Church guide

Another busy Monday! We had roughly 20 homeless friends waiting for us to open this morning so they could get a shower, start laundry, or sleep for a while (all of our cots are full again).We were also able to bless all of our homeless friends with a nice surprise thanks to Pastor Izzy & First Congregational UCC of Elkhart. These care packages were much appreciated and the refillable water bottles will come in REALLY handy this week!

Find us at the plaza until 10 pm tonight. Look for the Blue canopy. Motorcycles and more motorcycles!! Beautiful Weather.. And Guidance Ministries/ God's kitchen has a booth, stop by and get some Texas Roadhouse peanuts!😉 $3 per bag, comes with a coupon for a free Texas Roadhouse appetizer, and Texas Roadhouse has competed with a night of giving 10% to Guidance Ministries/ God's Kitchen! Super Awesome..

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Guidance Ministries will be unveiling our new logo Saturday at the 2019 Bike Night. Look for our booth downtown from 4-10. We will be selling peanuts from Texas Roadhouse for $3 a bag! Also available will be a variety of drinks for only $1. All proceeds will benefit our Homeless Ministries account. INCLUDED with your purchased bag of peanuts will be a coupon for a FREE appetizer at Texas Roadhouse AND an additional coupon for our Give back night. Super deals all around I think!

Tonight we need some extra help at God’s Kitchen. Starts at 5 pm and we are done and out the door by 6:30 pm. The second Thursday of each month is a challenge for us to cover. Can anyone help out? Please message me so I can get a number count of volunteers but also let me know if you would consider helping each month so I’m not scrambling to cover this Thursday every month. Thank you!!!

Whewwww it is way to hot to cook! Stop and grab dinner at Hacienda Elkhart and support the homeless at the same time! Remember to show your server this post so we get credit!

We know this is really short notice, but we need help on Saturday! We have a booth at Bike Night Elkhart and will be selling water, soda, and peanuts. If anyone would like to come out and help for a few hours we would really appreciate it! The event if from 4-10 pm on the Civic Plaza. You can call the Ministry and ask for Angie or message us here! Thanks!!

This is an easy way to help out Guidance Ministries. Please share.

Don't forget this week we are doing a burritos for bus passes fundraiser at Hacienda (Elkhart location). We are currently out of trolley passes and our homeless friends benefit greatly from them! With trolley passes we are able to help get people to and from job interviews, physical and mental health appointments all of which contribute to stability ! Share this and gather your friends and family to help support stability in our homeless community!

Today all four cots were full as they were Tuesday with one laying on the floor to sleep, one on the bench and another w his head on his arms sitting in a chair. That’s true exhaustion. It’s been so hot outside that the homeless are exhausted, weary and a tad grumpy. Today Sam told me “ I feel like I’m baking out there and there is no escape and nobody cares”. Sam seemed dehydrated and agitated to the point of tears and hopelessness. Though assisting the homeless is just a portion of what Guidance Ministries does on a daily basis it is certainly an important part of our daily activities. Angie Wills Wogoman is our director of homeless services and does a great job of working w our homeless. Our focus is finding the root cause of each person’s homelessness and to work on addressing and rectifying the root and thus moving each forward to physical and emotional stability and acquiring housing that will be sustainable. During this process we offer a listening ear, spiritual counsel and prayer if they choose. The wholistic approach has been very effective for over 19 years at Guidance Ministries.

I decided to go to work an hour early today to catch up on some things. I couldn’t even get into the ministry parking lot due to the boxes of spent fireworks blocking the entrance! I was told our neighbors had a great time partying last night. So I see. Unfortunately they did not choose to clean up after themselves and left it for Guidance Ministries staff to clean up their mess! Not a happy camper.! Two homeless gentleman, myself, and Chris Stahly got to work picking up the trash and sweeping. An hour later the mess was basicly cleaned up and I was able to open the doors at 9 am as scheduled.

Everyone pitched in to help get Guidance Ministries meal for the day on by 5 pm yesterday when we found out our cook had fallen and would not be in! Even some of the homeless pitched in to help. We were ready by 5 but just barely. Thank you to everyone who made yesterday’s meal possible from the donors, kitchen help, clean up, and the serves. As usual I forgot to take their picture.

So grateful to our volunteers. Today Janet is helping us by sorting and hanging clothing into our clothing ministry room. Folks are lining up for our food and clothing room pantries.

Thank you Tim Harmon for fixing our A/C units today at Guidance Ministries! It was sweltering before the fix. So grateful!

It’s been a busy 7 days! Visiting a former homeless client in her assisted living home, a six hour stint with another former homeless client in our wonderful ER dept. and visiting another before going into surgery and taking another to a dr when she could not have gone unless someone helped her. Few realize all the things Guidance Ministries does in our community on a daily basis. We keep saying we are going to be better about posting what we are doing on Facebook but we simple forget! We are so busy all the time it’s hard to remember to post!

I love it when we get to play “ dress up” through our clothing ministry and help our homeless get ready for a job interview. Pictured is one homeless gentleman teaching another to tie a tie. The other is a volunteer assisting with buttoning the sleeves.

Looking for a VBS close to downtown? Check out our friends at St. Pauls / Saving Grace!

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