Million Dollar Murder

Our first fundraiser, “Million Dollar Murder” Interactive Mystery produced by Events on the Edge is less than two weeks away!   Saturday, October 15 at 6pm at Westminster Chapel located at 13646 NE 24^th Street, Bellevue, WA 98005

Purchase your tickets online for the interactive murder mystery dinner and silent auction by going to http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/203299 for single tickets at $40 or a table of 8 at group discount of $300.  We can even set up one of your tablemates as one of the suspects!!

Funds raised at this event will benefit single moms and children by providing housing, food, case management, life & parent skills, and hope for a second chance.

Did I mention our raffle prize is an iPad. 

Gather up a group of friends.  Spread the word.  It’s guaranteed to be a fun evening! 

Please help us to reach more people by forwarding this email to your circle of influence with your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers.  The homeless moms & kids at Discovery House are depending on all of us.

Blessings,

Joy

Full House!

It’s a Full House in more ways than one at the Discovery House. In playing cards or Yatzee, a full house is three of one kind and two of another kind. If you apply this ratio to the ethnic groups in our home, we have a full house with two American families and three International families (China, Mexico and Ethiopia). All of our rooms are now occupied (full house) and the program is running great. I am so excited to see God at work in the lives of these families through the many volunteers who serve at the Discovery House and the many blessing the moms and kids in our program receive.

As you can imagine, meals being prepared have great variety and often present opportunities to eat foods many have never seen, let alone tasted. First it starts with a discussion about what the English word is for the foods. Our Ethiopian family had a mutual friend visit from their home country and shared two foods the visitor brought with her. No one had ever had these foods. This was a great adventure for everyone. I am discovering a vast difference in what different cultures constitute safe food handling and storage as well. Everyone recently completed an online King County food handler’s course.

Many of the moms have been trying to learn a few words in the others first languages. Everyone speaks a little bit of English, except for the Chinese grandma who is visiting from China to help her daughter and grandson. I find it delightful to be cooking with the Chinese grandma, weeding flower beds and picking up the Kirkland Farmer’s Market donations with no spoken language to communicate but only gestures and a lot of laughter. She is such a hard worker and wants to help in any way she can. I loved seeing one of the moms and another child run through the house giggling after an attempt to speak another language recently. I had met with this young mom only a few days before and it was a very different situation. She was very distraught over their situation and was very fearful. She had a lot of tears and rightfully so. Now they are safe, well fed, comfortable and enjoying the companionship and community of the others, while they work through the process of becoming self sufficient and pursuing education.

Do you love babies? There are lots of opportunities to snuggle a baby and encourage a young mom, if you’d like to share your time and parenting skills. We enjoy three baby boys in the house – a 3-month old, a 4-month old and an 8-month old. The first few weeks I was awakened by the babies at night. Now I don’t even hear them when they wake up crying. We’ve had two trips to the emergency room only to receive the good news that there was nothing serious wrong and the babies just had a virus. Better safe than sorry.

We have been blessed with Melissa Foltz, our amazing intern. She is a college student in International Studies and Biblical studies. Her gifts and God’s prompting make her a very nice fit for our program in the many ways she is helping out this summer. She and her husband have provided some timely respite care for me and she has played a big part in filling up our house with families with the many phone calls to collaborative and referring agencies. The fact that she too is pregnant gives her and the moms with babies at the house a lot in common and I see great relationships developing. Her current projects include assembling a Resource Book for the residents of the house, case management, and organizing our big fundraiser coming up October 15.

On October 15, 2011 we will be holding a major fund raiser at Westminster Chapel for a fun evening. We’ll have the details available soon. Keep the date open and be thinking of others to invite.

Thank You Volunteers

Here's pictures from our Murder Mystery Party for the many volunteers who have helped with the house this year!



https://picasaweb.google.com/jubileejoyroof/MurderMystery?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMe8q9fPnY7J_wE&feat=directlink

Baby at the Discovery House

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

We have a baby at the Discovery House. He and his mom joined us this last week. No doubt he will be spoiled by everyone because he is so adorable and good natured. If you feel a nudge from the Holy Spirit to cuddle a baby, let me know!

Since we need to accommodate a little different sleeping arrangement than our bunk bed for this little guy, we are in need of two folks to disassemble the bunk bed in their bedroom and relocate it in another bedroom and then put in a twin bed and crib for this mom and baby. I think it would take about an hour to do this. Anyone available in the next few days to do this for us?

Donations of diapers and infant clothing would be much appreciated.

I wish you all safe travels and blessings on your time with family and friends, as school gets out and summer plans unfold for each of you. As your normal time commitments lessen, please consider joining us for a family service project at the Discovery House. We have a painting project ready to go to spruce up the front porch trim and the hot tub deck. We're always looking for women to mentor/encourage the ladies in the house. I am happy to provide training to do this worthy endeavor to build relationships and open up an opportunity to speak into their lives.

For scheduled one time or monthly giving: http://jubileereach.org/ then click on “donate now” and fill in "Joy Roof" under name and message blocks in the “In Tribute” section.

Spring is finally here

Spring is finally here and in the Seattle area we’ve been blessed with a beautiful array of spring flowers and trees bursting with pink and white blossoms. I love this time of year that starts with the Easter celebration and is followed by the flowers. I always find inspiration when I see the winter’s barren ground and trees spring forward with life in all its beauty. I always sense an opportunity for a fresh start and renewed desire to be all that God designed me to be and look for how to make it happen.

There are lots of opportunities to do a small part but make a big impact in the lives of our residents here at the Discovery House. Service/project days are scheduled for the 2nd and 4th Saturdays from now through the fall. What has God placed in your hands to resource change?

We’ve had a lot of volunteers the last two Saturdays - Small groups from University Presbyterian Church in Seattle and Westminster Chapel. They accomplished lawn mowing, raking, weed eating, weeding the flower beds, planting flowers in the many pots and hanging baskets, sprucing up the paint on the interior trim, shampooing carpets, packing up a vacated room, cleaning and organizing the refrigerator and freezer.

Enjoy the photos and come join our fun. Service days on the 2nd and4th Saturdays each month.


Interested in sponsoring a child, family or room at the Discovery House? I would love to come to your small group or office to give a power point presentation and share our vision and our program to help you put together a service program for you personally or your group.

Side Note: I am looking for a tenant for my four bedroom/2.5 bath home in Kirkland starting June 1st. $1600/mo + $1,000 deposit. One year lease. Please call me with anyone interested at my cell phone(425.890.2395).

Bless you for partnering with me in this call on our lives to serve others less fortunate.

Discovery House Service Days

Thank you for your willingness to serve at Discovery Houses transitional housing facility! The following are service days at the Discovery House: May 7, 14, June 11, 28, July 9, August 13, 27, September 10, 24, October 8 and 22.

When your group is interested in serving on any of these days, just email me with the date, the number of folks coming, and what they would like to do. I will email you back an application that all volunteers must complete prior to serving. It would be best to bring your own tools since there is no working lawn mower as of today and not very many yard tools. This schedule for service days through October will allow me to combine people from multiple groups and plan projects. Lawn mowing was done last year through the first part of October. There are a few projects such as roof and exterior pressure washing, sanding and painting that will be multiple day projects.

Also we’re planning to paint the interior trim and doors and some interior rooms. The group on 4/21 will be three small groups from University Pres. Church who are putting together volunteers to serve at the Discovery House. This day will be a group separate from any others volunteering. Thanks for your hearts to serve. I appreciate all of you so much.

Blessings,

Joy Roof

Three Dogs and Two Women

I want to take a moment to just say thank you for your prayers and help! Thanks to those who have rallied to cover my responsibilities at the house! Recooperating has been easier due to a friend graciously opening her home to me, while others watch over the the daily needs of the Discovery House ministry. Staying here with Anne-Marie's makes me feel like I'm wrapped, pampered and protected. (Cece has joined the pack with Anne-Marie's two dogs - hence the title.)

My first follow up visit with the cardiologist is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to starting my "new life style" and am hoping to get released to start back working.

This has been a good time to reflect. I've been learning that I am a "starter" not a "maintainer". As I've gotten systems, processes, etc. in place I will be calling on others to actively and regularly participate. A big realization that I've had is I am not meant to do everything. And I'm obviously not able to continue at the pace that I was at and stay healthy.

Joy's Heart Update

If you haven't heard already, Sunday morning Joy had a minor heart attack. She says she "suffered" a heart attack because of the amount of pain that she was in prior to diagnosing what happened. She spent three days in the hospital and had surgery putting two stints in her heart.

Currently she's recovering at her friend Anne Marie's house. Thanks for all of your love and support!

If you're interested in helping her, we're compiling a list of needs to cover while she's away from the Discovery House. So please let Joy know.

Blessings,
Aimee (her daughter)

Changed Hearts

There’s not much better than walking in the door of Discovery House and having kids run towards me yelling “Miss Joey, Miss Joey”. Joy is a difficult name for Spanish speakers to pronounce but who cares if someone pronounces your name right or wrong, when you’re greeted with a big smile, so much excitement and a hug.

Oh how I wish I could share some special moments with you in the way of photos of the families here at Discovery House. With many of our residents landing in this safe place from domestic violence situations, I can’t take the chance that their perpetrators are searching the internet for evidence of where to find them. Now that the house is filled to capacity and relationships are beginning to develop, I am seeing some signs of trust, friendship and softening hearts. With eight kids between the ages of 3 to 10 in the house, this shows up as kids from several families playing together instead of clinging to their moms. It shows up with a mom on the carpet reading a book to someone else’s child. It shows up when mom’s work out a problem together rather than remaining silent. The love of Jesus is surfacing.

We are in need of volunteers willing to help transform lives by meeting on a weekly basis to encourage these women. You provide a willing heart and about an hour a week and I’ll provide training for you. If you are a Spanish speaker, I have women who do not speak English. I also have English speaking residents. What I don’t have is enough time to do everything myself. Please take time to pray about this opportunity to discover if this is a way for you to serve our Lord to show His love to the broken. Yield to the tugs at your heart…you’ll be so blessed.

Do you love researching? The Discovery House also needs volunteers to research topics and processes for becoming a documented citizen, education and training programs for the women, helping them look for available jobs to submit applications for work, and a host of other opportunities just waiting to be discovered and a process developed.

Many thanks to Lorien Trott for transporting and attending weekly ESL classes with one family, to Kara Morrison and her two girls for providing supervision and entertainment for all the kids in the house during our weekly house meetings, and to Ron Ross from Bellevue First Presbyterian, Don & Karen Perry, Julie and Steve Poole, Bonnie Smith, David & Debra Hitchcock and Jim & Ellen Minish from Westminster Chapel’s community life groups for sorting donations & “stuff” in the garage, moving & assembling beds, weeding flower beds and hauling away the clutter. What a great way for the Perry family to break in that new truck! And yes, the mattresses made it all the way to the dump!

Thank you, Cami Keyes, for coordinating the collaboration with YES (Youth Eastside Services) for counseling services. If any of you have any services or trades to donate or collaborate, please contact me.

Specific items needed: paper towels, toilet paper, zip lock gallon and quart bags, twin bed water-proof mattress covers, and kitchen towels to name a few. These donations are also tax deductible.

As always I am thankful for your partnership and urge you to consider supporting me financially. My work here is as a volunteer and I receive no financial support from Jubilee REACH. When you give small amounts they add up significantly to cover my living expenses each month to allow me to continue serving at Discovery House.

Many blessings,
Joy