May 2012

Dear friends,

     I hope that you’ve been enjoying the great weather, festivals, and events of spring! It’s always a great time of year in the ATL. Because spring brings us a sense of new beginnings, your gifts and prayers for SafeHouse have brought new beginnings to many who we serve. Thank you so much.

    New beginnings don’t always mean a new house or a new car or a higher paying job. While those things are good, we see new beginnings a little differently. New beginnings at SHO are actually much smaller than that, more subtle.

    For instance one of ‘our guys’ as we fondly say, who comes to us for his mail, possible job opportunities, and dinner at the Night Impact Services had a small, subtle new beginning that has changed his life. Stanley had worked as a handy man and was doing pretty well prior to being one of ‘our guys’.

   However, he was laid off his job and to quote him: ‘found himself in a bad way.’ Losing his livelihood and not being able to replace the income, lead him to losing his home. And that lead Stanley to homelessness.

   Stanley’s a great guy who fell into some bad times- all he needed was a hand-up to get back up. One afternoon he mentioned to Joe McCutchen that he had been soliciting handy man type business and had gotten a few jobs. His biggest hurdle, though, was that many people asked for a business card and he didn’t have one.

   ‘I think I can create a business card for you. My wife likes to do things like that’ said Joe. But life gets busy and it slipped Joe’s mind to mention it to Judy. Finally he did remember and they printed out the cards on business card stock they already had.

  Joe brought them in the next day. They looked really good- Judy had found tool belt clip art  she incorporated  that gave it a very professional look.

  Stanley came in for his mail that day so Joe gave him the cards. He was beyond grateful- he was almost moved to no words. ‘These are beautiful! They look professional. Thank you, thank you Joe. This means so much to me. This is gonna help me so much. Thank you!’

  What Joe had thought of as a little project, was a life changer for Stanley. Homemade business cards printed on office supply store business card stock. It was huge. It was bigger than huge.

  Joe was retelling the story to staff and remarking how it seemed so insignificant at first- making up some business cards- at least until he saw Stanley’s reaction. Hearing the story, Camille Smith said, ‘the guy with the business cards! I was getting in my car yesterday after work and this guy came up to me, showed me the cards and said isn’t this the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?’

  ‘They’re beautiful’ she answered him- not really knowing why he was so excited about business cards. At least not until she heard Joe tell the story.

  Little helps, little hand-ups, can change somebody’s world. Even though Joe is regarded as a veteran in this type ministry, he had forgotten how little it takes to make a difference. Camille- new to SHO, was able to see firsthand what we try to explain to others.

  Your gift of any amount is a blessing. And when others join and give too it’s- well- huge, bigger than huge.

  Thank you for supporting the life changing mission of SHO. Your gifts impacts lives. Lives who you may not ever know- but lives that have changed.

   In fact:

$50 a month, impacts 12 lives annually.

$125 a month impacts 30 lives annually or

$250 a month impacts 50 lives annually.

    It is because of your monthly gift that we can add more mentors and mentees to our program or help more teen parents graduate from high school. And it’s because of your monthly gift that we are able to employ great people like Joe McCutchen who know that even the smallest of things are game changers.

   When you partner with us by sending a monthly gift, we can guarantee there’s an impact. We can guarantee that you will be a game changer for someone. And don’t you want to be?

 

   From the city,

President/founder

SafeHouse Outreach