FORECAST: STORMY WEATHER

Dear brothers and sisters, God bless you. Thank you all for your continuing support of Father God’s “mission” for this Rescue Mission. We have had a bit (understatement) of a financial crisis (testing) these past few months, and although we have not yet fought through this storm for the complete victory, our staff and our volunteers and Board of Directors have been enabled (thanks to a few special financial gifts over and above the norm) to continue to win and edify souls to Christ at every turn J, and to be instrumental in providing over 1,000 meals to the citizens of Pinellas County every day J. Thank you for your most gracious help; but please note that we have not yet fought through all the financial dangers (imminent threats) that are still laying in wait to devilishly cut asunder our Gospel ministry from the lost and poor, threatening to darken the sparkling brightness of the lovely open doors of this Rescue Mission into deepest oblivion. We urgently need to receive a few more special gifts, prayers and financial donations, to propel us through this raging storm, to break through just beyond into the beautiful living sunlight of love and peace, and sail away with the grace of God. Please, please help if you can. Thank you. 

THIS IS WHAT YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE DONATIONS ACCOMPLISH:

The Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission was organized in 1988 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and has been operating as a Rescue Mission feeding domiciled families and needy homeless persons in Pinellas County from this present central location for the past 22 years. Our Rescue Mission is currently giving away on average over 500,000 pounds (250 tons) of food per year to the desperately poor citizens of Pinellas County without regard for race, color, or creed. Through the agency of 171 other non-profit corporations throughout Pinellas County who receive bulk foods from our warehouse, we are instrumental in providing approximately 360,000 meals per year (1,000 meals every day) to north, central, and south Pinellas County residents. However, the number of impoverished men, women, and little children that we are providing healthy well-balanced meals for is rapidly increasing every day, and we are indeed experiencing some very heart-breaking times as the number of hungry persons begins to exceed the food availability on hand.

For the past 22 years the majority of our food supplies have come from commercial donations. Every day of the week we have been sending our truck and vans out all over Pinellas County to pick up donated foods from business locations. Of course over the years these locations have varied but we currently purchase bulk foods from American Second Harvest, Save-A-Lot, and Sam’s Club, and we pick up donated foods from four Kentucky Fried Chickens, six Pizza Huts, one Red Lobster, one Olive Garden, one Longhorn Steak House, two Dunkin Donuts, the Wagon Wheel Flea Market, five Elementary schools, two Middle schools, two High schools, two Publix Supermarkets, the Religious Community Services food bank, two Big Lots stores, one Cracker Barrel, seven StarBucks, the St. Petersburg Food Bank, three Aldi’s Food Markets, Helping Hands, Taking It To The Streets, and one Subway store. Unfortunately our great American economy continues to financially flounder, and as a consequence, the excess food supply is drastically diminishing while the very real depressing hunger of thousands of well-intentioned but jobless men, women, and their little children is dramatically increasing, and we need you to help us help them.

Daytime activities for needy persons at our Rescue Mission encompass distribution of prepared meals and bulk foods and social helps, and personal assistance with such services as food stamps, Medicaid, Christian counseling, social security, SHARE program, G.E.D., crisis intervention, free voice mail boxes, free medical help, free cell phone, free reading glasses, church services, free legal advice, free medical insurance, Internet job searches, temporary cash assistance, bus passes, dental care, showers, telephone access, and free clothing. These all occur during the daytime hours commencing at 4:00am in the morning when we arise and begin the day by delivering hundreds of free bag lunch meals to eleven different day-labor businesses located throughout Pinellas County.

Evening activities at our Rescue Mission consist of religious instruction classes and self-help 12 Step AA/NA Recovery seminars. These meetings are not mandatory for the patrons and occur only in the evenings commencing at 5:30pm through 8:00pm after the patrons have left the premises. The meetings are attended voluntarily by patrons and by our hardworking staff of ex-homeless persons who have committed themselves to a new life of helping themselves by helping other people and have enrolled in our Ministerial Volunteers In Training Program.

It is the clear intent of our Rescue Mission to continue to train up Bible-based ministers for the Lord, and to win as many souls to Christ as the Lord might will through the venues of our in-house Church Inside The Tabernacle, in-house School of Evangelism, in-house Ministerial Volunteers In Training program, and our outreach evangelical programs at The Pinellas County Jail, at Pinellas Hope (tent city), at The Wagon Wheel Flea Market, at Arlington Gardens (a hospice), at our church teaching website, www.tabernacleofmoses.org, which averages 1.6 million worldwide hits per year, and at whatever other locations or institutions that the Lord may lead. We are in fact, eager to preach and teach the Word of God to the entire world, as mandated by our Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 16:15, and we are obediently doing so. Over the past 22 years, thousands of men, women, and little children have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through the combined and cooperative efforts of the donors, volunteers, staff, and Board of Directors of this Rescue Mission. During the year 2009, we were blessed by our Lord God to be co-laborers with Him in bringing 445 persons to eternal salvation.

The Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission has been located at this same site in a small 2,500 square foot building in mid Pinellas County since its inception in 1988. At that time, and for a number of years after that, the available office, work, and storage space was commensurate with the ministerial requirements of our patrons. However, during the last few years our country has been visibly experiencing a continually decreasing drastic economic downturn, the consequences of which are being manifested daily to us as we attempt to meet the basic nourishment needs of the rapidly increasing number of poor families and homeless persons in Pinellas County. These last few years have been a challenging test to see how many needful, necessary things we could possibly continue to squeeze into what has now become a very cramped (come and see) and a severely limiting 2,500 square foot space. Consequently, our Rescue Mission has been compelled to expand our countywide operation to meet the growing needs of the poor, and we are in dire need of another building of at least ten times the square footage that we now have, i.e., another suitable building of 25,000 square feet or more. And, of course, we have no money because we keep on spending what money we do receive from our faithful donors to sustain our poor patrons. Please help if you can. Thank you. God bless you.

Sincerely, Rev. Lionel   J   

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)