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From the Director ~ February 2020

Dear Friend of the Mission,

Our 2019 Christmas celebration at the Mission was wonderful! 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 2019 a delightfully amazing time at the Mission. Thank you for making Christmas for our men a time of celebration, joy and hope 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 2019! 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 fund 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 Jesus, giving them a hand-up and not just a handout, 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,


Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

    

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2019 Toy Giveaway Video

A peek at this Christmas’ toy giveaway. Mission residents and grads gave over 1,200 gifts to 236 of their children. That’s 236 little hearts being blessed with the gift of a dad or grandpop this Christmas. A big thank you to all who made it possible!

The Whosoever Gospel Mission 2019 Toy Give Away from John Purring on Vimeo.

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Gifts that Keep Giving

The day after Christmas, one resident shared that he selected little journals and pens for his kids as stocking-stuffers at our toy giveaway to go along with the bigger toys he picked. After the kids unwrapped their presents Christmas morning in the company of their dad, they wrote in their journals. He happened to see what they wrote, and it went something like this: “I’m so happy with all my presents! But I’m REALLY happy that my dad is here!!”

This is one dad who wants to thank all of you who gave gifts and toys to the Mission. He’s amazed that anyone would be so kind. He’s incredibly grateful. And now, he is more determined than ever to stay the course and do what he needs to do to provide a safe, stable, and nurturing family for his children.

Many other dads reconnected with their kids this Christmas through the Mission’s toy and gift giveaway. Men in the New Life Program lovingly selected gifts free of charge for their children and grandchildren. An army of volunteers helped men wrap over 1,500 gifts for 415 children!

Thank you for investing in families!!

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From the Director ~ Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dear Friend of the Mission,

The Sears Christmas Wish Book! Every fall Sears would publish and mail out a special Christmas catalog filled with pictures of all sorts of wonderful toys. I grew up in the Tacony section of Philadelphia in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, and my brother, two sisters and I would eagerly look forward to the Sears Christmas Wish Book. To be honest, we would fuss and fight over who would look at it first. Since I was the baby of the family, I always got to look at it last. I always thought that was a bit unfair, but the Sears Christmas Wish Book was well worth waiting for. Of course, I knew that my parents couldn’t afford to buy me all of those amazing toys, but they were still fun to look at and imagine what it would be like to play with them.

Over the years I discovered and experienced for myself that Christmas is not about toys, cookies, and heart-warming Christmas movies (as much as I love them!). But rather, Christmas celebrates God’s greatest gift to us, the gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you might recall that on Christmas Eve of last year, four Philadelphia Eagles football players and their families helped to serve our Christmas Eve luncheon to our men. When they first contacted me about doing this, they asked me to keep it really low key. They said it so well, Christmas is all about Jesus, and not them. Jesus is the famous one – not them.

The celebration of Jesus’ birth is filled with unimaginable joy – “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” Here 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. They often feel a lot of regret and sadness because of the empty years that have passed them by. This is why we work hard to make Christmas extra special for our men. We want our men to know that God loves them, and that Christmas celebrates God’s love gift to us, the birth of His Son, Jesus.

As we quickly move toward the end of 2019, 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. 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).
  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. Your gift will be used to make life-giving, life-changing, and life-saving differences in the lives of our men.
  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 2020.
  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 peace, 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 2019 and begin 2020, 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 2019. Your generous support was wonderfully used by the Lord to impact 215 homeless men in 2019. 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,


Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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From the Director ~ Thanksgiving 2019

Dear Friend of the Mission,

Thanksgiving at the Whosoever Gospel Mission is one of the highlights of my year.  We do Thanksgiving up big at the Mission!  On Thanksgiving Day, our dining room and chapel will be festively decorated.  We start off with a joy-filled Thanksgiving Day chapel service in which we give thanks to God for all that He has done for us this past year.  The heartfelt testimonies of our men, staff and volunteers are a celebration of God’s goodness and grace.  With 130-140 or more people in attendance, we then sit down and enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving Day Feast fit for a King (the Lord Jesus Christ Himself!).  Our Thanksgiving Day Feast includes roasted turkey, giblet gravy, three-cheese macaroni (which I make every year), creamy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, savory stuffing with cranberries (which I also make from scratch every year), green beans almandine, buttered corn, rolls & butter, cranberry sauce, apple cider, and an amazing assortment of desserts – pies, cookies, brownies, cheesecake, and candy.  And our Feast is an all-you-can-eat meal!  We make sure that there is always enough food for seconds and even thirds.

And best of all, this delicious meal is provided for our men as part of our comprehensive and compassionate New Life Rehabilitation and Job Readiness Program.  Our men are working hard at the Mission every day to rebuild their lives and be restored to society as productive, contributing members of our community.  But Thanksgiving Day is not a day of work, it is a day of celebration and thanksgiving as our men reflect on all that God has done in and through and for them.  Thanksgiving Day for our men is a joyful Sabbath rest of celebration. 

Your support of the Mission helps to make possible the celebrations our men enjoy on Thanksgiving Day.  While we work on the front lines helping our men battle their way back from homelessness, addiction and poverty, your faithful and generous support gives us what we need to give our men a hand-up, and not just a hand-out.  Your gifts are a priceless investment in the lives of our men that will pay dividends for years to come.  As we celebrate Thanksgiving 2019, please accept my heartfelt thanks for your support.  Please pray and give generously.  Every gift counts and will be used to bless, equip and help our men move forward in life.

Thanking God for you!

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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From the Director ~ October 2019

DearIMG_1576 Friend of the Mission,

When you support the Mission, you are opening up life-giving, life-changing and life-saving doors of opportunity to the broken and hurting homeless men who come to the Mission desperately seeking help. Our men are mired in deep poverty and come to the Mission with no resources, no money and no safety net of support from friends and family. But the Lord raised up the Whosoever Gospel Mission 127 years ago to stand in the gap for these men – to offer them a future and a hope. We are always grateful for your much needed financial support, but at this time of year, there are additional ways you can support us. Here are a few of those ways that will 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 through your workplace giving campaign, you can designate your gift to the Whosoever Gospel Mission.

  • 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, Network for Good, and the Benevity Community Impact Fund 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 ~ Summer 2019

IMG_8439Dear Friend of the Mission,

I trust that your summer has been a good one thus far. We do thank the Lord for our air conditioning. When we rebuilt the Mission after the arson fire of 2006, we decided to have our main dormitory building retrofitted with central air conditioning. This was one of the best decisions we made. Our dormitory building has thick stone walls made out of Wissahickon Schist – a kind of stone that used to be quarried in the Wissahickon Valley section of Philadelphia. A lot of buildings in Germantown, Mt. Airy, and Chestnut Hill are made out of Wissahickon Schist. This beautiful stone makes for a strong and sturdy building, but in the summertime after the walls heat up, our four-story dormitory building becomes unbearably hot. Fans blowing hot air around turn our dormitory into a huge convection oven. This is why we are so thankful for our central air conditioning. Our residents are especially grateful. The streets of Philly are dangerously hot in the summertime. Our men are grateful for a refreshingly cool place to live. Your gifts make our dormitory a cool oasis on a hot summer day.

As you know, we have a long-term residential program for homeless men. We typically operate at our 55-bed capacity year-round and often have a waiting list of men seeking to enter the New Life Program. Every week so far this summer, we have turned men away on almost a daily basis. If men call us, we may have to tell them we are full and put them on our waiting list. However, if a homeless man comes to the Mission, and we sadly have to tell him we are full, we give him a few things to help him along. We give him two tokens (we still have a supply of SEPTA tokens we can give out) – one to get to a shelter, and one to bring him back to the Mission when we have an open bed. We also give him a list of shelters he can go to until we have a bed for him. And then with a kind word of hope and encouragement, and usually a prayer, we give him a gift bag filled with hand sanitizer, a snack or two, a pair of socks, and other personal care items. We don’t let him leave empty-handed, and we encourage him to try to keep in touch with us so we can bring him into the New Life Program as quickly as possible.

The Mission is all about change and hope – real change and a true hope rooted in the love and kindness of God. Your generous gifts are used every day to keep the Mission cool in the summer, and to be a beacon of hope and help to all who stop by. Thanks for your support!

Serving with joy and hope,

Bob signature

 

 

Robert A. Emberger, D.Min.
Executive Director

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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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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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Christmas 2018

IMG_9494A great big thanks to our friends and donors for sharing your resources, time and love so generously this Christmas with our men! Here are a few of the festive highlights:

Our men and graduates selected and wrapped over 1,500 FREE toys and gifts for 201 of their kids and grandkids! Pray that the Lord uses these gifts as He works to restore family relationships!

Four members of the Philadelphia Eagles and their families came on Christmas Eve to serve our men lunch, hand out gifts, and worship the Lord with us in our chapel service. It was awesome to see famous football players and homeless men side by side singing songs of worship to Jesus. Thank you, Jordan Matthews, Malcolm Jenkins, Haloti Ngata, and Golden Tate!

Each man was blessed with about 2 dozen Christmas presents lovingly prepared for them by churches and families. This year’s gifts included gift cards, scarves, hats, gloves, socks, candy, professional portfolio folders, pens, thermal travel mugs, umbrellas, homemade treats and various other presents.

At a time when people can feel so alone, thank you for sharing the love of Jesus, our Emmanuel, God with us!

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