Dear CCPC Family,

"Take that step which will move you from ordinary to extraordinary."
-The Reverend Beulah H. "Bubba" Dailey,
Executive Director of Austin Street Centre

Another last minute plea... another amazing outpouring of grace in the form of sandwiches and other food items for the men, women, and children of Austin Street Centre. On Wednesday night, August 22, no one at the shelter went to sleep hungry. Many had an extra sandwich to use for lunch the following day. And the shelter even had some extra food to supplement subsequent meals.

Thank you to all who came to the rescue. Thank you to all who made sandwiches. Thank you to everyone who traveled down to the shelter Wednesday evening to help hand out the sandwiches. With so much food and assistance, I was able to get out from behind the food table and talk to some of the residents of the shelter.

One person with whom I spoke was Steve. Steve is fifty years old. He is missing a leg and bound to a wheelchair. Steve has been involved in motorcycle gangs, has been in and out of prison, has battled addiction and has been near death on more than one occasion. He, his wife, and their beautiful four-month-old daughter found themselves at Austin Street after fleeing their boarding house -- a place where crack-cocaine use in adjacent rooms provided too toxic an environment for both his daughter and himself.

The addiction that Steve battles is to crack-cocaine. He has been clean for over a year. Steve and his family are working toward completing the paperwork necessary to move into an apartment. Steve is also grateful. Grateful not only for the meal that we provided, but for the fact that God did not give up on him even when he gave up on God. I was truly blessed and humbled to share ten minutes of time with him.

All of us have fallen on bad luck or made bad decisions. For most of us, there was someone there to catch us when we fell. And someone there to make the landing soft. For many of the homeless residents who rely on shelters like Austin Street, the fall continues or the landing is hard. Please keep them all in your prayers and be thankful for your many gifts and blessings.

God bless us, everyone.
John Nelson