When people ask me, "What's the best part of your job," my standard response is that I get to do what I love and help people while doing it, but recently some reflection made me realize that the truth is maybe a little deeper. Every day I come to work, I walk among miracles. We are blessed by a foundation laid and maintained by godly men and women over the past 100 years, and the result of stepping in the footprints of those predecessors is that we are seeing the "fruit" of decades of dedication and diligence, both in donations and in transformation.
Every day, the Lord provides our needs so that we can provide for the needs of our guests. Last year, an average of 142 women, children, and men found shelter at the Mission every night (with the largest percentage of our guests being women and children). We served, on average, nearly 300 meals each day in 2012. How was so much accomplished? Because of the everyday miracles of someone sending a check, making a donation online, or dropping off items at our door. The continued compassion of our community is a miracle.
Greater than simply meeting physical needs, we have the opportunity to show the love of Christ to those who are hopeless and hurting. I could write page after page of stories of individuals whose lives have been changed because of the message and actions of the Mission. I work beside some of those individuals and can't help but be moved to think of where their life is now compared to where it could have been. Praise God that "rescue" refers not only to the temporal but also to the eternal. And what a blessing to be, not the cause of life transformation, but the means by which God can reach into the lives of those in need of His grace.
As you support the Mission, never doubt that what you do matters. What you do makes a difference. It is the continued compassion and faithful generosity of our fellow Rescuers that assures that as I step across the threshold of the Mission I walk among miracles.
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