We met behind a bar in Huntington Beach. I had left an abusive relationship with my daughter’s father, and was homeless. Chris was trying to get things back together after overdosing on drugs. He’d been doing heroin and meth for more than 20 years.

After that he gave up the drugs, but was caught in a parole violation and sent back to prison for a few months. When he got out, we had nothing. We bounced a check to buy a tent just so we’d have someplace to call “home,” and lived out at Crystal Cove, on the beach.

Chris was on the bus on his way to see his parole officer when the bus went past the Mission. That’s how we found out about this place. We moved into the Village of Hope a little while back. We’re both trying to straighten our lives out. We did drugs because we felt hopeless and just wanted to be numb. All we wanted was an opportunity. A chance to do something. Now Chris is looking for work. We’ve gone from having nothing at all to having some hope for the future.

The Cheesecake Factory is a great example of an organization with an ongoing commitment to serve the homeless community living in Orange County. Beginning in September 2005 and completing construction in October 2007, they invested approximately $750,000 in project oversight, materials and labor into a state-of-the-art cafeteria at the Village of Hope patterned after their well-known restaurants.

But that's not all. This year marks the second time in as many years that Cheesecake Factory staff have prepared and served the Thanksgiving meal in the kitchen and dining room that they built. On Thanksgiving Day, over 350 volunteers worked a total of 1,342 hours serving 300 meals to our students, their friends and family, and OCRM staff. The dining room was literally swarming with smiling, energetic servers as they gave it their all to bless those with less.

Thank you, Cheesecake Factory, for your dedication to homeless men, women and children of Orange County!

This year I have a post-graduate internship at my church (Grace United Methodist) in Gainesville, FL, called the Gainesville Fellows Program. Among many other experiences the internship provides, I have two one-month-long mission trips: the first one at a location in the United States, the second is international (I will be going to Nicaragua in the Spring). Through some University of Florida alumni connections (Go, Gators!), I was blessed with an opportunity to come to the Village of Hope.

The Lord has truly blessed my time here as I have been living on site and volunteering with the case management team. I do a variety of things, from picking up prescriptions to working in the women's clothing room, doing “med call,” some office tasks, and lots of things in between. I also got to spend a weekend at Forest Home with twenty of the families from the Village after Thanksgiving. It was such a great time to get away for a bit, focus on God, and have some fun! It also snowed while we were up there! That was especially exciting because many of the kids had never seen snow before!

I'm pretty sure that I'm the luckiest volunteer to walk in the door at the Village of Hope. I have had some great opportunities to enjoy meals and some down time with the students and just get to know them. Sometimes we talk about the Lord. Sometimes they share with me what they have been learning about Him or about themselves. Sometimes we just chat about nothing in particular. A lot of the time, I just listen. These conversations have definitely rid me of some stereotypes about homeless people that I didn't even realize I had. I love learning their stories and sharing life with them. We're really not so different.

I have heard some incredible testimonies about God transforming lives here at the Village of Hope. There are plenty of humanitarian aid efforts that provide meals and shelter for the homeless but such things are merely band-aids. The Orange County Rescue Mission is so incredibly Christ-centered, providing discipleship and real hope for a future through our Savior, Christ Jesus.

As told by Tiffany

I spent most of my adult life doing drugs and having children. No college, no work, no skills. I grew up in Big Bear Lake. People would come there from everywhere to party. Drugs were all around me. From 15 to 18 were my worst years. But I never got caught, never arrested. It’s not just that I dodged a bullet — more like I was in a war and made it back alive.

I finally put myself in rehab last year because I was tired of life as a meth addict. But rehab just gets you off drugs. It doesn’t do anything about your life after drugs. That’s why I came to the Mission. I’m working toward going back to school. My goal is to be self-sufficient within three years. I’m trying to provide the right kind of life for three little girls and finally feel like I’m on the right track.

Lion’s Heart is a community service organization for teens in 6th-12th grades in Southern California. Each Member must complete at least 30 hours of community service each year, with at least five hours helping our schools or tutoring other students. Groups are organized by grade and gender. Each group elects their own officers, leads their own monthly meetings and decides together on group projects.

Lion’s Heart was started by Terry Corwin in 2004 with just 20 boys. Since then, with the help of his teenage son, Spencer, he has seen the organization grow to 21 groups of boys and girls totaling 335 who give at least 30 volunteer hours annually. Many of these hours have been spent working at Double R Ranch, holding carnivals for the kids at the House of Hope, and serving in our Children's Dream Center. Most recently, a group helped pack food boxes to prepare for our annual Thanksgiving meal.

On Wednesday, November 18, the Orange County Register recognized Lion's Heart as Outstanding Youth Group of Orange County at the National Philanthropy Day Awards Luncheon. Congratulations, Lion's Heart, on your much-deserved award, and thank you for your service to the homeless families of the Orange County Rescue Mission!

The Irvine Health Foundation (IHF) is a non-profit foundation committed to improving the health of the community. Founded in 1985, IHF dedicates resources toward new programs and innovative endeavors in the healthcare community. IHF's efforts are designed to meet current unmet health care needs, ensure the availability of accessible, quality health-related services, provide healthcare advocacy, and support research designed to develop new knowledge in health-related areas.

Since 1994, the Irvine Health Foundation has supported the Orange County Rescue Mission and its healthcare programs, funding such diverse projects as a mental health training pilot program, a merger between the Rescue Mission and CASA de SALUD (now the Hurtt Family Health Clinic), and the purchase and implementation of an electronic medical record keeping system.

In 2009, the foundation provided funding to acquire computer hardware to create a “Virtual Server” environment to support the clinics medical record system at the onsite facility as well as on the mobile medical clinic. With the high volume of patients, often up to sixty people a day and six days per week, it is crucial that the patient records and charts be accessible and reliable. The virtual environment is an ideal backup system, as it eliminates loss of healthcare data and system access due to the nature of its highly available redundant design. The funding also provides for the development of two customized and highly detailed year end reports which in years past have been generated manually by clinic staff.

The Orange County Rescue Mission and the Hurtt Family Health Clinic would like to express their deep appreciation for the compassionate and dedicated partnership of the Irvine Healthcare Foundation over the last fifteen years.

So many of the people we serve here at the Mission have been denied the happy memories you and I associate with Christmas. For them, Christmas recalls childhood abuse, loneliness on the streets, or years lost to drugs or alcohol. One of the greatest gifts you can give anyone is the chance for Christmas to be a joyful time again. That’s what you do through your support of the Orange County Rescue Mission. That’s how you helped Adelia.

Not too long ago, she spent months living in her car, swallowed up by addiction and sinking deeper into depression. “By Christmas,” she says, “I knew I had to either give my daughter away and go into the gutter, or make a big change.”

That’s when a kind stranger reached out to Adelia, giving her our phone number. When she called, we quickly found room for her at the House of Hope. “I have hope, I have a future, I have my daughter and my family,” Adelia says. “I have everything back!” She spent that Christmas here at the Mission instead of in the gutter like she feared, and took her first steps toward the new life she is enjoying today.

That’s what Christmas is all about: taking the love and grace God has shown us, and sharing it with others in His name. On behalf of all the staff and volunteers here at the Orange County Rescue Mission, I pray God will bless you and your loved ones in this season of His Son’s birth.

In His service,

Each holiday season, Albertsons holds a fundraiser in which they give shoppers the opportunity to purchase Thanksgiving meals for those in need. Coupons for $1 or $5 are sold and the donated money is used to put together $40 meals. Each store chooses who will benefit from the promotion. Albertsons' Buena Park store selected the Orange County Rescue Mission to be the beneficiaries of these valuable gifts and 30 of these meals to the Village of Hope just before Thanksgiving.

Thank you to Phil Eyskens, manager of an Albertsons in Buena Park, and all who participated. God bless you!

The Orange County Rescue Mission is committed to helping you assist the poor in the most cost-effective way possible. That’s why we take extra care to use every penny efficiently. As part of that effort, we are governed by an independent Board of Directors. We are also a member in good standing of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Upon your request, we will send you an audited financial statement prepared by an independent certified public accountant.

At the Orange County Rescue Mission, averaged over the last 10 years, a full 79 cents of every dollar given has gone directly to help the homeless. If gifts received are above a specific need, they will be used for Mission programs where the need is greatest. Your support is greatly appreciated. With your help, the Orange County Rescue Mission works to make our community a better place for everyone to live.

Re-enrollment Time in Ralphs Community Contributions Program!
Congratulations to Ralphs for donating almost $3 million this past year through its Community Contributions Program. If you are signed up through your Ralphs Rewards card, and have designated the Orange County Rescue Mission as the beneficiary, then a portion of these funds have been donated to assist us in bringing hope to the Least, the Last and the Lost of Orange County.

Albertsons Community Partners Program
Albertsons Community Partners Program will continue to accept registrations as usual. By using your Preferred Savings Card, and designating the Orange County Rescue Mission as the beneficiary, you can bring hope to the homeless of Orange County.

TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE!! If just 60 people sign up and use their Ralphs Rewards and/or Albertsons Preferred Savings cards, and the average quarterly shopping percentage brings in a modest $3.15 each, then those 60 people could make $756.00 a year JUST BY DOING OUR OWN GROCERY SHOPPING! Of course, the more you purchase, the more you earn for OCRM. (We'll keep you updated on the quarterly progress!)

Click the following links to sign up:

Starting September 1
Ralphs Community Contribution (Enter Non Profit Organization # 91204)

Now
Albertsons Community Partners (Enter ID # 49000125638)

Thank you!