Category Archives: From the Staff

From the Director ~ April/May 2019

Bob Emberger, Executive Director

Bob Emberger, Executive Director

Dear Friend of the Mission,

We care deeply about the families of our men! And we especially celebrate when a resident is able to restore, strengthen and enjoy his relationship with his family as never before. The families of our men are always welcome to visit the Mission to see their loved one. In fact, we encourage our men to invite their families to enjoy a meal at the Mission or to attend one of our chapel services. After serving 30 years at the Mission, I never tire of hearing the happy sound of children laughing and playing as they spend time with their dad at the Mission.

Every day your gifts are being used by the Lord to accomplish a lot of good things in the lives of our men. I think, though, that one of the most important things your gifts help to make happen is the healing and strengthening of our men and their families. I think you will enjoy this story about Hantz and his delightful daughter, Teeyah. I have also had the privilege of meeting Hantz’s mom and dad when they would drop him off at the Mission after spending time together. You can be greatly encouraged knowing that when you invest in the lives of our men, you are also investing in the lives of everyone they touch. Your gift is a gift that will keep on giving for generations and generations.

Thank you in advance for your support. While we work hard to be good stewards of your gifts, to use them wisely and carefully, we still need over $3,800 each day to pay our bills. When you think of all that the Mission does for the 55 homeless men who live at the Mission on any given day, $3,800 a day for 55 men is a pretty good bargain ($69.00 per day per man!). Years ago a reporter from the Philadelphia Daily News did an article on the Mission. When I told him all that we do for our men, he asked me how many staff we have and what is our budget. He was stunned that we do so much with so little. This interview was several years ago, and a lot has changed since then. But I would daresay that this same reporter would be even more amazed today that we do so much for our 55 homeless men with so little. We need your generous support more than ever to keep our life-giving, life-changing and life-saving ministry going.

I thank you, and so do Hantz and Teeyah!

Warm regards,

Bob signature

 

 

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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Join Us for Chapel April 27th!

old chapelDate:
Saturday, April 27, 2019

Time:
Service begins at 6:30 pm
Refreshments to follow at 8:00 pm

Cost: FREE
A freewill offering will be taken during the service. All proceeds help offer a hand-up rather than a hand-out to homeless men at the Whosoever Gospel Mission.

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)

Parking:
Calvary Presbyterian Church has a wonderful,
large on-site parking lot.

No RSVP needed:
Invite friends, family, church family & anyone
you wish to introduce to the Mission!

Men singing in chapel - oldFor 127 years, God has been working in the hearts of men and changing lives at the Whosoever Gospel Mission. The world has changed a bit, but the same message of the Gospel – the Good News of Jesus – continues to go forth every day in our chapel, just as it has for the past 127 years!

The Mission continues to be a place where God shines light into dark and lonely places, a place where hope is reborn in the hearts of struggling, homeless men. It’s a place where God’s love continues to melt fear, where His grace and mercy forgive sin, where His compassion covers shame, and His power strengthens the weak.

If you look inside the Mission, you will see a place where God delights to trade beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and hope for weariness – not just in words, but in actual everyday life.

Men singing in chapel - newJoin us for a good old-fashioned chapel service (the kind we have seven days a week!) as we celebrate God’s faithfulness over these past 127 years! Enjoy an evening of firsthand testimonies, joyful singing, and an update on what God is doing in the life of the Mission. Fellowship with us after the service and enjoy refreshments with Mission residents, staff, our board of directors, volunteers, supporters, and friends! We hope to see you there!

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From the Director ~ March 2019

IMG_8339-001Celebrate with us 127 years of giving a home to the homeless!

Dear Friend of the Mission,

I hope you will join us for our annual Night of Celebration on Saturday, April 27, 2019 beginning at 6:30 pm. This is a fun and festive affair in which the homeless men who live at the Mission, our staff, our board members, our volunteers and hopefully YOU will come and join us to celebrate and thank the Lord for the Mission’s 127 years of life-giving, compassionate ministry to the poor and needy. There is no charge for this event, and the dress is casual. Come as you are, bring your family and friends, and enjoy a wonderful evening filled with good music, good fellowship, good testimonies and good food. Our theme this year is our chapel service. Every day, seven days a week and twice on Saturday, we conduct an uplifting chapel service that blesses our men, fills them with hope, encourages them to keep on keeping on and motivates them to do what has to be done to rebuild their lives. Our men will eagerly testify that the Mission’s chapel service is one of the best things about being at the Mission. In our chapels they hear the Good News of Jesus and are invited and empowered to fix their eyes on Him as they run with endurance the race that is set before them. For our Night of Celebration, we will be holding our regular Saturday evening chapel service. I know that you will be blessed! All of the details for our Night of Celebration are included below. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday, April 27. Let’s fill the church with joy and thanksgiving!

Last summer I mentioned that 10 years after the Mission reopened in 2008 from our catastrophic arson fire of 2006, a lot of our equipment and systems that were new 10 years ago were wearing out all at the same time. This year has proven to be more of the same. So far in our current fiscal year, we have spent more than $40,000 in plant repairs and equipment replacement. Our biggest ticket items were the replacement of our commercial 100 gallon hot water heater for $17,806 and the replacement of our Pitney-Bowes folder, inserter, and sealer machine for $17,501 (we do our monthly mailings in-house to save a lot of money). And then we had $5,800 in other miscellaneous plant repairs and equipment replacement costs. As you can imagine, these large expenses cleaned out our bank account. Please pray and give what you are able to give to keep our ministry to homeless men going strong. Thanks!

See you on April 27th!

Bob signature

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

 

Celebrate with us!

Date:
Saturday, April 27, 2019

Time:
Service begins at 6:30 pm
Refreshments to follow at 8:00 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
A freewill offering will be taken during the service. All proceeds help offer a hand-up rather than a hand-out to homeless men at the Whosoever Gospel Mission.

Parking:
Calvary Presbyterian Church has a wonderful,
large on-site parking lot.

No RSVP needed:
Invite friends, family, church family & anyone
you wish to introduce to the Mission!

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From the Director ~ February 2019

Save the date for our annual Night of Celebration April 27, 2019
Details: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Willow Grove, PA
Celebrate with us 127 years of God’s faithfulness. Enjoy delicious refreshments after the program. Admission is free. More details to follow.

IMG_9553Dear Friend of the Mission,

Please check out this fun and heart-warming collection of photos from our 2018 Christmas celebration filled with laughter, smiles, good food, toys, gifts and even four Eagles football players (and their families). Your financial gifts, gifts of new toys for the children and grandchildren of our men, gifts for our men and all sorts of other wonderful kindnesses made Christmas 2018 a delightfully amazing time at the Mission. Thank you for making Christmas for our men a time of celebration and joy rather than a sad time filled with loneliness, heartache, regrets and hopelessness. Our men and their families join with me in thanking you.

I also want to thank you for your kind and generous support throughout all of 2018! You have given us money, food, good used items for our thrift stores, laundry detergent, personal care items, office supplies, over-the-counter medicines, paper products, cleaning supplies, trash bags, new underwear and socks, pillows, good used grocery bags for our thrift stores and a host of other blessings. You have supported us financially through generous cash gifts, employee giving programs such as the United Way and the Combined Federal Campaign, gifts of stock, donor-advised grants, employer matching gift programs, and gift cards to stores we shop at for the Mission. You do so much – it is impossible to send a thank you note for everything that you do for us, but if I could, I would thank each of you individually and in person. The Mission is ultimately not about programs or buildings, but it is about loving broken and hurting homeless men with the love of Christ, giving them a hand-up and not just a hand-out, giving them a solid hope that changes their lives both now and forever. There are hundreds and even thousands of Mission graduates who are living good lives today because your gifts were used by the Lord to make a big difference in their lives through the Whosoever Gospel Mission.

With heartfelt thanks,

Bob signature

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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From the Director ~ Christmas 2018

Philadelphia Eagle Malcolm Jenkins with Mission Executive Director Bob Emberger at our Christmas Eve chapel and luncheon

Philadelphia Eagle Malcolm Jenkins with Mission Executive Director Bob Emberger at our Christmas Eve chapel and luncheon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dear Friend of the Mission,

I love Christmas! I preach in a lot of churches throughout the year about a lot of important truths from God’s Word. But the Scripture passages from which I enjoy preaching the most are the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. I also enjoy the Christmas movies that are shown at Christmas time. I love It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Bishop’s Wife. I think I have every version of A Christmas Carol including the Muppet version! One of my favorite Christmas shows is A Charlie Brown Christmas that came out in the 1960’s when I was a kid growing up in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. I was nine years old when it was first shown during the Christmas season of 1965. My favorite part is Linus’ speech about the true meaning of Christmas – he simply recites the Christmas story from Luke 2:8-14. I still remember Linus declaring with his gentle voice, And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!” And after Linus recites the Scripture passage, the whole Peanuts crowd joyfully sings, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing! I still smile when I see the Peanuts characters throwing back their heads, and all you see is the big circle of their open mouths. Charlie Brown and his friends get it right in the end! Here at the Mission we also want our men to get it right – not just in the end, but at the very beginning of their stay at the Mission. We want our men to experience the hope and joy of Jesus throughout the year and not just at Christmas. Christmas can be a rough holiday for our men. They feel like spectators watching everybody else having fun, but they are left out. This is why we work hard to make the Christmas holidays extra special for our men.

As we quickly move toward the end of 2018, please consider making a special gift to the Mission so that we can give our men the joy and hope of Christmas each and every day throughout the coming New Year. Here are several great ways you can help:

  1. Give a generous year-end gift of cash. God will use your gift to impact and change lives.
  2. 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. Your gift will be used to make life-giving, life-changing, and life-saving differences in the lives of our men.
  3. Some families bless our men by pooling their money and giving a special Christmas gift to the Mission from their family (individual receipts for each donor can still be given).
  4. Give the Mission a gift of appreciated stock. A gift of appreciated stock is always a great help and can also provide you with some excellent tax benefits, especially if you transfer the stock directly to the Mission rather than first selling it. Please consult with your financial advisor to confirm these tax benefits. We can easily arrange for an electronic transfer of your stock. Please call me at 215 438 3094 (ext 102).
  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. Make a Charitable IRA Distribution to the Mission. This provision has now been made permanent by the IRS, and it allows you to make up to a $100,000 qualified charitable distribution. The effect in most situations is both a tax savings and an increased gift. Please consult with your financial advisor to confirm these tax benefits.
  7. Save postage and time – you can go to our Whosoever Gospel Mission website to make an online donation. You can also set up a monthly recurring donation for 2019.
  8. 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 link: 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.

Christmas will be here and gone before we know it. But through your kind and generous support, the hope and joy of Christmas will continue throughout the New Year in the lives of our men. Jesus is the reason for the season, but He is also our hope and joy for the rest of the year. Our men truly do thank you for your kind and generous support.

As we finish out 2018 and begin 2019, my prayer for you is that the Lord will abundantly bless you and your loved ones with good health, much happiness and great success in all of your endeavors. Thank you for standing with us in 2018. Your generous support was wonderfully used by the Lord to impact 188 homeless men in 2018. Your gift also impacted their families, their friends and society as a whole as our men became responsible, contributing members of our community. Your support made a big difference, and will continue to do so in the days ahead.

Wishing you the joy and peace of Christmas,

Bob signature

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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From the Director ~ Thanksgiving 2018

Rev. Bob making his homemade stuffing for our Thanksgiving feast

Rev. Bob making his homemade stuffing for our Thanksgiving feast

Dear Friend of the Mission,

As we come to this season of Thanksgiving, we have much to give thanks for! At the top of our list, our $90,000 deficit was wiped out, and we finished our fiscal year on September 30th in the black with all of our bills paid. Your wonderfully kind and generous gifts were used by the Lord to make this happen. We thank the Lord, and we also thank you for opening up your hearts and wallets to bless the Mission and the homeless men who live here with your financial support.

We also thank the Lord for the 6 men who recently graduated from the Mission’s New Life Program. This means that they are now working, living in their own place and staying clean and sober from drugs and alcohol. We also hope that they are walking with the Lord day-by-day. We obviously need money to pay our bills each and every day, but at the end of the day, the heart of the Mission is sharing God’s love in word and deed with the broken and hurting homeless men who come to the Mission desperately looking for help. Your gifts are really an investment in the lives of our men. And it is an investment that keeps on producing dividends in and through the lives of our men for years to come. As our men become productive, contributing members of our society, their lives in turn touch and impact for good the lives of hundreds and even thousands of people with whom they come into contact. This positive impact begins with their families as our men become responsible dads, husbands, granddads, brothers and sons.

At this special time of year, we also thank the Lord for YOU. You are a great friend of the Mission. You are on our mailing list because you have blessed the Mission in some way – by donating used items for our thrift store ministry, by volunteering at the Mission, by bringing your youth group or another group to the Mission, by signing up for our mail list when we visited your church, by praying for us and telling us that you are doing so, by supporting the Mission financially and with new donations, or by inviting us to preach and minister at your church in some way. We cannot do what we do apart from good friends such as you. Blessings to you!

As we begin our new fiscal year (which began October 1st), we continue to need your support. Homelessness is increasing in Philadelphia, our beds are full, and our waiting list is growing. Thank you for keeping us going strong as a place of hope and new beginnings.

Thanking God for you,
Bob signature
Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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4 Ways You Can Help!

IMG_7468New Unwrapped Toys & Gifts

Each year, homeless dads living at the Mission give over a thousand gifts to hundreds of their kids & grandkids. For many men, lovingly selecting & wrapping each gift is a first step toward reconnecting with family.

Here’s how you can help:
Buy new, unwrapped toys & gifts for ages 0-18 (main gifts & stocking-stuffers).

Deadline: Wednesday, December 19th
Call Heather at 215 438 3094 ext 103 to arrange for drop-off or pick-up.

IMG_7635Food & Gift Cards

We feast well at the Mission (and not just at Thanksgiving)! As relatives and friends of residents and staff join together as one family around warmly decorated tables on Thanksgiving Day, we enjoy amazing food, hearty laughter, sweet fellowship, and a shared sense of gratitude to the Lord.

Here’s how you can help:
Donate non-perishable food (canned goods, coffee, tea, etc.). Gift cards to supermarkets are also great for perishable items (especially Aldi and Walmart).

Call Heather at 215 438 3094 ext 103 to arrange for drop-off or pick-up.

AmazonSmile & PayPal Giving Fund

AmazonSmile: Donate at NO EXTRA COST to you! Make your online Amazon purchases through AmazonSmile & designate the Whosoever Gospel Mission as your charity of choice – you’ll pay the same price but a percentage of your purchase will be donated to us! To register, go to: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/23-1352579

PayPal Giving Fund: Search “Donate with Paypal Giving Fund” or go to PayPal Giving Fund’s website: https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/70047. We get the FULL value of your donation – PayPal doesn’t charge us any fees.

IMG_7796Gifts or Gift Bags for 55 Homeless Men

Homeless men are typically isolated from friends & family, and often, they don’t receive any gifts at the holidays. For many of our men, the gifts they receive at the Mission are the only Christmas presents they’ll get.

Here’s how you can help: Make gift bags for the men. Fill them with things like snacks, pocket calendars, pens, socks, or personal care items like tissues, lip balm, lotion, etc. (please don’t put soap in the same bag as food). Be creative!

Deadline: Friday, December 21st
Call Heather at 215 438 3094 ext 103 to arrange for drop-off or pick-up.

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From the Director ~ October 2018

Executive Director Bob Emberger with the peppers he just harvested from our garden

Executive Director Bob Emberger with the peppers he just harvested from our garden

Dear Friend of the Mission,

Your support of the Mission is an investment in the lives of our men. And as our men move from being unemployed and homeless to working and living independently in their own place, they in turn become productive, contributing members of our community who strengthen the very fabric of our society. We need your financial support because our men are destitute and come to the Mission with no resources, no money and no safety net of support from friends and family.

We are always grateful for your much needed financial support, but at this time of year, there are additional ways you can support us. Click here for a few of those ways that will bless and make a difference in the lives of our men.

The fall also marks the beginning of workplace giving campaigns. Many companies and government agencies ask their employees to contribute to their workplace giving campaigns. The happy news is that you can designate your gift to the Whosoever Gospel Mission through your workplace giving campaign:

  • The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey – donate to the Mission through United Way’s Donor Choice Program. Our Code Number is 1045.
  • The Combined Federal Campaign – federal employees can choose the Mission to receive their gift through the CFC. Our Code Number is 69784.
  • The City of Philadelphia Employees’ Combined Campaign – the Whosoever Gospel Mission is listed in the Contributor’s Guide under the category: Independent Charities Vetted by America’s Charities. Our Code Number is 30-0047.
  • United Campaigns in other states and regions – you can still designate your gift to the Whosoever Gospel Mission if you live and work in another state or region of the country. Check your campaign booklet or ask your workplace United Way coordinator.
  • America’s Charities and Network for Good provide administrative services for several workplace giving campaigns throughout the country – check with your company’s workplace giving coordinator to find out how you can designate your gift to the Mission if your workplace uses one of these organizations to conduct their giving campaign.

Your gifts are being used every day by the Lord to change lives! Thanks so much!

With joy and thanksgiving,

Bob signature

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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From the Director ~ September 2018

IMG_8339-001Dear Friend of the Mission,

Each of our men comes from a family. When we deal with homeless individuals, it is easy to forget that our men are not islands unto themselves, but rather they are in fact sons and fathers, brothers and cousins, husbands, nephews, uncles, grandfathers and grandsons.

This month’s true-story highlight tells a wonderful story of reconciliation and a restored relationship between one of our men and his father.

One of the benefits of serving at the Mission for almost 30 years is that I have the joy of seeing the Lord do wonderful things in healing, building, restoring and strengthening the relationships between our men and their families. Here are a few stories that especially warm my heart – these men are either graduates of the Mission or current residents:

  • The Mission’s staff teachers and volunteer tutors taught George how to read, and for the first time in his life he was able to read a story to his 9-year old daughter.
  • Robert is a single parent father who has raised from birth his daughter Helen. Helen is a delightful young lady doing well in school and is quite active in her church.
  • Greg is a great dad to his birth children and step-children. He has put one daughter through college and currently has two other children in college. Apart from Greg, these children perhaps never would have made it to college.
  • After years of suffering from her husband’s criminal activity and imprisonment, Norma divorced her husband, Tyrone. While incarcerated in Graterford Prison for multiple felonies, Tyrone turned his life over to the Lord through a prison ministry. Tyrone came to the Mission after prison, and we had the joy of helping him to reenter society as a good and godly man. The changes that Norma saw in Tyrone’s life were so great that she remarried him. Tyrone met grandchildren at his wedding that were born while he was in prison. There wasn’t a dry eye in the church!

Your gifts are being used to bless not just our men, but also their families!

With joy and gratitude,

Bob signature

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

P.S. Because of your wonderful generosity, our $90,000 deficit has been greatly reduced. Ending our fiscal year on September 30th without a cash deficit is within striking distance! Thank you for your continued prayers and on-going support. A miracle is in the making!

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Urgent Financial Need

We need your prayers and any help you can give.

We just found out that an $86,500 foundation grant we were actually awarded isn’t going to be coming anytime soon, if at all. This is no one’s fault – please see this letter for an explanation of what happened.

We’ve also had some other financial challenges. This leaves us with a $90,000 deficit as we quickly move toward the end of our fiscal year, September 30, 2018.

God is good. Please pray with us for our daily bread!

We’re reminded that our provision and help is now and always has been from the Lord alone (Psalm 20:7). He’s a good shepherd.

If you’d like to give now online, click here.

Thanks!!

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