I've also been put in charge of answering the phone and today three different donors called in to see if the mission would be okay with accepting more food and clothing and money. Two trucks showed up with donations that were never asked for. On Monday, I answered the phone to talk to a man who was running a Kia dealership and had a big sale coming up. He wanted to know if he could put the name of the mission on all of the cars they sell and give a portion back! And that's not even the crazy stuff! They just recently opened a new building (in April) as a women's and children's shelter, which I got to tour today. It's Beautiful!! Each room is named after a person or event from the bible. And each woman who is staying there has her own bed with sheets and drawers for her things. And they met a man who was willing to give of his time and he came and painted a few different murals around the hosue which were gorgeous. And here's the craziest story of all to me!
A few weeks ago, they put on a banquet to thank all of the people who have come alongside them to make the shelter come together and continue running. At the end of the night, they did a small presentation just to let guests know what they were about and how they were doing. Stephanie, the administrating coordinator, shared that they were only six thousand dollars away from owning both of their buildings. After the presentation, a man walked up to her and simply handed her a check for six thousand dollars! God is seriously blessing the hard work of these people!!
Here's the greatest thing to me about this program, though. The people they bring into the shelter are required to begin progress towards getting their own jobs and getting back into society. They currently have sixty men who will soon move into apartments of their own that were once statying and relying fully on the mission. The residents are held accountable for their actions and have work to do to help keep the mission going. Some work in the kitchen and others sort clothes, while some go out and clean up in the neighborhood and give back to the community.
It's funny because three of the people I've been working with who work for the mission full-time were all once residents at eiter hope cottage (the women's shelter) or sunshine rescue (for the men). I hear their stories and how God has impacted their life to give them something they never thought they could have. Debbie was once an alcoholic who was living on the sidewalks in San Francisco, trying to hide what little money she could scrape together from her boyfriend and two friends who were substance abusers, hoping one day she could escape. She finally got to Arizona and called her two sons, who were both living in Flagstaff at the time. She asked if she could come stay with them but they told her that she would have to get help and get herself into a shelter. They paid for her to come up on the bus and she was greeted with the paperwork for two different women's shelters.
Rick had been hitchiking for almost six thousand miles. He happened to be sitting at a Flying J in Williams. when one of the girls who worked at the gas station came out and told him he should head to Flagstaff and that she hoped that God would bless him. He rode with one of the truckers who was there at the time and came to the mission, where he was accepted with open arms in June of 2009. He accepted Christ the day after he got there! As he kept working hard, he got his own apartment and then applied to work at the mission. He became one of the head workers in the mission, where he works with the other men and tries to show them the love of Jesus.
