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Headlines:
This year's annual Men's Banquet, "Breaking Down Barriers," was a special night for many in Panama City. Guests were invited for dinner, prepared and served by our Men's Program Students. Testimonies were heard, the gospel was shared, and barriers were broken in the lives of our students, volunteers, and guests. As friends shared stories of personal barriers, those in attendance watched as brick by brick, they symolically tore down the wall on stage. Thanks to the generosity of our friends, $26,000 was raised to benefit the program, making it possible to see and hear more life-changing testimonies like those heard that night.
"For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." - Ephesians 2:14-16
Last
Christmas, the Mission was invited by a group of concerned
citizens in Gulf, Franklin, and Calhoun Counties to help meet
the needs of homeless and hurting people along the Gulf Coast,
our neighbors to the East. Their concern was for the
homeless people they often see along the highways in search of
help. There are also individuals and families seeking help
from churches in the area for services to help prevent them from
becoming homeless.
A
committee was formed to research the needs and establish the
Gulf Cast Hope Center, a ministry of the Panama City Rescue
Mission.
In
June 2011, the Mission opened a temporary office in Port St Joe, to serve as an administrative office, as
well as a place for regional director Rev. Joe Atkinson and a
case manager could research and assess the needs of those in the
3-county area, and build up a base of support from donors and
volunteers in the community.
However,
in response to the city's opposition to operating in the
downtown area, that office was recently closed.
Over
the next 12 months the staff and committee's goal will continue
to work to determine what type of ministry extension will be
established to meet the needs.
Those
interested in more information can call Rev. Joe Atkinson at 850-769-0783,
or email
him at
jatkinson@pcrmission.org
More
than 60 volunteers came out to serve our hungry neighbors,
giving
away food boxes to help them through the summer.
Click
to learn more.
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Bethel
Village Program Update and Current Needs
Our
Bethel
Village
ladies have had a busy May. Their Beach Retreat on
Mother’s Day weekend was an absolute joy!
Several of the ladies were able to have their children with
them for the day on Saturday. We were blessed by the
volunteers who prepared food, presented devotionals, and
shared their time with us. The following weekend the
ladies manned the mission for the gentlemen in the men’s
recovery program to attend their own retreat.
Memorial
Day the
Bethel
Village
students enjoyed a shrimp boil and afternoon of fun at
Deerpoint
Lake
. Several volunteer couples were on hand to cook and
serve for them. They enjoyed rides around the lake on
a pontoon boat and personal water craft.
The
new house supervisor, Marian Nickel, is settling into her
role with the students and has begun a new Sunday night
Bible study on 1 John with them. We are now utilizing
community resources like Salvation Army’s Domestic
Violence Counseling Program and the
Pregnancy
Resource
Center
’s abortion recovery classes. We are also partnering
with churches like First Baptist Church of Lynn Haven, which
is providing a group of 4 volunteers who teach our Wednesday
morning class on Women of the Bible.
Bethel
Village
is looking for a new volunteer instructor to lead a morning
class from 7:30-8:15 on Tuesday and Friday on “Developing
Self Esteem”. If you are interested in applying for
this volunteer instructor position, contact Cathy Byrd at
Bethel Village, 850-914-0533.
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The
Desires of Our Mothers Hearts are Filled
Above
is a photo of Drew Worthington ( red shirt),
his assistant (Nick)
and Cathy Byrd, Associate Director of Women and
Families Ministries,
as
they were finishing unloading the items gathered for Bethel
Village
through
the Movers for Moms program.
Drew has already said they will
probably
do it again next year.
Here's
a God story for you, related to this:
The
day of the Easter Egg hunt, we had a rocking chair out on
the back porch
that
we had had in the family room at one time that Cathy used
when doing some
of
our students' 5th steps.
It was also available for moms to rock their
children
when they were here visiting.
The day of the egg hunt, its rocker
and
leg got broken. It
wasn't a very good chair or even very pretty. It
was,
in fact, rather old but it had been serviceable and it
grieved Cathy to
think
that it would cost more to try to repair than it was worth.
So Cathy had
the
ladies put it in the dumpster, saying nothing to any of them
about her
sadness
in parting with our only indoor rocking chair for moms and
herself to
find
comfort in.
Today,
as the gentlemen from Two Men and a Truck were finishing up,
among
the
last things they took off the truck was a lovely rocking
chair, sturdy
and
attractive!
"It
made me cry. Only
God knew the desire of my heart for
another
indoor rocking chair for our moms and kids to enjoy. God is
indeed
good
all the time," Cathy Byrd said.
- Annual Easter Banquet
View
our online photo album here.
Each year volunteers help make Easter extra special for the
homeless of Bay County. Rather than providing meals cafeteria-style, Mission officials prefer to make
Christian holidays more exciting for clients and volunteers. The
Mission's volunteers decorate the Mission, and serve
plates one-on-one to the many needy people that join the Mission for these
special events. In 2010, they even turned the dining room into a
restaurant, complete with a maitre 'D and hostesses. Each party's
name was called out and they were escorted to the dining room.
More importantly, each year dozens of people
make professions of faith in
Jesus Christ during the chapel service before the meal!
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Easter
Egg Hunt Serves More than 170 Children
Thank
you to these sponsors: Zoo World, Emerald Coast Party
Rentals,
Alivan's and Healthfile.
To
view our online photo album, click here.
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Our
Development team and Volunteer Coordinator have moved to:
650
Jenks Avenue
the
Truth Building
(corner
of 7th and Jenks)
Please
continue to use our PO Box for mailing and 850-769-0783 to contact
us. Thank you to First Baptist Church for making this
possible!
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Gail
Camperman was selected as the Mission's 2010 Volunteer of
the Year. She is pictured below at a Klothes for
Kids event where she helped fit shoes on the feet of
children in the name of Christ! She was also honored
by the staff at Bethel Village, our woman's home where Gail
teaches classes for the women in recovery.
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April
14 was our most recent fundraising banquet:
What
a wonderful banquet…we raised nearly $20,000 in gifts and
pledges for our kids programs. Best of all, we were
able to inspire people to have a heart for needy kids. Thank
you to all who attended and prayed for the success of this
event.
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Proverbs
31 Guild elects new slate of officers, and invites you to
join the group of volunteer ladies at Bethel Village on the
2nd Monday of each month, click
here
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The
women at Lynn Haven Methodist Church helped redecorate our
kitchen at Bethel Village. They tiled the backsplash,
painted, hung curtains, and more! And more recently, the
Lynn Haven UMC cityREACH workday brought 60+ men, women, and
children doing a variety of projects that totaled more than 300
person hours of volunteer time! They did yard
work, prepared the grounds for the Easter Egg Hunt, hung decorations,
and the list goes on! Thank you!
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Our
Spring Revival was held in the Mission's courtyard
April 8-10.
13
Accepted Christ as their Savior!
13
Re-Dedications!
"This was truly an amazing event, and I am
humbled to be a part of what God is doing here!"
Chaplain
Rev. Brian L. Gray
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