HPM Is Now Helping Homeless Men, Woman and Children!
First, thank you for your support of Hoskins Park Ministries. We are truly grateful for your generosity. After the last email I sent asking for help, you helped! Although we are not where we need to be, many of you responded to our request for help. So thank you.
In that regard Johnny Allen (my partner) and I have committed to personally doubling our financial support of Hoskins Park Ministries (from $50 to $100 per month, each) and I am asking you to prayerfully consider doing the same - doubling your support. Or if you are not supporting us, I am asking you to please consider starting today. I know, some of you are thinking, here goes Tom again, asking us to do the impossible! Doesn’t he know I can’t do any more! HPM is not the only ministry I help! I have needs too! But here’s why Johnny and I are committing to doubling support of HPM ourselves, even with our own needs at stake, and why we are asking you to do the same.
HPM has begun supporting a woman’s ministry called “Blessings In The Storm.” Blessings in the Storm takes woman and children off the streets and provides them love, care and a home. Loretta Caldwell, the Executive Director, has three houses and supports 15 - 20 homeless woman and kids. You may have read about her in a recent article in the Charlotte Observer. She has also been featured on the inspiration channel. But she needs help. Last week we (HPM) supported Loretta and helped three children and a mom get off the street. That was not really enough though - we need and want to do more. In addition to this need, HPM has added two new supervisors to our staff. We have grown from 1 house in 2001 to 12 houses in 2007. From 8 men in 2001 to over 35 today. And another house may be coming soon. Bottom line, we are about ready to be supporting over 50 homeless people including, men, woman, children, families and the disabled. That is why we need additional help.
I am not sure how this relationship with Blessings will work out, but it is our desire to assist here with $3k per month, while we help Loretta organize her ministry, something we are going to help her do since we believe that is something she needs (and she does too). Since we are still about $4k per month short ourselves, we need approximately $7k per month more to satisfy the financial need of Hoskins Park with the support of Blessings In the Storm. After we have formalized our relationship with Blessings In The Storm, I may send out another email asking for your support to be sent directly to Blessings. But for now, I am asking you to support us as we support Loretta. You have my personal guarantee that your donations will be used appropriately.
Finally, I wish I could tell you that if you give us $50 or $100 more it will be used to do x, y or z. But that is difficult. What I can say is that any donation will help keep all the houses we support, operational. Since Loretta has 3 houses herself, and we have 12, you are basically helping over 50+ people to stay off the street, and become whole, regardless of how much you send us. And we believe these numbers will grow, with your support (there are lots of houses for sale in our area and where Loretta is in West Charlotte). We provide food, clothes, shelter, medicine, transportation, and a total staff of approximately 8 people (we are going to try to help Loretta get a salary, she currently has none) to do our work. But if you wonder whether what we do is godly and working, please come visit the ministry and see for yourself. If you live in Charlotte, NC we are in your back yard. We are visible, we are focused, we try to live by legal guidelines and God is using this work to transform the lives of his people. And we all live here. We would be honored to have you drop by and see. Just give me a call @ 704-777-1628, email me, or just show up!
But please, if you can, help us - even if it pushes the boundries of your comfort zone. These kids need our help and so do we! And remember, God will provide - in fact, he asks us to test Him in this area, the only time in Scripture he says to test Him, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10. The tithe represents our giving of our finances, to His work. We believe this is His work.
If you can, please make checks to Hoskins Park Ministries and send them to:
Hoskins Park Ministries
107 Cromer Street
Charlotte, NC 28208
Or go to our web site, to use PayPal to donate on line, or click on the Please Donate button at the top of this email. If you personally know and value our work, please feel free to forward this email to those you know who might want to help. If you don’t really know us, I would prefer you don’t do that. People have enough emails asking for money from folks who may not really know what is going on. But if you believe in this work, please let them know it has your blessing so they know this request for money will end up helping the people who really need it - the homeless.
Oh, and before you decide, especially if you have kids, consider what you would want someone like yourself to do if it were your kids they were going to care for. Perhaps that will help us all to realize the importance of personal sacrifice for the sake of those who just want to have a safe home.
Thanks for your consideration and blessings to all of you!
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding … be upon you and yours.
-Tom Wheeler
Exec. Dir., Hoskins Park Ministries, Charlotte, NC (Hoskinspark.org)
704-777-1628
“whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40