Merry Christmas

God bless us all as we celebrate with family and friends the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas to all.

The last day to donate to help buy furniture for our guys that are moving into their own apartments will be 12/31/09. Thanks to all who have donated and/or prayed for help with this endeavor. You have been a blessing for these men.

Bill

Okay... Here is the story.

To start, I received a donation of $10.00 on 12/15/09 to help homeless veterans.

Then, on 12/17/09 I received another $10.00 donation from this same family. After one week, these two donations were the only ones received.

Then again today I received the following email:

"Dear Bill,

I have been saving for something I want but I'd rather do without and help out homeless vets. I'm sending you the rest of the $200.

God Bless ...

Richard"

This was followed shortly by a $180.00 donation from Richard and his family.

I was so touched that I asked Richard if I could share his generosity on the blog. This is the response I received:

"Sure you can share my story. Maybe it will inspire others to donate as well. My wife and I live on Social Security. I try and save a few dollars each month from my small allowance.

Bless you for all you do.

Richard"

Bless me for all I do? With Richard and his wife on Social Security I am truly humbled by all they do!

Thank you Richard and family for your very generous gift. May God Bless you and your wife for your sacrificial giving. You both are a wonderful inspiration and I am having difficulty finding the words to express my gratitude.

Bill

One More Thing...

Yes! We have surpassed our humble goal of $200 and it is wonderful. However, if you want to help please do so. This money will help the 3 veterans that are moving out this month. We have more that are working hard to qualify for the VASH housing benefit. All donations will continue to be used to help our veterans move into permanent housing.

So... please give if you can. How about we set the new goal to $500?!

Bill

Thank you... Thank you... Thank you!

I'm still waiting for permission to tell the story but here is the abbreviated version.

We received another $180 donation today. From the same person that donated the first $20!!!

What a wonderful, wonderful blessing.

Then... I was telling my brother about the very generous donor and I mentioned that one of the veterans had asked for help with obtaining a washer and dryer. Unfortunately, I had to tell this veteran that this was not a likely scenario but we were doing our best to help with a bed, dresser, living room furniture, etc.

It wasn't long before my brother and his family made a donation so that this veteran can get a washer and dryer. I've already found a used set for sale and I'm waiting for the sellers to call me back.

It's been a very, very good Friday.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to all that have helped with their prayers and/or donations.

Bill

We Are At 10% Of The Goal

We now have $20.00 in donations to help a few homeless veterans move into their own permanent residences. That's 10 percent of our goal of $200.

If you can afford to help, please make a donation. If not, please pray for these men so that their transition will be smooth and they will have the basic things necessary to make it on their own.

I thank you all for your continued prayers.

First Donation Received!

The first donation was received this morning. I was too excited to wait until tomorrow to share the good news. We received $10 to help homeless veterans. That is awesome!

Thank you! Your generosity is greatly appreciated and will go directly to help a homeless veteran furnish his new home.

God Bless!

Maybe We Need A Goal...

So far... no donations to help our veterans that are moving. Please see the post below if you are not sure what I'm talking about.

Let's set a goal of $200. This would probably be enough to get the basic necessities at the Salvation Army or the Sharing Center.

Each morning I'll post the amount donated to date so everyone can see the progress.

Bill

Homeless Veterans Need Your Help!

I've never tried this before but I figure it can't hurt.

I currently work as a Program Director for a transitional housing program for homeless veterans. This program provides temporary housing for veterans until they are able to move into their own permanent residence. This month, 3 of our veterans were able to find affordable housing. They should be moving into their new homes within 30 days.

They need furniture. The Salvation Army and a sharing center in our town provide an opportunity to purchase used furniture at very reasonable prices. Our vets still need dining room tables and chairs, living room furniture, bedroom dressers, etc.

If you are interested in helping please use the donate button to the right. Instead of promoting the rosary website, I will use all donations to assist these veterans with their moving needs. Once this mission is complete I will announce it on the blog. If it is successful, perhaps I can continue this practice as more of our veterans successfully complete the program and are able to move into permanent housing.

The prices at the Salvation Army and the sharing center are very reasonable. We won't need a lot of money... anything that you can afford to give is greatly appreciated and will most certainly help.

Thank you,

Bill

A Medjugorje Story From Steve

The following story about a visit to Medjugorje was recently submitted by a participant of the scriptural rosary website. If you don't know about Medjugorje you could start here. You will also find much information if you google "Medjugorje".

Here is Steve's story:

I went to Medjugorje for the first time in 1989 during Easter week. I went with two Catholic friends, Neil and Kevin. I was there mainly out of curiosity. Although I was a practicing Catholic, my faith was fairly superficial and I was there hoping to see the phenomena of the spinning sun that I had heard about and that echoed the miracle at Fatima.

I was disappointed, I was surrounded by people seeing various phenomena but I saw nothing and neither did Kevin, though Neil seemed to spend all day, every day, staring at the sky in which he saw the sun gyrating and changing color. Nevertheless I loved the place and was spending a great deal of time praying, going to the Church and talking to other pilgrims. It was spring and it was a lovely place to be, I loved the mountain air and the crystal clear drinking water and climbing Mt Krizevac, which we did several times.

It was announced that on Good Friday night, some of the visionaries would receive an apparition on the top of Mt Krizevac. The three of us, naturally, went up the mountain that night.

There were perhaps a thousand people on Krizevac. We sang hymns and recited the Rosary until the apparition began when total silence prevailed.

Our group was close to the back of the cross, the visionaries were in front of it. As the silence fell, I looked up and saw a ‘neon sign’ on the cross, it appeared to have no religious significance. I thought that it was odd that this should be displayed on the cross and wondered why it was shown, I thought that it might be some sort of symbol of local importance. No one around me appeared to look at it or react to it.

The ‘neon sign’ was bright red in color (like the red of the digits on a bedside digital alarm clock), and was formed of numerous wavy lines which were moving alternately from left to right and right to left. It appeared just below the horizontal bar of the cross and was, perhaps, three feet high and extended over the whole width of the cross.

As we walked down the mountain at the end of the night, I asked a number of people about the ‘neon sign’ but no one had seen it. I kept saying to people, “you must have seen it, it was big and red and unmissable”, but no, not one had seen it. I met up with Kevin, one of the two people I had travelled with and he said that he had seen it and thought it very strange that there were no cables leading to the cross as these would be needed to carry the necessary power for such a display.

We could find no-one else who had ever seen this sign and no-one who could explain what it meant but we were happy to have joined most of the other pilgrims in witnessing an extraordinary ‘sign’ but we were aware that this was intended to convey some sort of message to us and we had no idea what it was.

I sought out our English pilgrimage organizer who was a constant visitor to Medjugorje, feeling sure that she would have met someone who had shared this experience. She did not nor could she explain it. However, she said that we would know what it meant at some point in the future, perhaps the next day or the next week or the next year, or at some other point in the future. I was eaten by curiosity and a bit deflated.

Our organiser went on to ask if we had been to the Church at Tijualina where Father Jozo was the priest, I said that we hadn’t and she advised me to go and listen to one of his talks. She then went on to say that he had recently asked a group of pilgrims if they knew where the rod of Aaron was today, the miraculous rod that gave the wandering Israelites water from the rock and had parted the Red Sea. He then told them that he not only knew where it was, but that he himself had it! He then produced his Rosary and said to the pilgrims “the Rosary is the rod of Aaron”.

I went home, not understanding what the sign was about but the moment I arrived home I remembered the reference to the Red Sea and the Rosary. What I had seen was a coded and unforgettable message to say the Rosary and to believe in its power. I rang Kevin to tell him, he said that he had opened the bible at random on his arrival home and found himself reading about the crossing of the Red Sea and had reached the same conclusion as I had.

Steve