December Newsletter

Friends,

Advent – the month of December is celebrated as Advent for Christians. It is a time of hope, peace, joy and culminates in love.

I admit – 2 weeks ago I wasn’t very hopeful that we would get enough donations to fill about 500 stockings!!! But – this is a season of miracles. And we are so very grateful that so many of our friends responded to our pleas for help.

YOU DID IT! We ended with enough to not only fill all of the requests from our partners – the overflow will bless our local Survivors in our Mentor program. Wow. Watching God’s provision happen through you strengthens my faith – and the faith of others as we share how God met our need and everything came together.

Not only does God get the credit, and our dear donors/supporters – but Abby Leonard, who coordinates our Hope Bag and Stocking Program. We have a very special group of core volunteers who came every time she needed them – to lead volunteer groups, and to do a bazillion behind-the-scenes tasks. It is another miracle to have volunteers so committed to our mission that they pivot everything in their lives to help us through this intense time.

We are grateful. For all of our volunteers, for our donors (who brought items, gift cards, and cash). And for our staff who are so generous, organized and committed for the sake of survivors.

The holidays can be a very depressing time for survivors. Most have no family to gather with (at least not safe family members) and are living with few (if any) extra resources. One Survivor has reunited with her family, so cheer will fill her home this year. Another is in her own apartment for the first time in a while – we were able to help keep her housed. Your donations have made these miracles happen.

We’ll soon be hosting a gathering for our Mentees, those survivors we walk with locally. May they know how valuable they are and feel cherished as they are celebrated.

Our hope and prayer are that each survivor who receives a stocking will come to understand how to live out hope, peace and joy. And that they will feel God’s love.

If you are willing to help us with the Hope Bags needed before the end of December  – and I pray that you will — please email me Sues: sues@reclaiming-hope.org or Abby at: abby@reclaiming-hope.org. (We have requests for another 441 on top of the 1137 we’ve already shipped in 2024).

Thanks for praying for us, the survivors and agencies we work with, and for helping us to meet their needs.

May Advent be a time of hope, peace and joy for you and yours.

Merry Christmas!

Blessings,

Sues Hess, Exec. Dir., and the RHope Team