The Union Gospel Mission is pleased to announce the new Adopt-A-Disciple program. The effort will help donors, mentors and volunteers and get to know the men at The Union Gospel Mission in hopes that the community will become more personally involved with the men and the mission. “We’ve had the opportunity to get to know [...]
The Union Gospel Mission is pleased to announce the new Adopt-A-Disciple program. The effort will help donors, mentors and volunteers and get to know the men at The Union Gospel Mission in hopes that the
No Comments • Read this post »
The Times Free Press gave major coverage to homelessness in Chattanooga in a Page 1 story that focused on a monk-run and federally funded House of All Souls in East Chattanooga. “This is paradise,” an autistic resident, Philip Fuller, 27, told the newspaper. “No rats, no roaches, no bugs.” The group houses only men who are labeled chronically homeless and who are mentally or physically disabled. It is funded by a $154,000 federal grant to Rosewood Supportive Services. Agencies of state government have received $2 million to aid the homeless.
“Chattanooga does not have enough housing for the homeless in general,” said Kimberly George, community relations director for the Chattanooga Salvation Army chapter. “It becomes increasingly difficult when trying to house families and those who are mentally and physically disabled.”
“In the Chattanooga area, about 4,000 people a year experience homelessness, according to ‘Blueprint to End Chronic Homelessness in the Chattanooga Region in Ten Years,’ a study conducted by the city,” the newspaper report said.
Union Gospel Mission, though not contacted for the story, said the day the
story appeared that it had 15 residents, almost all of whom could be considered chronically homeless.
“We are always glad to see more opportunities for the homeless in our
community,” said the Rev. Jon Rector. “With such an overwhelming need and such few resources, having a new partner organization is encouraging!”
“Although, the Union Gospel Mission has had to recently “revamp” the services we provide and the way we provide them, we still are unwavering in the belief that even those who are chronically homeless can be helped,” he continued. “For so many of the homeless, homelessness is not the problem, but a byproduct of a life of poor decisions. For the majority of those who find themselves chronically homeless, the most important thing we can offer them, is the saving power of Jesus Christ that will give them the desire to change their lives.”
No Comments • Read this post »
The Union Gospel Mission announced that five of its residents completed the rigorous Grace Discipleship Program and were honored at a graduation ceremony Sunday night. All men were homeless and have been residents and participants in a program that will equip them to re-enter the world with a new outlook on life and new skills.
The Union Gospel Mission announced that five of its residents completed the rigorous Grace Discipleship Program and were honored at a graduation ceremony Sunday night. All men were homeless and have been
No Comments • Read this post »
God in His providence has opened the door for a joint-venture between the Union Gospel Mission and Tennessee Temple University; to provide an opportunity for our men to work towards their college degrees while participating in the programs offered by the mission. Tennessee Temple University has donated seven computers which our men will also be able to use to seek employment, contact with the outside world and find other opportunities. The computers were installed in a room off the dining area in the basement of our main building. “The computers are for the distance ed classes at Tennessee Temple,” said James Lawrence, 35, night manager who has been in and out of UGM for the past five years. The computers will “further the guys’ education, give them skills and better equip them to be out in the real world, getting a good job so they can support themselves and getting themselves out of the situation they are in.” Tennessee Temple is a Christian university and “there is that spiritual aspect that is needed,” James said. Online classes began in mid-May.
God in His providence has opened the door for a joint-venture between the Union Gospel Mission and Tennessee Temple University; to provide an opportunity for our men to work towards their college degrees
No Comments • Read this post »
In late April President Obama, his treasury secretary Tim Geithner and others ratcheted up pressure in Congress to assign new regulatory powers to the Federal Reserve System “to guard against the types of risks that could bring down the entire system.”
The so-called “too big to fail” bailout bill echoed language we’ve heard all year. The bogeyman in these claims is the threat that the “entire system” will collapse if the law is not changed. So pervasive is this apocalyptic language since the national financial meltdown began in September 2008 that we scarcely seem to notice it. So great was the financial decimation in Chattanooga and around the country that cataclysmic language and fresh exercises of “emergency” powers behind them seem ho-hum.
Almost daily we read how national chieftains and financial wizards propose solutions that do nothing to fundamentally alter the system they have created and which is now in the process of collapse, with zombie banks doddering about, a federal deficit of more than $1.8 trillion and imposition of regulations in the past year that one study estimated cost Americans more than $1.17 trillion. This from a set of Washington barons fit only to defend the country and deliver the mail. But that job’s too small. They want to add departments and devise new “facilities” and “tools” to regulate the American economy and increase their surveillance
In late April President Obama, his treasury secretary Tim Geithner and others ratcheted up pressure in Congress to assign new regulatory powers to the Federal Reserve System “to guard against the types
No Comments • Read this post »
States are so burdened by their debts and unmeetable obligations to state pensioners and welfare recipients that they have begun to release many inmates in their prisons. As the recession intensifies, California is a noted example of an IOU-saddled state emptying prisons which it is unable to keep up. Many people in this institutional offsloughing will become homeless. Some will end up penniless in Chattanooga, maybe even with us.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press carried a story about how prison releases are raising safety concerns among members of the public. In reading such accounts, Christians should ask this question: Is this not a good time
States are so burdened by their debts and unmeetable obligations to state pensioners and welfare recipients that they have begun to release many inmates in their prisons. As the recession intensifies,
No Comments • Read this post »
