U of L Nursing Students Get Hopping For Health!

When the University of Louisville's Cathy Batscha ordered her nursing students to "get hopping," her students followed her directions to the letter by hopping about on one foot!  But this was all in good fun as the gyrating nursing students led our ladies in a wildly entertaining session of aerobic exercising during a recent visit to Wayside Christian Mission!  Meeting with our resident clients in Hotel Louisville's Anderson Chapel, Cathy Batscha and her nursing students screened clients for high blood pressure while demonstrating heart healthy exercising along with various relaxation techniques.  By the way, Cathy Batscha is new to both the University of Louisville and to our community.  On behalf of the women and men of Wayside Christian Mission, welcome to Louisville and many thanks to you and your students for leading the University of Louisville's Community Health Rotation conducted at the Mission's Hotel Louisville.  Leading our ladies to a healthier lifestyle will help them along the road to recovery!    

Volunteer Elmer Lucille Allen Honored

Elmer Lucille Allen is a six year volunteer director of the Mission's
Wayside Expressions Art Gallery. She was honored this week with three
other women. Following is her summary of the event.

Four women were honored at The Fourth Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Concert and Awards Banquet that was held January 20, 2012 at
St. Stephens Church and Prayer Retreat Center, Jeffersonville,
Indiana.

The women and their awards were: Elmer Lucille Allen - Dr. Martin
Luther King Community Service Award; Betty Baye, The Honorable Joan
"Toni" Stringer, and Senator Georgia Powers - Dr. Martin Luther King
Foot Soldier Award. Senator Powers was unable to be present.

This was a beautiful evening.

I thank Rev. Dr. Kevin W. Cosby, Min. Kevin James and the St. Stephen
Church Mighty Men of God Choir for this award.
Photograph was taken by Michael Charles Allen Sr.
May God continue to bless me as I walk this path.
Have a blessed day.

Elmer Lucille Allen

Fern Creek High Students Tell The Wayside Story Through Video Production

     Fern Creek High School teacher Paul Barnwell's digital storytelling class couples the fertile imagination of his students with up to date digital technology for the purpose of telling meaningful stories in a video format!  For those of us who grew up without computers, this is not your typical English essay class!  On two occasions, Paul brought students equipped with video cameras to Hotel Louisville and interviewed resident clients in the care of Wayside Christian Mission.  Click the link to your browser and check out their first video! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Clw-4HyeKM

 

PIZZA! PIZZA!

      Little Caesars' Love Kitchen is a roving, diesel powered pizzeria that has traveled in 48 states and has served hot meals to over two million hungry people in need!   And on a cold winter day in downtown Louisville, the eighteen-wheeled Love Kitchen prepared hundreds and hundreds of hot cheese and pepperoni pizzas to the women, men, and children of Wayside Christian Mission. 

     Before lunchtime, the pizza kitchen on wheels parked across the street from Wayside Christian Mission's Emergency Shelter on Jefferson Street.  On the other side of the street, our pizza-hungry resident clients patiently waited for the fresh hot pizzas to arrive!  They did not have long to wait, for the Love Kitchen and the Little Caesars' crew worked magic!   No one walked away hungry!   Our friends from Little Caesars made certain of that!

     Local franchisee Dan Michalak said, "As a member of the area business community, it's important to me to support people when they need it and help make the community stronger.  I'm excited to support this program with food and staff to provide a quality meal for people who otherwise may not get one."

     Established by the company in 1985, the Little Caesars' Love Kitchen was on the scene during the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 2001 terroristic assault against the World Trade Center buildings in New York.  The Love Kitchen is dispatched during times of natural disasters, too.  This road bound pizza kitchen has also crossed into Canada on numerous occasions.  Two million Americans and Canadians have benefited from the generosity of some 50,000 Little Caesar franchise owners and their employees. 

     To the "Pizza! Pizza!" people, we say, "Thank you!  Thank you!"

     During the cold winter season, more women, men, and families are turning to us for help.   The needs of our impoverished neighbors are great.  We depend upon the help of our corporate friends and, of course, our local volunteers and financial donors who see that the work of Wayside Christian Mission continues year after year.  Right now, please take a moment to donate online or send us a check.  Our mailing address is P.O. Box 7249 Louisville, KY 40257-0249.  People are cold and hungry.  Will you help us help them? 

Students Wrap Up Louisville

     On a recent Friday evening, Hotel Louisville was the site of the city's largest pajama party!  Hundreds of University of Louisville students gathered for their annual Wrap Up Louisville event--a fundraising project that collects well over a thousand blankets for Louisville's homeless population while raising the participating students' awareness of the plight of our community's needy!  Garbed in bathrobes and pajamas, a legion of students danced, laughed, and built "blanket forts" in the hotel's Grand Ballroom--and all this fun was for a very good cause!  These blankets will be used to keep homeless woman and men warm during the raw temperatures of winter. Organizational founder Trevor Joelson has a heart for the needs of the homeless and he wants college students to know that it is within their power to create a better world through volunteerism.

      Wayside Christian Mission is dependent upon our many volunteers--without them, we could not feed, cloth, and educate the over six hundred women, men, and children in our care.  Meeting the needs of our homeless neighbors should be everyone's concern--and your help is needed now more than ever.  During this bitterly cold season, more and more of our neighbors in need are coming to us for help.  We do not want to turn anyone away and with your help, we will continue saving lives!  Will you help?  You may donate online or send your check to P.O. Box 7249 Louisville KY 40207-0249.  It is cold.  People are living beneath overpasses and in cardboard boxes.  What will you do to save our neighbors who risk death from exposure?   

Dr. Martin Luther King Remembered

      Martin Luther King once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."  In remembrance of this great Christian martyr whose life was spent for a nation that often reviled him, a celebration was held at Wayside Christian Mission's Hotel Louisville on the holiday set aside to honor this fallen American hero.  Meeting in the hotel's Grand Ballroom, some two hundred attendees prayed, sang, and remembered the slain civil rights leader whose lifelong struggle to end discrimination has since yielded much progress.  Highlighting the event was Wayside Christian Mission's own Dwayne Nathanial who once again recited Dr. King's famous I Have A Dream speech with the driving cadence and forceful passion of the original 1963 delivery.  May we always be reminded that, "A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."

Dale Tucker, D. Min. Visits the Mission's New Hotel

An old friend and former executive director of Wayside Christian Mission had lunch with Chaplain Mike and me at the WayCool Café yesterday.  Dale Tucker not only served as the Mission's executive director during the early eighties, developing the family and women's shelter during a time when our city was first seeing a large increase in homeless families, he also served as a foreign missionary to South America, and currently holds the title of State Program Specialist with the Corporation for National and Community Service.  Dale shared stories of the earlier days at the Mission and helped us connect to some new and exciting resources that may ultimately help to provide better services to our clients.  Wayside will be applying for a VISTA worker to assist the Mission in fighting poverty by enabling clients to reach their full potential.  Our many thanks to Dale and his family for their dedication and calling to be agents of social change helping many disenfranchised people in our world.

Education – one of several keys out of homelessness

Many of our clients struggle to get warm, stable and to feel safe.  Some have lived with one relative after another, then one friend after another until they ran out of options.  They ended up on the street, then in the Mission and then some into the Mission's hotel.  Tonight, as most Tuesday nights, I attended our hospitality training class and our hotel resident's meeting.  We discussed the educational goals that many of our clients will be working toward.  Some will be working on securing a GED, technical certifications, and others will learn a good deal about hotel hospitality, while some will attend college. 

When talking about education, our clients come alive, hands raise, and they know that securing an education is one of the important keys to preventing a return to the streets.  With God's help and many Mission supporters, we will help many of these men and women to begin an educational track that will change their lives forever.

Prayer Thought

Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation -- speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be.
   - Francois Fénelon   1651 – 1715

Stuffed Animals Bring Smiles

Meaningful Gifts Were Shared

Ardi's Bears Enjoyed By All Ages

Dick and Ardi Wilson Share Ardi's Bears with our Women and Familes

What a wonderful surprise for the single women staying at Wayside when Ardi Wilson presented each with a stuffed animal while her husband, Dick, took pictures of Santa and each family. Stuffed animals were appreciated by each of the ladies, offering some symbolic security and love during a difficult time in their lives. Dick and Ardi had the family Christmas pictures printed so that each family could be reminded of the Christmas they spent at Wayside, a Christmas that was made special by many helping hands in our community.

Christmas at Wayside Christian Mission

Many thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers and family sponsors this Christmas.  Our residents felt the love of their neighbors, the love of God and the knowledge that they are not forgotten.  Since Christmas day, time and again, residents at Hotel Louisville have stopped me expressing their gratitude for the help they were given.  The reality is that most of these parents and especially their children would not have had Christmas gifts without your help.

Blessings and have a wonderful New Year!

Tim