Guests Cleaning

So recently we decided to do something a bit radical, shake things up a bit...

We decided to end our contract with our professional cleaners and give our guests the opportunity to handle the cleaning duties.

Yes, cost cutting was a factor, but in the larger sense we hoped it would give some of our people the initiative to take more ownership of the Mission.

Plus, for those on disabilities, they had the opportunity to make an extra $100 for volunteering.

A win win as far as we could see it, and thus far -I'm happy to report -it is going great!

Come 4:30pm, the clean team springs to action – tables and chairs are stacked and put away, floor swept and mopped, bathrooms sanitized, garbage thrown out. It’s encouraging to see how it’s giving some of our guests a real satisfaction to be a part of it all and some are even moving on to find employment elsewhere! Seems simple enough huh? Give people a chance and they can surprise you.

Prayer Request

One of our guy's who is behind bars has been calling us quite regularly this week. I'm happy to report that he's encouraged to turn his life around, he spoke of trying to read his Bible every night and getting a job/place to live when he gets out. Please keep him in your prayers, he is someone who has so much potential to do amazing things in his life!

Back from Holidays

It's nice to be back... Exciting times around the Mission.
Special announcements to come soon!

The Living Word

It' s amazing how the words just jump off the page sometimes... have been in the book of Romans:

Romans 4:1-5 from the Message
Trusting God

So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."
If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God.
Sheer gift.