William Booth

At this present time we are supporting this mission every month. I have personally done locksmith work there, been giving to this work for a couple of years, and been to this mission in Augusta, Georgia. My girls have sung there and my dad and nephew preaches there. I know the director who started the mission, Brother Travis Sharpe and his family. I cannot say enough about them or the work they are doing for our Saviour Jesus Christ. Brother Travis was also on my ordination board when I was ordained to preach. The main thing they are doing at the mission is seeing people come to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. I am good friends with several of the men and vouch for the work that God has and is doing in their lives.

http://www.gardencityrescuemission.com/

Index of Monthly Newsletters

January 2009

Thanksgiving

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful meal and fed over 200 people. I want to thank Meybohm Realtors as they provided and served most all of the meal. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves. We also had a clothing giveaway that same day and gave clothes to over 200 people as well. Thanksgiving Day was relatively quiet here at the Mission. One of our very loyal families of volunteers came and served a great meal and they had a good chapel service that followed with Robert and Ginger Altman from Barnwell, SC.

Great meals every day

Great meals are not just a holiday thing here at the Mission. We strive to serve good quality and filling meals each day. We serve breakfast and supper each and every day of the year to everyone who stays the night. Our cook told me this morning that Yesterday morning (Sunday) he served eggs, grits, sausage and bread. They had coffee and water to drink. James is our cook and he has been since he came here in 2003 as a homeless man. God has turned his life around and now he provides for the needs of others!

In any given month we will have between 14 and 16 meals brought to us by either churches or families. Some of these groups have done this for years now and we are so thankful for their gifts.

Sunday in church

I had a great time preaching at Canaan Baptist Church Sunday Morning in South Augusta. Pastor Mike Andrews started this new church several months ago and they are going strong. While I was out there, 3 men from the Mission gave their lives to Christ during the service at Victory Baptist Church in North Augusta.

A real surprise

Just now as I was typing this email a gentleman came in the office and gave me a one hundred dollar bill for the Mission. His name is Marshall and he moved out of the Mission in April of this year. Off and on he stayed with us for 44 days until he gained stability. He also has cancer. Another changed life! He was grateful for all the Mission has done for him.

Holiday donation calculator

On the front page of our website we have put up a holiday donation calculator. Every weekday we will post the amount of financial donations that have come into the Mission. We started on Thanksgiving Day and will go until January 15. You can check our website and see the daily totals as well as the highest day (most $$$ donated in a single day). You can also see how much money comes in to the Mission altogether during the Holiday Season. Your gift will make the calculator rise!

*******

We have been blessed with an abundance of clothing donations and I have a great idea! I want to box up clothing and make them available to any needy families or persons here in our area. We have plenty to do this with and I already have about twenty boxes made up. Here is what I need:

Boxes, lots of boxes. We need them to be about “banana box” size. Of course we can’t run all over town for one or two here and there but we can go get an abundance if anyone has them. Please let me know where we can get some.

1. I need ladies to sort the clothes and fill the boxes. Each box will be stuffed with an assortment of clothes for a particular gender and size so that we can simply give out entire boxes. This can be done right here in the Mission warehouse Monday-Sat. from 8am-6pm.
2. We need people to give the boxes to. If you know of needy people send them our way and we will make boxes available to them. I hope to be able to assist victims of house fires and so on.

If you can help with this effort simply email me or give us a call and we would be most grateful.

Thanks to all of you who help support this great Mission. We could not operate without you.

Travis Sharpe

Well today is a rainy, gloomy day here in Augusta and that means more business here at the Mission. We have had a couple people come in this morning who were soaking wet and needed a change of clothes. We always try to get people dry or clean clothes wither they are staying the night or not. We will begin checking the men in around 3:30 this afternoon and I expect a full house of about 50. We baptized two men last night at church; one of them also joined the church. That was James Dennis the Mission cook. Many of you know him; he was saved a long time ago and had not been baptized.

Thanksgiving at the Mission

Our big Thanksgiving meal will be held here on Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving. We will have a clothing give away from 11 am-1 pm and the meal will be at 1 pm. As long as the weather cooperates, all of this will be outside in our parking lot area and there will be a lot of folks from the surrounding areas downtown that will come. This year we are blessed to have much of the food and help provided by Meybohm Realtors. This would be a great time to stop by the Mission for a holiday visit.

The Women and Children’s Shelter

We are expecting nine babies in the Shelter on Monday. We have had numerous calls this week from ladies and mothers needing shelter. Currently, our program is for mothers with children ages six and under. We are open Monday-Thursday and will add Friday night in a couple weeks. We have been putting mothers in a local hotel on the weekends but our money for that program has been depleted. Pray that we will get enough continual financial donations in order to hire on more staff.

Because of the expected increase in the Women and Children’s Shelter, we are going to take the dorm room and divide it into three semi private rooms to better accommodate our needs. We are also converting a room in the Women and Children’s area into an office so that my secretary can work from there and also meet some of their needs as well.

It will cost about $850.00 to build the walls and make more room. If you would like to give to help out with that just let us know.

Please be in prayer  

We sent out 10,000 letters asking for donations this week. Please pray that we have a great harvest from this effort.

We have applied for a few local private grants. Please pray that we will be chosen as recipients.

Thanks so much for helping to keep this great ministry afloat even during tough economic times. Our supporters are so faithful and we really appreciate your generosity.

Travis Sharpe

Second, we had a special guest at the Mission chapel service on Tuesday night. His name was Eric Watson and he spent a few days in our Men’s Shelter last year. He has become involved in a church here in town and is really excited about the Lord working in his life. Eric came to give his testimony. His wife was with him. What a blessing it was to hear him give glory to God for saving his life. He told all of the men to surrender their life to the Lord and to keep their head’s up! I will now be very transparent and say that in order to see results like these it takes a lot of money.

Summer is here, school is out and donations are down. We are doing more for more people than ever before and we simply need help. I will list some of our challenges and needs below. In the last 60 days we have been forced to borrow $8500.00 from our savings account just to pay the bills. Today we have checking account balance of $1188.04 and there is $2687.64 worth of bills due immediately. Our payroll each week is just under $1200.00 Our power bill for May is $2172.00 Natural gas bill is $284.48 The water bill is $586.83 As you can see, it simply cost money to care for over 60 homeless people every single night of the year. You can help by giving, praying for us and spreading the word to your families and friends that there is a great Mission helping many people that needs help.

Many people continue to ask why we have not opened the Women & Children’s Shelter every night of the week yet. The answer is two fold: First, we simply are not getting very many ladies coming forward to volunteer, (the ones that are volunteering are doing a great job) and secondly we have a budget deficit of about $ 76975.00. (Annually). The attachment to this email lays out the details of needed income for the Women & Children’s Shelter. AC materials needed One other need that is a little less mind boggling……Another one of our AC units needs to be replaced. Thankfully, we have had a unit donated an a little money also. We must install all new duct work to make this new unit work right. (We are downsizing from 2 units to 1 unit in this part of the building.) We need about $1200.00 for the duct and other materials. We have free installation available to us so we will get out real cheap and save in the long run. A new website has been developed for us and is up and running now.

Please go to  www.gardencityrescuemission.com and see the changes. Thanks again for all of your help as we strive to serve others. Travis Sharpe Garden City Rescue Mission PO Box 2493 Augusta, GA 30903 706-724-6960  travis@gardencityrescuemission.com  www.gardencityrescuemission.com

The kitchen folks have given me a list of needs; we are out of most of these things. Your help is appreciated.

Sugar

Oatmeal

Cereal

Cooking oil

Flour

extra large trash bags

We are planning a BBQ cook-off and southern gospel sing for the first Saturday in October. If you would like to help put this event together we could use a little help so just let us know.

We were able to purchase the DVD duplicator we needed and preaching CD’s are now available for purchase. Of course the proceeds go to the Mission. Here are a few of the sermons that are available from Travis Sharpe:

  Waste or Worship

   What Jesus is to Me

    How to Obtain a Vision

    Faithful Till the Finish

History of How Garden City Rescue Mission Came to Be

    Keep on the Firing Line

 Truth for the Troubled Heart

  Wait Just a Minute

   Blessings for the Burdened

 Three sermon series entitled “Life’s Building Blocks”

    Five sermon series entitled “Chapel Favorites”

Simply call or email us if you are interested in any of these.

Also..

One more mother was able to move out of the Women and Children’s Shelter last week!!! I had a great time preaching last night at Sonrise Baptist Church in Lugoff, SC. They gave a great love offering to the Mission and we are grateful for that.

Thanks again for your support and prayers,

Travis Sharpe

www.gardencityrescuemission.com

706-724-6960

To the left are a couple of the new windows.             To the right, the church group is hard at work!

Special thanks this week also go to:

A friend who donated money for one of the three security lights needed.

We have a supporter who brought a lot of sausage for our breakfast last week.

Cartridge World donated several inkjet cartridges for our printers.

Several meals were provided by various groups.

Fish Fry is Coming Up!

Saturday May, 3^rd

12:00 PM

VBC Tabernacle on Orange St. in Clearwater

We need to have a strong showing of support for the fish fry. I hope you will attend and bring a friend or the family. We are asking everyone to give their best offering at this event to help the Mission to forge forward in the days ahead.

For a complete list of our current needs please visit www.gardencityrescuemission.com/needs.html

Thank you for your support!

Travis Sharpe

Garden City Rescue Mission

Wedding at the Mission Saturday…

Saturday at the eleven in the morning I will perform a marriage ceremony for two guests of the Mission. Jennifer and Junior have two children and have been together for four years now. They have both received Christ as their Savior and were convicted by the Lord to make their relationship right in His eyes. Jennifer is in our Women and Children’s Shelter and Junior has secured an apartment just this week so they will be married and move into their new home together on Saturday. Normally I don’t do weddings but I am glad to help this couple honor God by doing so.

Church work group coming to Mission…

We are looking forward to having a men’s group from Piedmont Baptist Church in Kannapolis, NC in a few weeks. This group has ordered and paid for new windows for the entire Mission!!! They will be here on April 17-19 to install them. What a true gift this is going to be. These men will pay for their own motels and food during that time. They are true givers.

Fish Fry coming up…

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for our fund-raising fish fry on May 3^rd.

Traveling this weekend…

I will be traveling to Blackshear, GA this weekend to preach in Sunday services there. Please be in prayer for us.

Our needs are outgrowing our ability to keep up….Here is an updated list of special needs and everyday needs….

Special needs:

1. Three new security lights (we need the good ones that are about $100.00 each)

2. A new door needs to be installed in the Women and Children’s Shelter (approximate cost of $500 for everything needed)

3. We need someone who can cut down some rather large trees in the back of the Mission building.

4. About $6000.00 more is needed for the new walk-in freezer.

5. We have some exterior painting needs. A good painter and about four or five gallons of paint would be a blessing.

6. Our fax machine and copier needs replacing.

7. We are starting to make preaching CD’s to take when I go to churches so we need a CD Duplicator.

8. We need some help preparing for the freezer to be installed out back.

    We have some trees that must be cut down, a deck that must be moved and we will need

    to pour a concrete slab for it to sit on. If you can help or know someone who can please call us.

We have a former female resident who moved out last year and has held a steady job. Her car died last week and she was told it was no use to attempt to fix it. She needs transportation for her job.

Everyday needs:

1. The Children’s Shelter still needs apple juice.

2. We are low on plastic forks and spoons.

3. Sugar

4. 33 gallon trash bags

5. Paper plates

As always, thank you and God Bless,

Travis Sharpe

Garden City Rescue Mission

travis@gardencityrescuemission.com

           www.gardencityrescuemission.com          

PO Box 2493

Augusta, GA 30903

706-724-6960

Garden City Rescue Mission

& Life Development Center

Shelter for men, women & children

It has been a wonderful summer here at the Mission! We have launched two new ministries that help men and women overcome homelessness. We have also completed a major project and have helped dozens of men and women move out on their own. Some of these are listed below, thank you for your love and support of Garden City Rescue Mission.

New ministries are breaking the cycle of homelessness!

We are now holding GED classes right here at the Mission. We are thankful that Augusta Technical College has set up an off campus site for teaching GED classes for days a week. There has been a good response from the men and women with about then students right now.

We have also started a new intake and referral ministry. Everyone who comes to the Mission will sit down with a director who will obtain a complete overveiw of their situation and make quality referrals based upon their assessment. This has really paid off as many people simply need to know where to go next.

Garden City Rescue Mission gets a brand new roof!

What a blessing it is to be dry and have no leaks. We are very grateful for the many generous gifts that made our new roof possible. Over $22,000 was given toward this project which is now complete. These are some pictures of the work in process.

Special Needs

1. We have a great need right now for some overnight help. This would include light duty security work watching the Mission during the late night and early morning hours. A great position for a retired person! Volunteers in this position must provide a background check and be male.

2. Our roof is worn thin and desperately needs replacing. Please help us pray about this. We are accepting donations to save up for the replacement. (posted 1/15/07)

3. We need to build another bathroom in the Women and Children's Shelter. This may cost about $2,000.00 to complete. (posted 6/18/07)

4. We need to build a baggage room in the Women and Children's Shelter. This will cost about $800.00

Needs that have recently been met:

4/11/07 An individual purchased 35 metal bunk beds for us. This was a huge blessing.

4/12/07 A local flooring business donated all of the tile that was needed to re-floor the dormortory, hallway and the common area for the men's shelter! We thank the Lord for this good business.

Every Day Needs

• Laundry Detergent***
  
• Bleach
  
• Lysol
  
• Bar soap
  
• Sugar
  
• Coffee
  
• Plastic forks and spoons
  
• Styrofoam plates & cups ***

*** indicates that we are very low on this product.

Remaining Needs for the Women and Children' facility

• [1] Stainless Steel Table/with shelf, 6 foot length – Cost $243.
  
• [2] Office desk chairs
  
• [3] Lockable office supply cabinets.
  

Items on this list can be dropped by the mission at any time on any day. The address is 828 Fenwick St. If you have a question about needed items you can call the mission office at 706-724-6960.

Contact Suzie Greene at 706-724-6960 for information