Breakfast Together Outreach

Opportunity for ordinary people to make difference by sharing God's love with others. Every weekend volunteers reach out to the transitional homeless living in parks and motels by feeding them breakfast and sharing the hope we have in Christ. This is a connection point where people helping people can find resources for a better life and spiritual health.

Simple message - powerful impact; mural helps change some bad behavior

The motel experienced a makeover during the summer that included the painting of a mural in the laundry room. You see, inside the community laundry room, is where "all hell would break loose."

On Sunday, people would come together for breakfast and a worship service and get spiritually uplifted. However, nothing could take away from this new-found sense of community quicker than having your neighbor steal your clothes and/or laundry detergent from the laundry room.

Today, when I was talking with a guy from the motel about what God is doing in his life, he became excited and asked me to come see the cleaned-up laundry room ... and witness how people are no longer fighting in it.

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Can the Church & State join together to make a difference? Saddleback is teaming up with the City of Costa Mesa.

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Helping the homeless is easier said than done. Various programs have been in effect for many years and yet homelessness is on the rise. Today we met with three city officials to discuss how we could work together and be more effective in helping the homeless residents of Costa Mesa get a fresh start. The PEACE Plan has been effective in other countries by combining the power of three entities: Church, Government, & Business to make an impact in social needs of the community. We’re hopeful this type of resolution can be implemented here in Orange County. The city can provide housing programs, business can provide resources, and we can provide the love of Christ through volunteers, like you and me.

I have to say, that I was impressed by the compassion these people from the city had, for those who are homeless. Each had stories of how they have personally tried help the homeless get off the streets. They had first-hand experience of the difficulties of gaining trust and the lack of emotional support the city can offer someone who is homeless. They welcomed our approach of addressing the problem by helping the homeless discover a new hope provided by faith. How when a Christian brother or sister befriends the homeless they are much more likely to succeed in a rehabilitation, knowing they have a healthy community to help overcome the fear of just doing life.

Please pray that we can continue build relationships with government agencies and business to create healthy pathways for the homeless and struggling families find a place they can call HOME. Thank you everyone who has been helping the Breakfast Together Outreach make a difference.

 

RESTORING LIVES: the Thanksgiving stories keep coming in!

Thanksgiving was amazing. We fed over 50 people. Many were regulars but there were a lot of new faces, too. Some people lamented that we were no longer coming every Sunday. One guy, a rocker type with a motorcycle flame shirt, told us how much of a difference we were making. He said, "You guys are restoring lives. went on saying that he had seen a number of people who started coming to our Sunday morning breakfast and then made changes in their lives for the better."

  One of the men who attended is a grandfather with a fu Manchu mustache. He has occasionally come to our breakfast outreach Sundays, but his daughter and her three sons always attend. Anyway, he came up to me and gave me a gift. It was a hand-carved wood pair of scissors. Said he carved it from a single piece of wood and just wanted to give it to me to say thank you for what we do there.

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  Later, I sat down with a young man who was eating at one of the tables. He asked if we had any shelter program and then explained that he had a job with Brookstone at South Coast Plaza but he won’t get paid until Dec. 6, and he’s out of money. He had to check out of the California Lodge the next day. I called around and made a few people aware of the situation so we could pray for him. I wasn’t able to locate any shelter but Janine in the leadership team said that she would check with her husband, because they have a trailer next to their house that he could probably use for awhile. She came back later and said that her husband agreed. Several of the Saddleback people had heard Jonathan’s story and offered to pay his rent at the motel, but instead I encouraged them to slip him a few $20’s for food. The day after Thanksgiving Jonathan moved into a nice trailer with water, heat and a comfy bed which he’ll be able to stay in rent free until he gets back on his feet. And he had over $100 in cash to pay for food for the next couple of weeks while waits for his next check. (We rarely would encourage giving cash but felt we had good reason to trust Jonathan would use it wisely.)

  At the end we still had four whole turkeys, four pumpkin pies, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing which Mike Newmen took to the Salvation Army Hospitality House and they used to serve dinner that night.

Ron

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