Author Archives: Whosoever Gospel Mission

Celebrating the retirement of Rev. Dr. Robert A. Emberger

Date:
Saturday, April 22, 2023

Time:
Service begins at 2:00 pm
Heavy hors d’oeuvres to follow at 3:45 pm

Location:
Calvary Presbyterian Church
405 Easton Rd., Willow Grove PA 19090
(On Rt. 611 heading north, on the right just above where
Routes 263 & 611 separate; or on the left heading south on Rt. 611 from the PA Turnpike Willow Grove interchange)

Cost: FREE
There is no charge, but reservations are required because of space limitations

Parking:
Calvary Presbyterian Church has a wonderful,
large onsite parking lot.

RSVP by April 7, 2023:
To reserve, please call Tina at (215) 438-3094 x 104 with your name, phone number, name of the group you’re calling for (if applicable), and number in your party.

We thank the Lord for Bob and his faithful service over these past 34 years! During his tenure as Executive Director from February 1989 until February 2022, Bob developed and continually refined the New Life Program that today equips men with the skills and resources they need to overcome addictions, homelessness and countless other barriers to joyful, independent living.

In March of 2022, Bob stepped down from the directorship for health reasons but has continued to serve in vital support roles, advancing the work of the Mission and helping to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

Bob’s love, passion, and work have impacted our community for over 34 years. Under his leadership, the Mission’s resources, program services and the impact they have on individual men and their families have grown exponentially. This is reason to celebrate!

Join us for a service of singing, testimonies, and a message from the Word by the Rev. Dr. Bruce Alick, followed by a time of fellowship with heavy hors d’oeuvres and desserts. We hope to see you there!

Dear friends,

Right about now, if you’re anything like me, you might be really ready for spring. Winter had its place, but I am eager to be warm, to have more hours of glorious sunshine, and to see the barren landscape around us come alive with color (my allergies may not agree with me on that last one!). I know I’m not alone. Winter can definitely be a hard, cold, and barren time.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a season of life that kind of feels like winter. That’s certainly true for many of the men who come to the Mission. We work hard to offer hopeful signs of a coming spring, a new season of life. As I write this, we’re preparing to hand out special winter blessing bags to the men tonight. They were made with love by friends of the Mission. I’ll also be hanging up some posters that local school children made and dropped off today to brighten our walls. Countless little blessings like these serve as markers of hope – hints that a new season is coming.

Seeing other men succeed and graduate and move into their own place is also a sign of hope for men currently in the Program. Just last week, Rob rented a U-Haul, loaded up his belongings (including his New Home Welcome Kit full of supplies for setting up his new place) and moved out. He’s coming back tonight to celebrate what God has done in his life at his graduation ceremony. He texted me this morning just to assure me he would be here and was excited for tonight! Rob is enjoying this new season of life.

Some season changes are harder than others, especially when the passing season has been so rich and delightful. That’s what we’re experiencing now as our own beloved director and leader of three wonderful decades, Bob Emberger, is stepping more and more out of daily Mission life and into retirement, with his declining health being the driving factor. Do keep him in prayer! On a joyful note, please see this invitation and make plans to celebrate the fruit of faithful ministry with us at his official retirement celebration on April 22nd. We weren’t able to gather sooner because of COVID. We’re glad we can finally gather to celebrate him! I hope you can join us! Details and information on how to reserve a place are here (tickets are free, but reservations are required due to space limitations).

As always, thank you for your part in sharing God’s love with all who come through our doors! God’s richest blessings to you and yours!

Grace and peace,

Heather L. Rice, D.Min.
Executive Director

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a joyous holiday. WE certainly did, in large part because many of YOU made it so! It would be impossible to personally thank everyone who generously gave to make our celebrations what they were. The holidays can be quite difficult and lonely. Some of our guys really struggled. But the homemade cookies and treats, the special decorations, the gifts for our men and their children, the amazing feasts and chapel services – all of this is a tangible expression of the love of Jesus whose birth we celebrated.

As one gentleman shared, it made him “feel like a person” for the first time in a while. Another man said with tears as he gathered toys for his kids, “I never had a Christmas before. I was never in a place to celebrate it. But this is really beautiful. I can’t thank you all enough.” Thank you for blessing our men with these gifts – not just candy, homemade cookies, toys, umbrellas, travel mugs, wallets, towels, and the like. You gave the most basic and precious gifts of being seen and recognized and loved. You gave men the gift of being able to connect with and bless their kids. That meant the world to many men this Christmas. Thank you.

Then we rang in the New Year with pizza and chicken fingers and a party to celebrate God’s provision in the past year and His promises for the one ahead. Thank you for your part in it all! The Lord wove together everyone’s efforts to truly make the Mission a home for the holidays. These photos of our Christmas party and toy giveaway will give you a glimpse of the fun we had and the joy it brought. The men collectively share their thanks and blessings with you!

As we head into 2023, please pray with me for the Lord’s continued wisdom, guidance, and provision. We’re always looking for ways to do what we do better, to stretch dollars further, and to love more extravagantly. This past Fall our staff attended training to help us better understand trauma and how people heal. We’re excited to do more things like that this year. Please also pray for our men. Pray for good jobs, freedom from addictions, restored family relationships, and for health and healing. Pray for each resident who comes to the Mission over the next year to feel God’s love in a tangible way and to know His peace.

Also, as you make plans for the Spring, please save Saturday, April 22nd at 2 pm to join us at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Willow Grove to celebrate Rev. Dr. Bob Emberger’s retirement from full-time ministry after 33 years as Executive Director. The Lord has used Bob to not only develop and grow the New Life Program itself, but also to develop our wonderful staff and the financial means to carry it all out. There’s no cost for the event, but we will need to have a count because of limited seating capacity at the church. More details and a formal invitation will follow in early March. I hope you can come!

As always, we are grateful for and humbled by your partnership with us in the Gospel. Thank you for helping us share good news and a way forward with all who come through our doors. Please keep us in mind as the winter heating bills rise! The Lord bless you and keep you in His grace!

Grace and peace,

Heather L. Rice, D.Min.
Executive Director

Dear Friends,

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. We’ve been enjoying some festive decorations, all kinds of holiday treats, and special chapel services filled with Christmas music and carol singing. Soon we’ll have our toy giveaway where men will select and wrap over a thousand gifts for their kids and grandkids. After that it won’t be long before we share all sorts of presents with our residents at a special Christmas chapel. All the while, I have Anne Murray on standby to belt out “Joy to the World” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful” whenever it’s my turn to ask Alexa to play something (if you haven’t heard her version of them, you should give a listen!).

All these festivities don’t make the hard things go away, of course. But they remind us in the midst of the darkness just how stunning the Light of the World is. Jesus, our Emmanuel, comes near! His light dispels darkness. And in that light, we see hope and a way forward. That’s what I love about life at the Mission. It doesn’t matter how dark it seems. The darkness can’t swallow up the light. The news the angels brought to the shepherds a couple thousand years ago is the same good news we rejoice in today – news of great joy for all people. It’s news of a Savior, Christ the Lord, who comes to make peace.

Your support helps us shine the light of Jesus in ways that illuminate the path forward for men who come to the Mission looking for help and yearning for peace. Thank you for partnering with us. As we approach the end of 2022, consider perhaps making a special one-time gift to the Mission. Below are some options – each one a practical way to help dispel darkness and shine light on the path forward for a man at the Mission in a life-changing and even life-saving way. This change goes on to affect not just that one man’s life, but the lives and futures of so many others including his family and children. Perhaps one of these options might resonate with you in this season. Here are several great ways you can help:

1. Consider a generous year-end gift of cash as an investment in transformational life-change.
2. Instead of giving gifts to each other at the holidays, some families bless our men by pooling their money and giving a special Christmas gift to the Mission from their whole family (individual receipts for each donor can still be given).
3. If God has especially blessed you this past year, please consider sending a larger-than-usual gift to the Mission. Large gifts take big bites out of our budgeted expenses. They also strengthen and expand our compassionate services to our men.
4. Give a gift of appreciated stock – this is a great help to us and may provide you with excellent tax benefits, especially if you transfer the stock directly to the Mission without selling it first. Please consult with your financial advisor to confirm these tax benefits. To arrange for an easy electronic transfer of stock, please call me at (215) 438-3094 x 103.
5. If you have a donor-advised fund, you can recommend that a grant be made to the Whosoever Gospel Mission. Your grant will bless our men in many ways.
6. You can make up to a $100,000 Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) to the Mission instead of taking your required minimum distribution (RMD). Your distribution must be sent by your IRA custodian directly to the Mission. The effect in most situations is both an income tax savings and an increased gift. Please consult with your financial advisor.
7. Save postage and time – you can go to whosoevergospel.org/donate to make a secure online gift. You can also set up a monthly recurring donation for 2023.
8. When you shop online at Amazon.com, make your online purchases through AmazonSmile which is run by Amazon.com as a unique way to support charities. You will get the same service, same merchandise, and the same prices. Register with AmazonSmile and designate the Whosoever Gospel Mission to receive a percentage of all the eligible purchases you make on AmazonSmile. You can search for the Mission on AmazonSmile, or you can type in the following address: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/23-1352579. You won’t pay any more for your purchases, but you will be helping the Whosoever Gospel Mission.
9. Make a gift to the Mission through PayPal Giving Fund. Search “Donate with PayPal Giving Fund” or go to PayPal Giving Fund’s website: www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/hub and search “Whosoever Gospel Mission.” We get the full value of your donation – PayPal doesn’t charge us any fees.

Thank you for being part of the light that shines with us into the darkness, illuminating the way forward in the path of peace. May the grace and peace of Jesus fill your heart and home this Christmas and always. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Grace and peace,

Heather L. Rice, D.Min.
Executive Director