miracle is a matching grant gift coming in the midst of the summer slump.

Yes, these things are all God’s intervention. Each changed life speaks to how much God loves His creation — each one of us. Isn’t it amazing that once we are blessed, God uses us to bless others — to perform His acts of compassion in the world?

In His service,

For the second year running, teacher Helen McCabe of Currie Middle School in Tustin organized a Can Castle Food Drive benefiting the Orange County Rescue Mission. For four days, from May 14-17, Currie students knocked on doors and passed out fliers with the goal of collecting 10 cans per student and 300 cans per class. And these kids were motivated in more ways than one.

Firstly, and most importantly, they were educated on the widespread existence of hunger throughout Orange County and responded with an attitude of community service. Secondly, the classes were pitted against one another on the last day of the drive to vie for the prize given to the class which built the best castle from their collected cans. Ms. Fano's sixth-grade class won first prize (see above photo) good for $50 towards a pizza/root beer float party.

In all, over 800 students in 29 classes participated to amass over TWO TONS of food to feed the hungry and homeless of Orange County.

Thank you, Currie Middle School!

Most people, if they are cited by law enforcement for some misdemeanor offense, fearing the consequences of not doing so, will show up for court on the prescribed date. They will shower, dress respectfully and arrive promptly in order to obtain the best possible outcome from the judge.

Not so with the chronically homeless offender. To begin with, adherence to a calendar is not generally one of his strong suits. And even if it were, he would be disallowed entry to the court because of his inability to meet the minimum dress code requirements. Consequently, his court date lapses and a bench warrant is issued, prompting his arrest and the issuance of a new court date, which he, for the same reasons, misses. And on it goes.

Have you ever seen a homeless person standing on the street corner with a sign saying “Will work for food?” What should you do? Should you give them money? Should you buy them food? These options provide only temporary relief, but at the Orange County Rescue Mission, we want to suggest a way that you can make a permanent difference in homeless people's lives:

Refer them to us!

We have downloadable and printable cards with the services we offer and a map to our emergency/transitional facility in Santa Ana. Click here to download the cards in PDF format. Print them out, keep them in your car and hand them out to the homeless people you encounter.