COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

Contributed article
Published: July 17, 2008

The summer months and our economy have certainly presented their challenges to GRACE.
We continue to see families that we’ve never seen before and unfortunately many of these families are not qualifying for financial assistance. Many families are losing their jobs, faced with hours being cut and trying to deal with the increased cost of gas, food, housing, etc. Families are used to living from paycheck to paycheck and with the increased cost of living and cuts in pay, that paycheck just isn’t going far enough. The biggest problem we’re having is that families are not able to show how they can pay their bills in the future. This is a crucial part of our criteria because we’re only prolonging the inevitable if they can’t pay next month’s expenses. The families that are meeting our criteria need more money than before to get them out of their crisis. GRACE funds are low right now. We have had to lower the amount of our assistance to $100 (with a $200 maximum) and we may have to lower it again. We ask that each of your prayerfully consider supporting GRACE financially at this time. I know that the economy has affected most of us, and at the same time, we’re able to look around and see many others in much worse shape than we are in. God continues to bless us and He expects us to continue the work that He’s put before us. GRACE is very concerned about these families and we want to find the most effective way to help them.
We are referring more and more families to budgeting and are looking for more people interested in mentoring these families. I often refer to GRACE as a “mission field” for our churches. When we match a family with a mentor, this gives our mentors an opportunity to help meet a genuine, physical need while building a relationship that can lead to eternal rewards. These families are hurting financially, emotionally and spiritually and are feeling very hopeless in the situations they’ve found themselves in. GRACE has come to adopt the slogan of “faith-based people doing needs-based ministry.“ Our prayer is that more individuals will step forward to become a mentor for a family or individual. We will be glad to meet with anyone interested and go over what is involved with being a mentor. All you really need is a heart for helping others.
Upcoming Events:
July-August - collection of school supplies to go to local children here in Greene County.
Current Needs:
Mentor to sit with a disabled man once a week for 1-2 hours to help him with check writing and keeping his check register and bills current. He is located in the town of Stanardsville.
Looking for teams to volunteer once every other month on Saturday mornings to pickup/deliver donated/needed items. This is a new effort we’re making to make this transition smoother.
Looking for volunteers to cut wood for families this winter. We look for this to be a financially tough winter and would like to help those that heat with wood. If you’d like to get a group together to help with this, please let us know! If enough are interested we will be glad to organize a wood-cutting/splitting/hauling Saturday event with lunch provided.
Food - local food pantry is very low right now
Household items (toiletries and laundry/cleaning supplies) are also very low right now.
We thank you for your support of GRACE and ask that you continue to pray for this organization, and how you can join us in reaching out to families in Greene.