Richard A. Blake

“Last year I was homeless and living on the streets during Christmas.”

“I had the best Christmas ever spending it with my teenage daughters who have invited me to be part of their lives after years of being an absent father.”

 “I have been in prison for 8 of my last 10 Christmases.  This Christmas my family told me that I am a new man, far different than the man that I used to be – I think differently, I speak differently, I act differently…it is all because of what the Lord is doing in my life through the Mission.”

 “The Mission doesn’t have to do to all that it does for us – new toys for our kids, Christmas presents for us, special meals and really good food that always fills me up.  Other programs for the homeless just take from us – the Mission isn’t like that – the Mission gives and does all sorts of extra things for us that it doesn’t have to do.” 

 “Last Christmas I was full of hopelessness, but now I am full of hope.”

     These are just a few of the heartfelt testimonies and encouraging words of thanks shared by our men this past Christmas.   Thank you for your partnership in making the Mission a special place for our men, not just at Christmas but throughout the entire year.  Your support truly does make a difference in the lives of our men 365 days a year.

As we begin a new year of rebuilding broken and hurting lives, thank you for your continued friendship and support.   Your kind and generous financial support is a life-changing investment in the lives of our men.  And as God changes our men, our men benefit, their children benefit, their churches benefit and society benefits as our men live out a brand new life filled with hope and purpose.

Thank you for caring and sharing so abundantly.

Many blessings in 2012,

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

At the Whosoever Gospel Mission, we have much to be thankful for.

First, we thank God.

Because of God’s gracious provision, the Whosoever Gospel Mission continues to be able to reach out to broken and struggling homeless men with the love of Christ, and we are thankful for that privilege!  If you could listen in as residents of the Mission’s New Life Program pause to share what they’re thankful for, here are a few of the highlights that you would hear: Ross is thankful for being at the Mission; Melvin thanks God for His mercy and grace; Anthony and David are thankful for daily chapels; Joe thanks God for having a bed ready for him at the Mission just three days after he called (even though there was a waiting list when he called); Robert thanks God for using the Mission to help him work on his attitude; James is thankful that God hasn’t given up on him after all these years, and that God placed the Mission in his life to help him; Wiljen is thankful for the incessant prayers of those who refused to give up on him;  Sean is thankful for the opportunity to achieve his dreams.

Secondly, we thank you.

Thank you for  investing in the lives of Ross, Melvin, Anthony, David, Joe, Robert, James, Sean, Wiljen and a host of other men like them.  God is using you to offer them a hand up.  As Mission staff, residents and families celebrate together at our feast on Thanksgiving Day, please know that we are thanking God for you!  With hearts full of thanks, the Mission family wishes you and your’s a blessed Thanksgiving!

As we come to the holiday season we need your generous gifts so we can continue to be a place of hope and help for all who enter.  As you might have heard, we’ll be adding five more beds to increase our dormitory capacity to fifty-five men.  Not only will your support feed, clothe and shelter broken and destitute men – you will also be offering them a hand up to a new and better life.

Get a first-hand tour of daily life around the Mission.

Join us for an evening of good food & great fellowship as we celebrate 119 years of rebuilding lives by the grace of God here at the Whosoever Gospel Mission!

Homelessness and addiction have a way of demolishing men’s lives and leaving the pieces in a heap of rubble filled with pain and suffering.  Over the past 119 years, the Mission has been a place where homeless and hurting men can begin to sort through the rubble, and by God’s grace, rebuild their broken lives one brick at a time.

You – our friends, family, volunteers and supporters – continue to be the supply line, making sure that each homeless man who comes to the Mission has everything he needs to start rebuilding.  Come and hear first-hand testimonies of how God is using your support to help men rebuild their lives.

Special Giving Opportunities:

Anything you give at the banquet above $25 per person (the cost of the meal) will help with two special projects:

1. Dorm furniture for five men. As we face an increasing demand for the Mission’s services, we want to add 5 additional beds for men in the New Life Program, raising our capacity from 50 men to 55 men.  This won’t fix the problem of homelessness in Philadelphia, but it will make a world of difference for five men.
2. Repointing of the men’s dormitory. The eastern face of the men’s 100-year old dormitory building needs to be repointed (it leaks whenever there’s a driving rain).  This $27,000 repair will help ensure that New Life Program residents have a dry and comfortable place to sleep while working hard to rebuild their lives.

Dear Friend of the Mission,
When a homeless man comes to the Mission, he usually has lost touch with his family and in many cases, he has greatly damaged if not destroyed his relationships with his loved ones.   One of the goals of our New Life Program is to help restore and heal those broken family relationships.   Here are just a few snippets of heartwarming stories of restored and renewed relationships between our men and their families:

• After being banned from his father’s house, Joe now takes his dad out to dinner and is given money by his father to pay his father’s utility bills.
• George now vacations with a sister that he never knew he had.
• Douglas recently moved out of the Mission to care for his elderly and ailing parents and to help care for his grandmother who suffers from dementia.
• Robert is raising his young daughter Helen and is providing her with an excellent education at a highly respected private school .
• Theodore is providing for and actively helping to take care of his son who suffers from autism; last November he brought his son to the Mission for our  Thanksgiving Feast.
• Paul loved his two daughters enough to let the foster family they lived with for
  most of their childhood years adopt them.  He rejoices that he is warmly welcomed into their home and is able to keep in touch with his daughters.
• Roy recently left the Mission before officially graduating to work as many hours as he can to make enough money to help his son attend college this fall.
• And Mike Sellars, who you read about on the enclosed second page, was invited by his sister in New Jersey to live with her until he could rent his own apartment.  Her kindness made it possible for Mike to relocate to New Jersey.

Your kind and generous gifts help to make these restored family relationships possible.  Our men thank you, and so do their families!

Rebuilding families with you,

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director