Ready for some great news? A group of longtime supporters has offered the Orange County Rescue Mission a generous matching grant. Here’s how it works: Right now, every gift from friends like you doubles in value — automatically! — up to $25,000. So a gift of $25 is actually worth $50. $50 becomes $100. And when combined with this matching grant, a generous gift of $100 turns into $200 worth of lifesaving help. Think of what that means to homeless and hungry people all over Orange County! It means:

• Twice as many meals for hungry people.
• Twice as many nights of safe shelter for those who have been living in their cars.
• Twice as many opportunities for those struggling with addiction to get help.

Perhaps most importantly, it means twice as many people like David have the chance to start a new life with God at the center. His daughter’s accident, combined with his hospitalization with pneumonia — all with no health insurance — left David without a penny. He was released from the hospital with nowhere to go but the street. He walked through our doors Thanksgiving night. The spiritual growth and change in his life are amazing. But the touching thing about David is how being helped has inspired him to go out and serve others. He’s been blessed and now he spends his life blessing others.

Currently David takes three buses and then walks four miles to work at a food bank, because he wants to help others. That really is the story of what we do here. A helping hand, a hot meal, a new path, a second chance, a spiritual rebirth. And then the love multiplies to others. God has called us to bring love and practical help to the least and the lost. We simply do our part and leave the results to Him.

Thank you for all you do. Together we are making an immediate and eternal difference in life, after life, after life. And with this matching grant offer, you have an opportunity to double your impact — immediately! I hope you will send a gift today. Thank you!

When Chris first moved to America at age 20 for a better life, he says he was desperate and naïve. He took out a loan to go to a school that “guaranteed” him a good job. He graduated, but there was no job in sight. Now, loaded with debt, he scrambled to get any low-paying job he could. He felt defeated and depressed.

His new American friends offered him drugs to make him feel better. Soon drugs became his life and he ended up homeless. “I’ve slept in motels, sidewalks, vacant lots, vacant buildings,” he says. “It can get cold out. It can be dangerous.” Then someone told him he could go to the Orange County Rescue Mission for food and a bed.

This, Chris says, is where he found the good side of America. He found people who care. He found a second chance. He found sobriety. He found Jesus. Thanks to your gifts to the Orange County Rescue Mission, Chris was able to take full advantage of every opportunity. He enrolled in community college and has already earned a certificate in diesel technology. Now he’s working full-time during the day, and at night he’s taking more classes to improve his job skills. Soon he’ll be fully self-sufficient.

“This month, we put the spotlight on Pat O'Connor, a landscape designer who redeems his free time through volunteer activities for his church and the Orange County Rescue Mission. He began volunteering for the Rescue Mission two years ago after hearing about our work through the Yorba Linda Friends Church and from our mail campaigns.

Pat volunteers twice a week in the cafeteria at the Village of Hope helping to prepare and serve meals for between 40 and 100 homeless men. He is also joined by his wife and his two sons, 15 and 17, at Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, when they assist in providing food services to over 300 needy Orange County families.

Pat's twin motivations for his sustained volunteering are his strong desire to serve God through serving others and the pleasure derived from the relationships that Pat has formed with other staff and the homeless men he serves. He says that through these relationships he has found that, "the homeless are wonderful people, just like us, and loved by God." Pat affirms that through his service to others his relationship to God has been deepened and that he has grown spiritually.

Pat leads by example in encouraging others to change often unfavorable attitudes to the homeless. He has hired one man to work for him at a Home Show. On another occasion Pat gave a gift of $10 to a homeless man that he saw was in need. The man returned about a month later and told Pat that "I gave the $10 bill to my daughter for her birthday present and she told me that it was the most precious gift she has ever received, it was as though it came from God." Pat told me, "Some people are reluctant to give money to the homeless, they think it will only be spent on drink and cigarettes, but God asks us to act with generosity to those less fortunate." Pat also recalls the time that a man thanked him for the money for a bus ticket several months after he gave him $3 outside the shelter. Pat adds, "It reminded me again the joy of giving and not to question in our heart how the gift is to be used. I truly believe that when we see a person in need we should know that that could be ‘me’ and to know that that person could be one of God’s angels."

Earlier this year a Rescue Mission staff member suggested that Pat might like to work for the Tustin Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament. He, with a small group of volunteers, duly obliged and they enjoyed a day working together while raising the profile of the OCRM. The tournament is one of the largest fund-raising events for the City of Tustin.

Pat encourages other people to use their gifts to serve the homeless through the Orange County Rescue Mission. In the words of the Nike ad, if you're considering volunteering, he said, "Just do it!" Pat has found that the spiritual rewards are vast and the special friendships he has formed have immensely enriched his life.

When the aerospace industry took a dive, Marcus was one of the casualties. He didn’t have a drug or alcohol problem — he had a ‘no job’ problem. Unemployment insurance didn’t provide enough to make ends meet and when that ran out, he quickly found himself on the street. He bounced from shelter to shelter. But he soon discovered that when you don’t have a permanent address or a phone number — not to mention a place to shower or dress for interviews — getting a job is nearly impossible.

He came to the Orange County Rescue Mission for a meal — and found the help he needed. “I just needed a place to have time to get back on my feet,” says Marcus. “I found that — plus spiritual growth — here at the Mission.”

With a steady place to sleep and eat, he found work. Unfortunately, after six months that plant was sold and he was laid off again! Today, he’s trusting God to meet his needs, and is confident that soon he will be back working, paying taxes, living on his own and contributing to society in more ways than ever before. He says, “Thank you!”

On May 1, Talia Scott, a resident at the House of Hope, was awarded a $5,000 scholarship at the 11th Annual Possible Women Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was hosted by Wind Enterprises and included the following keynote speakers: Elizabeth Edwards, a successful author, passionate advocate for children and an accomplished attorney; Laura Liswood, Secretary General; Marie Wilson, Founder of the White House project and many other notable women across the world.

The Possible Women’s Foundation International (PWFI) was started in the early 2000’s by a group of highly educated women whose passion is to assist other women in furthering their education. There were a total of eight PWFI Scholarships to be awarded this year to women who are returning to school after a hiatus, changing careers, or seeking advancement in their career or work life. The money provided by the PWFI scholarship is to be used solely to pay for tuition and fees at an educational institution. Out of 700 applicants in 2008, Talia was chosen as one of the women to receive a scholarship.

In the past year, Talia has been writing essays of her story with determination to get a scholarship to help pay for her school. She has recently enrolled in a one-year program at Career Networks Institute to become a certified surgical technician in hopes of having a steady job to provide for her four daughters.

Since she’s been at the House of Hope, Talia has been able to escape from a life of heavy drugs, gangs and incarceration to a life of hope for the future. “The House of Hope means everything to me – I’m back on my feet now. I’ve grown a lot, learned to be humble, and now have my four daughters with me” says Talia. Receiving this award has been a blessing to Talia and has given her more hope of what great blessings God has in store for her in the future.

The women of PWFI were so amazed with Talia’s determination that they offered further assistance and tried to convince her to move to Atlanta. Her story is even going to be featured in an inspirational book!

As Talia concludes with a big smile of excitement, she says “One day I’m going to be there, as successful as those women are!” Talia feels that this is only the beginning of many dreams come true. Congratulations, Talia!

Lazaro was good at his job. He was regularly promoted at the four-star hotels with whom he was employed. He could do it all. Well, he could do it all with a little “pharmaceutical help” to keep him awake.

Eventually, it caught up with him. Laz, as his friends call him, was exhausted, strung out, depressed, and his work was suffering. His plan was to quit his job, conduct his own rehab program at home, and then come back to work. Bad plan. He slid into a debilitating depression, got a DUI and lost his license. Lazaro had a lot of money saved, but his expensive Laguna Beach lifestyle soon drained every cent and he lost his apartment.

Too proud to tell his familym, Lazaro found the Orange County Rescue Mission online. Here, he learned more than just how to avoid drugs. He also learned the Bible, and the importance of serving others. All of Lazaro's life had been spent serving the wealthy — but he fell in love with serving the poor. “I enjoyed all the financial rewards from my past life, but the rewards of helping others are more gratifying,” he says.

The Orange County Rescue Mission depends upon the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations who give of their time, resources, expertise and vision to strengthen programs and the safety-net for the homeless and disadvantaged in our community. For over fifteen years, The Croul Family Foundation has partnered with the Rescue Mission, helping us to provide the basic human necessities of food and shelter and to offer programs that bring hope and opportunity.

Over the years, the financial gifts of the Croul Family Foundation have allowed the Rescue Mission to expand outreach services to very poor families living in run-down, drug-infested motels, offering them food, health care and counseling. The Foundation’s generous funds helped sustain the “War on Hunger” mobile food pantry which delivered groceries and supplies to locations all over the county to those who could not make their paycheck cover both rent and food. Croul Family Foundation has also supported holiday dinners, educational programs for the poor, afterschool tutoring services for children and case management services for Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

More recently, the Croul Family Foundation made a generous gift of $25,000 toward support of the newly constructed Village of Hope. This 135,000 square foot transitional housing facility, located on the former Marine Air Base in Tustin, consists of 192 residential suites for homeless singles and families, a fully licensed medical and dental clinic, child development center, state-of-the-art dining facility, chapel/auditorium, vocational and educational classrooms, children’s playground area and basketball courts.

It is this kind of long-term partnership and commitment to helping others that truly makes a difference in the health and well-being of the community. Thank you, Croul Family Foundation, for taking the journey with us over the years, for strengthening our programs through your generosity, and for believing in our mission.

GlaxoSmithKline, Inc., a southern California pharmaceutical company, held its annual conference this year in Dana Point where employees from all over the Southland convened in April. Having a desire to serve their community, and taking advantage of both the occasion and their corporate strength, they contacted the Volunteer Center of Orange County to see if there was a project they could tackle. The Volunteer Center promptly referred them to the Orange County Rescue Mission. OCRM Volunteer Manager, Brandi Schlechter, ever ready to connect willing volunteers with worthwhile projects, hooked them up with a job that would meet an ongoing need of the homeless in Orange County — hygiene kits.

GlaxoSmithKline acquired donations of shampoo and contitioner from Joico ISO, sunscreen from Newport Beach Dermatology and Physicians, discounted toothbrushes from Wal-Mart and discounted body wash from Walgreens. Then they pooled their human resources at the conference to pack 160 hygiene kits!

On behalf of the many OC families and individuals who will directly benefit from your efforts, THANK YOU, GlaxoSmithKline!

For those of you who are not familiar with our Can Castle Food Drives, here's how it works: elementary school students spend a week collecting as many canned and dry food donations as possible, then gather together for a competition between classes to see who can build the best and biggest castle from their donations. The castles are then judged, awards are distributed and the homeless of Orange County are the beneficiaries through the Orange County Rescue Mission.

On March 20, 240 students of Eastside Christian School in seven grades (K-6) collected 2,630 pounds of food over a seven-day period — and then the competition began. Everyone did an outstanding job, but the prizes went to the 5th graders (most creative) and the kindergarteners for the largest castle, built with 800 cans. All the kids were excited to know that their efforts were helping people in need.

If your school is interested in holding a Can Castle Food Drive, please send and e-mail to our Volunteer Manager or call (714) 247-4326. Thank you, Eastside!