Quarterly Shelter Notes: June 2014

Psalms 119:124-125 Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees. I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.(NIV)
Spring has nearly turned to summer, the woods are alive and busting with life from every corner. The wildflowers and bees, apple blossoms and frogs, warming lakes and swelling streams are a blessing to behold. The mosquitoes and woodticks are less welcome. Coming out of one of the longest hardest winters on record gives me an appreciation for the time and place for all things and thankfulness for everything in its season. The facility here is alive with activity, planting gardens, Little League and T-Ball, summer interns, visiting supporters and work projects, preparing for the summers ministry. Benjamin and I have been enjoying making trips to the junkyard hauling scrap metal and selling old junk vehicles, working towards saving for a plow truck to keep the many driveways and mission staff homes and facilities cleared of snow. It is an exciting and productive time.
My wife, Michelle, is looking forward to some time off from work to play in her garden and enjoy the family time together outside. Chase (15) and Jonah (11) are excited about school being over for the year, camping trips, and catching fish, in between lawn mowing and summer jobs. All of us are excited about the season and its possibilities. Michelle, Chase, and Jonah all have birthdays this summer. Chase will also get his driver’s license this summer, he is excited for the freedom that brings, Michelle and I are excited not to bring him to work at the local grocery store at 6 am on Saturday mornings.
This spring into summer has continued to be a wonderful time of study and fellowship for me with the addition of a Friday morning Men’s Group to compliment our regular weekly Bible Study. We average 8-10 men on Friday mornings, each of us taking turns to present a topic and scriptures for discussion. We’ve talked about what it means to be a Christian man, how to deal with anger, finding peace, prayer, and are currently working through spiritual gifts and perseverance. Quite often our shelter residents are in attendance, which is encouraging. We can only sow the seeds and pray that the ground is soft enough to allow growth.
This is our busiest time here at the shelter, preparing for and working through a busy spring and summer. We currently have 8 people staying with us; 1 family in Transitional Housing, 3 single men, and a single (pregnant) mother with two children. This year so far has been consistently busy, with slightly above average shelter nights provided through the first 10 months. We consistently receive an average of 8-10 calls per month. Our case manger, Gene, is doing an excellent job and is very busy keeping the residents organized and productive. He has been a great addition to our staff. Kathy is still the rock holding down our office operations, handling most of the daily shelter needs, maintaining the food pantry database, handling donations, and phone calls, volunteering a blessing of 30-40 hours per week for almost 4 years! We wouldn’t know what to do without her and are blessed to have her here with us. Margaret takes over for Kathy three days a week in the afternoons and, along with Gene, shares in Friday’s food pantry volunteer rotation. All of our staff does a wonderful job accepting and sorting donations, answering the phones, transporting residents to appointments, baking bread for the food pantry, and volunteering their time in the pantry, helping keep our facility running smoothly, I absolutely could not do it without them.
As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, and I think it’s important enough to mention here again, after lots of prayer and debate, we have AGAIN elected NOT to participate in this years’ Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) program. It was a difficult decision and it will cost the shelter over $9,000 in funding this year, but we didn’t agree with the direction that HUD (the federal funding source behind the ESG program) was taking our shelter program. Most of the issue was that HUD is requiring that we limit the people we serve based on guidelines and requirements that were designed and suited towards an urban population. It forced us into a scenario where we would have had to deny access to the Emergency Shelter program, for certain people, despite our having empty beds. If we accept even a dollar from that program, we have to adhere to all their guidelines and stipulations on how we spend EVERY dollar we receive, no matter the funding source. We continue to apply for other state and local grants and trust the Lord to provide for the ministry HE desires. UPDATE: We continue to receive several donations to help us with this shortfall and are blessed and humbled by the outpouring of support we continually receive to continue HIS work. Our combined state and federal grant award totals for this year are $3,200, which represents approximately 5% of our combined Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing program budgets. Every month that passes further confirms my suspicion that we have only a short time before we will no longer receive any program funding from the state. Between budget cuts and micro-management policies that conflict with our mission statement, I am seeing a time fast approaching where we will be independent of, and morally opposed to, any government involvement. Psalms 119:114-116 114 You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word. 115 Away from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commands of my God! 116 Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hopes be dashed.
THANK YOU to all who have donated time or supplies this past year, no donation is too large or too small. We couldn’t do what we do here without YOUR help. If there is a specific area that you feel led to make a donation towards, whether that’s cleaning supplies, work clothes for the residents, transportation costs, or food, let me know and we’ll make sure it gets used for that purpose. We are truly blessed to be doing HIS work with your help.
Thank you for your continued prayer and support!
In His Service, Micah Dewing Shelter Director