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LosAngelesMission.org News from the Los Angeles Mission

Easter in the Christian tradition signifies death and new life in Christ. For me personally, the message of Easter is the basis and mystery of my faith. Why God would care enough about me or any of us to send Christ to die for my sins is still incomprehensible love in action.

At the Mission, we treasure this core value of our faith as transformational in the lives of those we serve. They, too, can experience a sense of recovery and new life if they are willing to honestly face life’s challenges and—with our help and the help of friends like you—take steps to lasting change.

This is the message of “good news” that we bring to our hurting friends and neighbors: Jesus died to forgive anything we did to cause our homeless condition, and He lives to help us make the changes needed for restoration to family, friends and faith.

Your donations allow us to share this message each and every day of the year, through the range of services your support helps provide. On behalf of all of us at the Mission—staff, students and guests—thank you.Blessings,

Herb Smith, President

EVENTS

Volunteer Orientation: MARCH 7TH AND APRIL 4TH, 9-11 A.M. Anyone who would like to volunteer must first attend an orientation session at the Mission. To register for the upcoming orientation, please visit us online at LosAngelesMission.org/act

Annual Easter Celebration: APRIL 3RD, 11 A.M.-3 P.M. Our Easter event will take place on Good Friday, when we expect to provide 3,000 hot, nutritious meals for those in need in our community. If you’d like to give an additional donation at this time, it will really help! See page 4 for more information.

Mission Possible Run: APRIL 25TH, 8 A.M. Join us for our Mission Possible 5K/10K Run/Walk! Proceeds will benefit the Los Angeles Mission. For information, see page 5. To learn more and to register, visit MissionPossibleRun.com

Become a Meals a Month partner and change lives all year long!

Donate a Seat of Compassion

The message of Easter

Did you know?

At the Mission, a Fresh Start includes physical as well as spiritual transformation. Your support each month will not only help provide hot meals and meet other basic needs, but also supports counseling, classes, vocational training, access to medical care and other life-changing services, all year long.

Establish a legacy of transformation with a Seat of Compassion in our Holsinger Chapel! For your donation of $1,000 we will engrave a brass plaque with the name(s) of your choice to grace the front of a seat in this special sanctuary.

During the Easter season the Los Angeles Mission will provide 83,830 meals—and each one might be someone’s first step on the road to a Fresh Start. Thanks for supporting our life-changing work!

We’re excited about the development of a new project to help impact the lives of the women and children at the Anne Douglas Center—our Art Therapy Program for Healing Trauma, designed for those who participate in our Mommy & Me program.

Art supplies to donate to the program can be purchased through Ziggedy.com, and a portion of every purchase will be donated to the Mission.

Here are a few other key ADC programs for which your support would be deeply appreciated.

Physical Fitness Projects: Help provide fitness kits for students! Items such as pedometers, stretch bands, small hand weights and jump ropes can be purchased on Ziggedy.com Women’s Conference: We are in the planning stages of our first annual women’s conference and welcome any gifts, ideas or talents that you may be able to contribute.Academic Development & Job Training: Donate to the Zebra Scholarship Fund or sponsor a woman for academic workshops, field trips and other trainings.“ Thanks to your

support, we share Easter’s message of hope each and every day of the year.”

▸ If you’d like more information about these and other planned ADC projects, or if you’d like to donate to a specific program, contact Dr. Roxanne Jordan at (213) 629-1227 ext. 522.

▸ Sign up as a Meals a Month partner today by filling out the form below. You can also go online to our monthly giving website, LosAngelesMission.org/give, or call Nuria Mora at (213) 629-1227, ext. 334.

And please consider sponsoring an Easter basket as well, with an additional one-time gift of just $10! Thank you.

▸ For more information, contact Angelica Bibbins at (213) 629-1227, ext. 421.

EVENTSFind out what’s

coming up at the Mission PAGE 1

EASTER Celebrating the life-changing

power of hope PAGE 4

ADC SPOTLIGHT Transforming the lives of women and children

On page five

Run or walk to support the Mission!

MISSION POSSIBLE 5K/10K

On page one

From Herb Smith

THE MESSAGE OF EASTER

On page four

By Tim Law

SIGNS OF HOPE

MARCH 2015

David tells how the Mission helped him find a Fresh Start after years of homelessness and addiction. PAGE 2

A transformed life

“ I’ve been reborn into a better person.”

– DAVID WONG, GRADUATE

Yes! I want to help provide hot meals and a Fresh Start to my hurting friends and neighbors. Here’s my gift: m $25 m $50 m $150 m $________

Last year’s Mission Possible Run was so much fun that we’re doing it again this year—and you won’t want to miss out! Join us on Saturday, April 25th at 8 A.M., for a 5K/10K run/walk at Elysian Park in Los Angeles that will help benefit the Los Angeles Mission.

There’ll be music, food and kids’ activities. Participants will also receive a t-shirt, finisher’s medal, and goody bag. Best of all, the proceeds go to help our hurting, homeless neighbors.

Run with us on April 25th!

Transforming the lives of women and children

Spotlight on the ADC:

By Dr. Roxanne Jordan, Executive Director of Programs and Operations, ADC

m I would also like to sponsor _________Easter basket(s) for just $10 each. I have enclosed an extra gift of $_________.

▸ For more information or to register online now, visit missionpossiblerun.com

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M E A L S

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Did you know?

On page five

On page one

From Herb Smith

On page four

By Tim Law

SIGNS OF HOPE

MARCH 2015

A transformed life

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Signs of Hope

We’re looking forward to sharing the joy of Easter with our friends and neighbors on Good Friday, April 3rd. Thanks to the help of donors like you, we’ll be providing 3,000 hearty, nutritious meals including ham, potatoes, vegetables, rolls and a yummy dessert to people in need. Plus, there’ll be fun crafts and Easter baskets for the kids!

Guests will once again be able to get their sore feet washed and treated at The Los Angeles Christian Health Center’s foot-washing Station. Our faithful friends at Etnies will be on hand, distributing free shoes. And sponsors Landsberg Orora and Bonert’s Foods will also be helping to make the day special for our community.

Your gifts make a difference!

Our Easter event impacts thousands of lives in our community, but it simply wouldn’t be possible without your help. If you feel led to help again this Easter with an additional gift, use the attached form on the back of this newsletter. Thank you!

Intake Jump Start (30 days)

Fresh Start (12 months)

Fresh StartWork Start (12 months)

Guests go through a screening and application process to determine their eligibility for the Mission’s program.

The first 30 days of our program is an introductory phase designed to help prepare our students for entry into Fresh Start.

Life-skills classes, one-on-one counseling (spiritual and psychological), Bible courses and vocational assignments help students overcome the devastating physical, mental and spiritual effects of homelessness, past traumas and addiction.

This optional second year of our program provides workshops, mentorships, career counseling and other forms of assistance to help students find gainful employment.

Read on to see how the Mission—thanks to your compassionate support—helped these students overcome physical illnesses and challenges, and find new hope.

Anthony Henry, Jump Start—In the past when I was homeless, I would always get the flu. The recovery process was more painful because I couldn’t get treatment. At the Mission, when I got pneumonia, they sent me to a doctor and I got the medication and treatment I needed. The Mission provided me with resources to help me heal, not only physically but spiritually as well. I believe God sent me here—I feel loved.

Leonard Sarmiento, Work Start—I had a hernia for over 20 years. I was in and out of the prison system during that time, and the hernia got progressively worse. The Mission helped me get insurance, treatment, transportation and rest. The people of the Los Angeles Mission really care about us and love us like we are their own. I feel like a family member.

Jesse Giddens, Work Start—For 10 or 15 years, I had problems with my teeth. It became such a serious issue that I couldn’t eat, and I didn’t want to talk. The Mission helped me get dental care and dentures—now I can smile. The Mission has provided me with a different perspective on my life. They helped me feel good about myself. I am 70 years old and I am elated!

Michael Baysinger, Fresh Start—My asthma and bronchitis issues started back in 1979 when I was 19, and continued to escalate over time. The Mission coordinated with a doctor to help with breathing treatments, and they also got me a nebulizer so I can do my treatments twice a day and take my prescribed medication. The Mission has helped me to stay alive, breathe and be well. It means the world to me.

Rolando Benitez, Fresh Start—I developed a hernia while in prison. When I got out I couldn’t treat it because I didn’t have the financial means. The Mission sent me to their clinic, and they helped me with applying for MediCal. I got the operation I needed...it meant a lot to me, because I’d been dealing with the issue for so many years. I am so happy the Mission helped me!

At the Mission, we believe that the journey to lasting life-change can begin with something as simple as a pair of shoes, a hot shower, clean clothes—or a hot, nutritious meal provided by people who genuinely care about the one in need, and who seek nothing in return.

With your help, the Mission provides for these daily needs—and so much more—for our guests and students. Your gifts also support our comprehensive, faith-based Fresh Start recovery

program, which offers a wide range of services that bring hope to life in the hearts of our friends and neighbors living on Skid Row.

The life-changing miracle of love

Aside from our services, a critical facet of our program is helping students learn how to accept nurturing relationships. The

ability to give and receive love is in itself a sign of transformation, and key to deeper spiritual growth.

Our staff has the privilege of observing this kind of transformation in our students firsthand. We are blessed to be witnesses of the miraculous ways people’s lives are transformed. I hope you, too, will feel blessed in knowing your support makes these miracles possible. Thank you.

Easter: Celebrating the life-changing power of hope

I started using drugs in high school. You’re hanging out with friends, and one day a guy pulls out a joint—before you know it, it’s an everyday thing. Then another guy shows up and he has cocaine, so you try that. Then that becomes a lifestyle, and all the other drugs go with it...that’s what happened to me. Doing drugs became my lifestyle.

I stopped doing drugs for a while, but after my second marriage fell apart—it was an abusive relationship— I started using again. I moved out and got my own place, but soon the drugs were more important than my life. The addiction led me down the road to poverty, jail time and Skid Row.

A desperate need for hope

The first night I spent on the streets, I was so numb I didn’t really care. I was emotionally empty. Just numb—it’s worse than apathy. It’s hopelessness.

One day I prayed to the Lord, “Help me fix my life.” I was tired of being homeless...that night I went to sleep under the freeway. When I woke

up, my property had been stolen. The little I had left was gone. That’s when I came to the Mission.

Once I signed up for the program, they sent me downstairs to get some clean clothes. I took a warm shower—before that I hadn’t showered for probably

months. I put on the clothes, and it was so refreshing. I felt a little bit of hope, and it had been a long

time since I felt that.

Thankful to God for the Mission

Since being in the program, there’s been a lot of change in my life. I don’t have the desire to

do drugs anymore. I don’t have these emotional outbursts anymore. I don’t have the anger.

I’m also noticing that not only am I able to form relationships, I’m able to keep them now. I’ve been reborn into a better person.

There is no place like the Los Angeles Mission. It’s a war zone here on Skid Row, but

when you go inside the Mission, it’s a different atmosphere. The staff is caring, supportive and encouraging. I felt accepted here. I felt I was part of a community

again, and that I was of value. I just thank God the Mission is here.

Most of our students have been homeless at some point in their lives—many for extended periods. Living on the streets can take a severe physical toll on the body, leading to a wide range of debilitating health issues.

For example, the lack of access to clean drinking water—as well as difficulty in getting enough sleep—can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome, weakened immune system and more. Plus there are the risks that come with exposure to extreme weather at different times of year.

Medical treatment and care for those in need

“We work with our guests to provide medical referrals for physical needs they may have,” says Tim Law, executive director of Men’s Services. “Access to medical service providers is [also] afforded to all of our students to meet their physical needs, whether it be illness, physical or mental problems.”

Mission Alumni President and Outreach Coordinator John Kelly adds, “Los Angeles Christian Health Centers encourages community members to come in on a regular basis by providing free health care to our students, as well as friends and neighbors living on Skid Row.”

Thank you for your support, which helps ensure that we can provide these critical resources to our community!

During our Easter event, we will distribute Easter baskets to children in our community—but we need your help to fill them! Your gift of just $10 will help provide all the Easter treats and goodies kids love. It’s a great opportunity to let struggling families know that someone cares.

To sponsor an Easter basket, use the attached coupon—God bless you!

A veteran’s life transformed

Healing body and spirit

Sponsor an Easter basket—just $10

Five more lives you’ve helped change

“ I’m not a rebel anymore.”

~ DAVID WONG GRADUATE

“ We are blessed to be witnesses of transformation.” ~TIM LAW

We are grateful for people like Dr. Lisa Abdishoo, President and CEO of The Los Angeles Christian Health Centers, who keep our students and neighbors healthy.

By Tim Law Executive Director of Men’s Services

▸ David Wong was housed in January 2015 at the restored Rosslyn Hotel Annex in downtown LA as a part of the Mission’s initiative to end veteran homelessness on Skid Row.

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Signs of Hope

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M E A L S

A M O N T H

CROSSROADS

STAY CONNECTED

ADDRESS APT

CITY STATE ZIP

EVENTS

Did you know?

On page five

On page one

From Herb Smith

On page four

By Tim Law

SIGNS OF HOPE

MARCH 2015

A transformed life

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