Opportunity for Transitional Housing

Happy summer to everyone! For those of you who don’t live in the Seattle area, maybe you have been experiencing summer. For those of us who live in this area, we were wearing coats until just recently and we are excited about this thing called summer! The weather has not stopped God’s work though. He continues to amaze me as His promises are fulfilled by His amazing faithfulness.

JRC is in the final stages of opening a new transitional housing facility for single moms and their young children. I am busy designing the program. Starting on August 1, I will be taking on a new role as the resident manager of "Morning Meadows".


As a single parent, I have a heart for this precious population. I’m excited to share Jubilee REACH Center’s mission to “Bring Jesus Healing, Create Community,and Transform Lives” to single moms needing a “hand up” to stabilize their lives. At Morning Meadows, we will offer a safe place to call home where they are accepted,loved and encouraged to be all God designed them to be and focuses on three main areas:
1 . Transform lives from dependency to self sufficiency
2 . Education
3 . Employment

They will tuck their children into a bed and there will be food to eat. These are luxuries many of us take for granted. Morning Meadows offers them a fresh start to become stable, functioning families again.

I urge each of you to search your available time, talents, resources and financial support for ways you can make a high impact in the lives of many by taking a risk to serve a mom or child in need. There is lots of opportunity to serve these families in many ways. Please email or call me to plug into the excitement! May you have a wonderful summer. I look forward to hearing from you and serving beside you in this new venture.

Thankful for His promises and faithfulness,
Joy

What do you actually do?

A friend recently asked me “So, I know you do ‘community care’ at Jubilee REACH Center, but what does that really mean. What do you actually do?” The answer to that is different from day to day.

Last week it was meeting with a young woman and with a toddler fleeing from a verbally abusive domestic relationship desperately looking for a job and a place to live. She is now homeless and ‘couch surfing’ from friend to friend. After numerous phone calls to agencies providing transitional housing, while she sat in my office, I saw the look of discouragement on her face as no one answered their phone and we were prompted to leave a message to get a call back. Bottom line is that there is no transitional housing available for them right now. The waitlists are enormous and long - 18 months to 5 years, depending on the agency and the family size. I am constantly in prayer for an opportunity for transitional housing and working weekly with Allen, a Windermere agent, who also has a passion for this need.

I spent time with Danielle and her son, Shane, at their apartment (pictured). Her disability income doesn’t go far. It’s difficult to clean house from a wheelchair and she could really use some housekeeping help. Your contributions could allow me to locate resources and arrange this for her.

It was meeting with a couple who I met 7 years ago while they were at my Alpha table in a class seeking questions about Christianity. I ran into them at Costco and they are now living at Tent City. They have shown up at Westminster Chapel’s 11:30 service for the last two Sundays. This week she found a job and I’m counseling them on “next steps”. Housing is a key element for them.

Managing the dental clinic we offer to the Lake Hills residents and participants at JRC is an ongoing area where I serve. Many patients require us to have a translator to coordinate an appointment time. BUT, my Spanish is improving! The majority tend to be immigrants isolated by their lack of English, cultural barriers, and no health or dental insurance and frequently no income or very limited income. They are frequently in physical and emotional pain. The dental clinic is a huge resource and we offer them hope and walk along side them in many ways through the 30+ programs we offer. We are building relationships and through relationships come trust to speak into their lives to offer them hope.

By simply 'loving our neighbor,' building relationships, earning trust and hearing deeper needs of kids & families in our community, 30+ amazing programs fill their specific needs. We were able to walk alongside 109 families so far and spared 47 from homelessness.

I get to be part of this every day in new and exciting ways. Please partner with me by prayer and financial support to allow me to continue on your behalf.

Alpha interns that did the Alpha class for the guys during CFH at Westminster in April

Congregations for the Homeless – April at Westminster Chapel

Community Care took me out of Jubilee REACH Center in the evenings and extended to coordinating the CFH men’s shelter at Westminster for the month of April. With over 300 volunteers, the month provided many opportunities to be of service. For some it was a stretch financially to provide food and for others a stretch to find the time to prepare and serve. Without a doubt, the sacrifice was much appreciated by the men in the shelter and such a blessing for those who were touched by the investment in the men’s lives.

There were some nights that the volunteers outnumbered the shelter residents. The families who served together and brought their children created a light-hearted, fun atmosphere that the men really seemed to enjoy. A child’s laughter does great things for the soul.

A condensed Alpha course was offered by the Vintage interns this year for the first time. Four or five of the men in the shelter committed to meeting on a weekly basis to continue their study and sharing. It’s really exciting to see how the program has impacted lives.

It was such an honor to serve these men. More than previous years, this group of men was so eager to help in any way they could, were so respectful, easy to please, and so easy to love. My prayer is that care givers and care receivers alike were blessed and will continue to have God disclose how He was at work through His people. My heart felt thanks for your sacrifices.

Seasons

I love the spring flowers and the hint of summer soon to arrive. We are fortunate in the Northwest to have four seasons to enjoy. It reminds me of God’s plan for us to look forward and enjoy the seasons of life also; to be thankful in all things in each season God brings.

On March 15, I traveled to Ephrata in Eastern Washington to attend a cousin’s memorial. Nial put up a grand fight against cancer for over 7 years. I never heard him complain and his faith in Jesus was so strong and it was so awesome to watch him encourage family and friends to appreciate life to its fullest. I loved the story his son told about his dad’s response to his wife, Mary Jo’s, question about what happened to all the left over Christmas trees on the lot in their small town. Such a romantic, he bought every one of the leftover trees and he lined their driveway with all the trees for her as she returned home from work on Christmas eve.

Afterwards, I brought my 95-year-old mother home with me for a visit so my brother could perform some maintenance on the farm house. She continues to live by herself with just a weekly visit from a caregiver and my brother’s constant eye on her. While she was here, she was able to share her amazing skill and childhood hobby at making cornhusk dolls with the kids in Jubilee REACH Center’s after school Art Club. I recently produced a book on “How to Make Corn Husk Dolls” for her which is a step by step guide to the dolls she has made over the years. Her dolls have been on the US Whitehouse Christmas tree, traveled the country in the Bicentennial celebration, and have been on exhibit at Bellevue’s Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. The books are available for purchase at $20.

In the three weeks she stayed with us, I realized another season has passed with her. Her eye sight is failing rapidly, she doesn’t hear well, and she told stories many times as though she’d never told them before even if it had only been an hour or a day since we’d last heard the story. I have been blessed to have such a long time with her. Her unselfish sacrifices for me growing up certainly make it easier to deal with the role reversal that is taking place in our relationship.

Enjoy your season,
Joy

Leveraging Your Past

I hope you know how much I treasure the prayer, encouragement and financial support that I receive from so many of you. I am humbled to serve on your behalf. I recently saw a talk given by a Wess Stafford from Compassion International. He endured a horrific experience for years as he was spiritually, emotionally, physically and sexually abused as a child in a school for missionary kids in Africa. He is able to leverage his past to fuel his compassionate serving for children through Compassion International. After watching this and the recent Graham Cooke dvd, I am reminded that what Satan intends to use to destroy us, God uses for His glory. We can stand on God’s promises and we to be excited when we have a problem or difficulty because we know God will not allow us to suffer without using our pain to do great and mighty things through us. I encourage you to be in prayer and search for ways to use your past pain to fuel ways for you to serve. Combined with your gifts, talents, resources and influence, you can use that pain to do mighty things in partnership with God.

Peace be with you during this Lent season. My family and I will be serving Easter dinner to the 30 men in the Congregations for the Homeless shelter at Westminster. Please email or call me if you’d like to join us or provide some Easter basket goodies. We’d love to add more chairs to the table for you!

You are precious in His sight.

Smiles abound while building community

The mobile dental van brightened some more smiles last Friday thanks to Denise, Molly and Dr. Cho. They are busting at the seams in their excitement to serve and the patients really pick up on this. They know how much we all care for them. We are in search of a dental hygienist to volunteer for the van one day per month. We are currently without a hygienist and there is a great need. Will you please ask the hygienist at your dentist’s office if they would consider volunteering for one or more times for our mobile dental van? I’d be happy to talk with them. Medical Teams International also has a dvd explaining their program that I could send to you to watch with your hygienist. The dental van will be in the parking lot at Westminster Chapel on Sunday, March 21 and holding an open house for folks to step in and see what it’s like. Please make time to check it out. It’s really cool!

I see relationships building between myself and the Latino women. I feel bad that we’ve had to cancel the last two hygienist appointment days. The care is so much needed and they are so patient in waiting. They are so gracious in letting me try to speak my tiny bit of Spanish with them. They are so encouraging. I realized at the clinic on Friday that I actually caught the gist of what they were talking about. That was exciting! Their language is so beautiful and I just love these women.