The Warmth of Growth

"And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." Colossians 2:6-7

Warmth and Faithfulness
We are excited to usher in a new year at Strong Life Rescue Mission. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary on January 11th. We have been extremely busy doing all our normal activities and making sure we are available as a warming center for folks to come during the artic temperatures we have been experiencing.

Strong Life has provided over a thousand meals so far this winter outside of our daily hot lunches dropped off by The Corner Table. These include hot breakfast plates and over 400 hot plates given by churches and individuals to help feed the needs before us on holidays and weekends. To help people stay warm we have given out nearly 120 sleeping bags so far this season and we are committed to providing as many as needed to keep people warm.

Strong Life also saw another milestone come and go this past Monday January 15th as we helped over 75 people at our facility. We made over 10 trips with our minibus in the morning and afternoon to get everyone around and no one left Strong Life cold or hungry. This milestone has come about through our continued structuring and added seating over the years to allow as many people as possible to be served.

A Growth That Matters
This time of year can be challenging as a lot of the pats on the back and benevolent giving from the Christmas season fade away, and we are left to face the bitter cold and help people negotiate difficult and sometimes life-threatening situations. One of our friends who was living in the woods, whom we just put on the bus to Charlotte to be reunited with family put it this way. " I am forever grateful and don't know what I would have done without your ministry....without Strong Life people literally would be dying out here".  This is both encouraging and a reminder of how serious this time of year can be for the homeless in our area. Please understand instead of feeling overwhelmed and overworked our staff is Strong enough to continue to serve.

The word God gave us for this year is to GROW. This is exactly what we plan for in 2024. We are strategizing with our staff to develop a growth mindset for more volunteers and interns. We plan to make drastic construction changes for growth at our facilities to facilitate larger crowds and more donations. Most importantly we plan to grow deeper in our relationship with Christ Jesus.

Thank you for your prayers and support for those in need and we pray you too experience the warmth of growth in the year to come. May you grow deeper with God as you mature in love for others and become a blessing to many.