Faith, Hope and Love at the Grace Care Center

With an accent as sweet as honey, Shelly (name has been changed) tells her family story of faith, hope and the Grace Care Center.

Papua New Guinea is their home.  When they left home in 2001, it was with the goal of her husband Saul studying at Trinity College of the Bible to become a pastor, so he could return home to show the love of Jesus Christ and change lives.  Currently he is waiting on approval of his master’s thesis on Joseph Benson.  The next step for Saul is to take one quick deep breath and dive into the work of a doctorate.

Shelly has a Bachelors Degree in Christian Education focusing on childhood education.  Her time is fully invested in being a full time homemaker for Saul and their 5 children with ages ranging from 6 to 16 years old.  “We struggle financially because I cannot work.  We are awaiting a government work permit.  It will come through.  It just takes time.  God is in charge.”

Another food pantry referred her to the Grace Care Center.  She has been a friend of the GCC for 2 years and is in the co-op program. 

When I turned the conversation to her perceptions of the GCC, her beautiful smile and sparkling eyes lit up her face.  “You help us a lot.  We feel like we are part of a large family.  We are welcome here.  You are so friendly.  You see our needs.  You see our struggle.  You approve of me.  You treat me as though you have been there (meaning in her family situation of need.)  Grace is part of me.  I usually shop on Monday nights.  The food is good.  The vehicle ministry has helped us with repairs because of an accident.  I praise God.  He is using Grace to meet our needs.  We worship at Grace.  One of our children has autism, and we love the LIFT program.  We left Papua New Guinne to prepare to serve God.  We had faith that He would sustain us.  He has met us here at Grace, through you.

I will take the experience of the Grace Care Center with me when I leave and try to use it as an example of how to receive and treat people.  I have learned how to receive love as well as how to give it.”

Single Mom steps out in trust and steps into faith

Patti (name has been changed) is a professional, a medical assistant.  She is thankful for her job even though her pay is less than what is needed to raise 17 and 19 year-old teenagers. 

Patti’s story reflects the journey of many of our Grace Care Center (GCC) friends who are single parents, with a job but still struggle to make ends meet.

This chapter of her life began 2 years ago when the trustees office told her about the kinds of support available at Grace.  She was at the trustees office because of financial problems that creep into the lives of many of us. In addition, a friend at work had shared with Patti her struggles of economic survival and how she had found GCC.

Patti shared, “At first it was scary for me to be here (GCC).  Two years ago when I came into the waiting area, there were people everywhere.  I knew no one.  But if a newcomer to GCC was to ask for my thoughts, I would tell them to give it time.  You will meet people, make friends, hear their story and grow to be comfortable here.  There is no food pantry like it.  Nowhere do you get the variety of food.  My 1^st night here I was surprised to get fresh produce, milk and frozen items. I can stretch my budget because of the food.”

Patti lit up like a bright light bulb when she was asked to describe how she benefitted from being a member of the Co-Op.  “Oh! My gosh” she said. “You guys have helped me so much.  My son had just gotten his driver’s license, and I was having the oil changed.  They took my son and showed him how to check the fluid levels in the car, so that he could keep the car safe to drive.  That was amazing!  Vehicle services at Grace helped negotiate lower prices for car repairs when I had an accident.  One time at Christian Brothers Auto Repair, I saw a couple with a newborn baby.  The father was feeding the infant, and the mother was volunteering her time.  She had just had that baby, but it was very important for her to be volunteering in the Grace Care Center Vehicle services.  So, her husband was there feeding the baby while the mom volunteered.  That was amazing to see.”

An enthusiastic Patti continued, “Referral services has helped me with my limited budget.  Through their coaching I have learned to train my teenagers that they have responsibilities to pay some of the bills.  Through the coaching I learned that it was good training for my children to learn financial responsibility.  Some day they are going to face the reality of paying all of their own bills.  As a good mom, I can begin to train them now.  Without coaching from the people at the Care Center I would not have known to do this.  And, my children understand and accept these responsibilities.

I was hopeful to get a better paying job with a larger medical practice.  But, it did not work out.  Had it not been for the volunteers at the Care Center, it would have been so easy to delay further job searches.  But, they were there for me and helped me rewrite my resume then nudged me along to continue the search.  Without that encouragement, I would have delayed the search and possibly lost out on an opportunity. The search goes on.

When asked about her church home, Patti identified Grace as her church home.  She admitted to the competition between Saturday and Sunday soccer and church.  Also, she said she is on the fence about organized religion.  She was put off by re:generate.  She shared about her need for worship and hearing the sermons and how distracted she is about money issues in church.  She acknowledged that the word about expansion and the cost needs to get out, but it does distract her.  “Maybe it is because of my lack of ability to provide financial support effects my attitude.  I want to get beyond where I am now.  Financially I want to become more stable so that I can give back to the Care Center.  Like I said earlier, I have a job and I am better off than many.  I am thankful.”

Patti’s journey continues.  We are glad that she is a part of this family of friends at the Grace Care Center.

Can you see me? Prayer warriors needed!

I have met David (name had been changed) 3 times now in the pantry. Our conversations have been very short mainly because he came in the first two times with his other brothers. He is a very energetic 9-10 year old who is a joy to be around. When he came in this week, I thought it would be a normal interaction-little did I know what God had in store. Here is how it came about….

I see David checking in so I come up from behind him and grab both of his shoulders, trying to hide behind him.  Even though I have only seen him a couple times, he automatically says "I know that's Marcus". So I greet him and Jay and welcome them to the Care Center. I move on with what I was doing and as we are getting closer to the end of the shift decide that I am going to jump in as a personal shopper to get the final families through. Who do I get to shop with???? David and Jay! David has a list of items that his family needs and its his turn to take the role of the adult choosing what items his family will eat this week. You see each week one of the boys will take on that role, because their mom is unable to make it up here as she is blind. So Jay goes and picks up one of the boys and drives to the Care Center. So David says he needs cereal, anything but Cheerios. I tell him that I have a surprise for him, that we have a lot of great options for him to choose from-three kinds of captain crunch, apple jacks, fruit loops, coco puffs, etc. He gets excited and starts looking at the cheerios, which I say "hey there I thought you said you didn't want cheerios?". That's when Jay motions to me something about David's eyes.  As we go through the pantry picking the items, Jay explains that his eyes are really bad and he can only see 3-4" in front of his face.  We get towards the end of the shopping experience and David says to me "I want to pray with you!", I told him "that would be great, you want to pray tonight?" "No" he says, "I want you to pray for me".  "I would love that", I will meet you outside and after we load up your groceries I'll pray for you.

So we have the items loaded in his car and he says "I want you to pray for my eyes, pray that God will heal my eyes so I can see". So we circle up and place arms on each others shoulders and I have the privilege to pray for David's eyes.

Do I believe that God can heal his eyes, I sure do. I am sure he can work through doctors and get the job done, but I am not sure that was the miracle that David was asking me to pray.  Do I believe that in that moment God could perform a miracle and when David opened his eyes he would see clearly? I really want to believe that. I know God can do miracles and believe he still does them today. So is my faith limiting the miracle from happening because if I don't fully believe? As I pray I even remember asking God to line up the doctors and this process in such a way that clearly we would say it was God and not any of us. I ask that David not only gets his sight back, but also that this would be a marker moment in his life that would strengthen his faith in God.  So as the prayer is done I get a huge, huge hug from David-faith of a child is what we are called to, and David has it.

So I ask Jay to email me and I will see if there is anything I can do.

So at 10:23 this morning I get the email from Jay.  I send it on to one person asking if there is anything we can do. At 12:46 the message has now passed through 4 different levels of asks and I have a call from a doctor who has two different specialist both willing to see David. 2 hours and 23 min and a plan is being formed. I am just blown away on how God works.

Would you pray for the rest of the story (tribute to paul harvey!). I am excited what could happen and how this could impact not only David's faith but all those who he interacts with now and his future.

I will post again as this story develops.

Meet Our Friend Kathy

Kathy was a single mom doing what she could to raise her family.  One day she received that terrible phone call that no parent wants to hear, "Your son has been shot". At the age of 37 her life change forever (her son was 20).  She sat at his bed side for 5 weeks while he was in a coma. Friends and family brought her clothes and food, because she never wanted to leave his side. One day she prayed to the Lord " Father if you give him back to me, I will stay by his side and take care of him."  They next day a miracle happened.....he woke up.  He is paralyzed from the waste down and would need daily care.  She stuck to her promise and quit her job and took care of him.  She never complained that her life was different or the hardship she had to endure.  She stuck to her promise and cared for him for the past 43 years.  She has needed places like the Care Center for most of her life.  She brightens up the room when she enters in now at the beautiful age of 80.  She still cares for her son who is now 63.  What an amazing Godly woman and example to us all. When you are having a bad day, or things are not going as you wish, please remember Kathy and her son.  Say a little prayer for this family as they struggle to figure out life while caring for each other now.

Our friend Sally

We will call her Sally.  I remember when she told me that she never thought she would be on this side of the Pantry.  Sally and her family served in their churches pantry many times before moving to Indiana, and now she found herself on the receiving line.

Sally's husband was relocated to Indiana through his employment.  Planning ahead they came to Indiana to visit and find their new home a month before the relocation.  After finding one, they packed up and the movers brought them to Indiana to start their new life.  Their old home was still on the market and they had a buyer lined up and the closing was set. Then life started to change for them.  Things fell through with the buyer, so they started back at square one with their old home.  Now they own two homes, it will be a struggle until they sell it-but they can make it. He started his job on Monday and as he was getting settled in something happened.  The company announced that a downsizing was about to take place, and soon he found himself on the other side of the downsizing. Now they are in a new state far away from friends and family, own two homes and no job.  How could this have happened?  Soon Sally found herself in need of food, so she went to a pantry in the area.  After receiving the box of food she went out to her car to see what was inside.  She pulled items out that her family would be able to eat, it wasn't that she was picky two of her children have allergies to food.  She walked back into the pantry to give back the food they were not able to eat because she didn't want it to go to waste.  The pantry volunteers asked why she was returning the food and she explained about the food allergies.  They explained to her that Grace just opened their food pantry and it was a Choice Pantry where she could pick and choose the items off of the grocery shelves. So Sally showed up and became a friend immediately.

About a month later Sally came in and told us the great news, her husband got a new job!!! She wanted to know if she could still come to the pantry for a few more weeks until his first paycheck came in.  We told her that she could come as long as she needed to and even suggested to keep coming until they received a few months of paychecks to catch up on some of the debt they incurred. 

Its a joy to see Sally about once a month. She has asked about volunteering and asked about when the service times are at Grace.  I cant wait to see how Sally's story unfolds as her family walks into this new chapter of their life.

One Step Away

The Grace Care Center has been open for seven months and I am still blown away each day by the people I meet. 
We call the people who come to the Care Center-friends! So you know our friends, they live among us, work at places we visit and shop at the same stores we do.  I would love for you to get to know the people who stand in line in the freezing cold as they wait to come into the care center. They are just like you and me.  We all are just one step away from being in their shoes.  You might think it will never happen to you, but please read their stories carefully-many of them hand one thing happen to them which sent them down the road of life they are on.  One Step Away-you and I both, that's it.  How would you want to be treated if you were in their place in line? Many people come in and ask if we can let them in early because its cold outside.  I think it makes them feel like they are helping by asking. Can I suggest if that happens instead of walking by and asking if they can come in, stand with them and talk with them.  They know its cold outside and they chose to come early to stand in line, what they didn't know that someone would care enough to stop and talk to them.

We are open 6:00-8:00 on Monday and Tues nights and 10-12 on Wed mornings.  The line outside starts about an hour before we open.  Come join us in line or maybe come serve them inside (shift starts 30 min before we open, sign-up online), WARNING-if you do just know your life will not be the same!!

So please come back to this site often and get to know our wonderful friends, they are your neighbors!!

(We will change their names to help continue to give them their dignity. The pictures used will also not be our friends.)