Biblical Rescue Intensives for February 09

First Alliance Church
2201 Monroe Street
Toledo, Ohio
43624

February 19-21

Thursday 6-9 p.m.

Friday 6-9 p.m.

Saturday 8-4

We are pleased to accept the kind invitation from Pastor Keith Sholl to bring the Biblical Rescue Intensive to First Alliance. Pastor Keith has graciously offered to open this Intensive to the entire community.

If you would like to register for the February Intensive, please contact Ashely Hall at ahall@cherrystreetmission.org or 419-242-5141. Registration deadline will be Monday, Febrary 16th.

Dan

The Parent

2009 is the Year of The Parent!

As we launch into the deep of community transformation, let us be mindful that a reduction of homelessness, or any other community ill, will require us to gather ourselves together like never before and with focused, sustained and combined effort strengthen the roots of parents and family.

However, around these vital roots are the entanglements of poverty, illiteracy and spiritual deformity. These entanglements have a strangle hold on the stability of the home and are feeding the repetitiveness of incarceration and homelessness like never before in our history.

We can see this stranglehold on the family, as each spring seems to reveal new batches of young people on our streets. The young men are standing idle on our corners and too many of the young women are finding ways to sustain their living through prostitution.

These are our sons and daughters – something must be done, and it must be done quickly.

I have been asked several times; "Why should Cherry Street focus on, or participate in, parent initiatives?"

For us the answer is quite simple – the data Cherry Street has gathered has led us to conclude that the disenfranchisement of parents has lead to the break down of the family which continues to be the primary contributor to homelessness.

For 62 years we have seen the effect of brokenness in the home and the realities of both the brokenness in men and women along with the restoration of them, have taught us valuable lessons and keen insights that life transformation must also be a preventative measure, rather than just a cure.

Parents are the very head waters of our society – what flows from those headwaters and how it flows through the tributaries of our communities determine whether we have a high productive community or a high risk community.

One hundred percent of the men and women arriving at our doors come from somewhere – more than the home, more than the family. Our men and women come from parents.

If there is to be lasting and enduring change within our neighborhoods and communities, our plans must include our utmost and valiant effort to reach the parent.

In it together,

Dan

Because of you - lives are transformed

They spoke the Lord's word to the jailer and everyone in his home. At that hour of the night, the jailer washed Paul and Silas' wounds. The jailer and his entire family were baptized immediately.
Acts 16: 32,33

More than likely, you’re familiar with the above chapter and verse from the book of Acts. It’s the story of two friends, Paul and Silas being imprisoned for openly sharing their faith. While in prison they sang songs and praised God and the place where they were being held shook violently setting them free. The jailer, was so astonished Paul and Silas had not run away, decided to take them home.

The greatest thing for me in this account of Paul and Silas is that the whole jailer’s family experienced life transformation. All because two guys decided not to let their circumstances dictate their belief or their behavior.

To the hundreds of men, women and families arriving at one of our doors each day – you, our loving friends, are a lot like Paul and Silas. Despite the economic realities and the circumstances of your life – you give and have given your time, talent and treasure.

Because of you, lives are transformed - like Larry.

Larry is one of the men being served in our Ready For Life Program and is learning to read and write for the first time in his life - how? A volunteer! Someone just like you who decided to matter to someone who matters. Imagine the joy of Larry's son, who is fighting in Iraq, receiving a letter from his Dad recently - amazing!

I hope you will see God at work through your hands and heart as you continue to reach into the lives of the guests of Cherry Street Mission Ministries.

To volunteer you may contact Roz Goodwin at rgoodwin@cherrystreetmission.org or call our main switchboard at 419-242-5141.

See you at the Mission,
Dan

It's a New Year!

This will be Cherry Street's 62nd. year of service to the many communities of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. I'm so very grateful to God for everyone who comprises the ministries of Cherry Street; from our guests to our donors it is truly a blessing to serve.

With the new year it will be easy to think there will be new challenges - in fact there won't be new challenges as much as there will be old challenges on new faces. The old challenges are as ageless as time - you know them as well as I do.

The new faces? That's another issue all together.

The faces are younger in that the median age of homeless men and women in the U.S. has dropped from the mid 50's to the mid 30's in the last ten years, are more generational in that homeless men now may be sharing the same shelter with their adult children, and the younger faces involve more children - much more children.

The solutions will require an ever increasing sophistication in services to those who come to us in need AND an equal eye toward prevention - understanding that an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure.

Yes - 2009 will be an exciting year.

Join me,
Dan