Donate by midnight on December 31st to meet the deadline for the $50,000 matching gift! Every year-end gift given will help us to be ready to meet the challenge of continuing to help more moms and kids, like Kara and her daughter pictured above, in 2020.
Give a year-end gift towards the matching gift now on our secure website by going to RescueMission.org.
This is how your gift changes lives.
“I was scared,” Kara admits, and she had reason to be. She was in an abusive relationship and felt trapped by it. The area where she lived was plagued by drugs and violence. “I was tired of looking back over my shoulder, tired of worrying that something would happen, or that I was going to get kicked out of the house in the middle of the night,” she says.
When Kara walked into the Rescue Mission, with her daughter in her arms, it was because she was desperate. She needed to know that someone cared.
Kara’s teen years got off to a rough start. During middle school her parents divorced. For her, it was devastating and left her feeling unstable and insecure with a lot of hurt to deal with at a young age. She started partying to dull the pain. By the time she was 16, Kara was using drugs on a daily basis. Her mom and dad were so concerned that they sent her to an out-of-state rehab program. But instead she became exposed to the negative influences of other youth that glorified methamphetamine use. When she returned home, she started using it.
Kara plunged so deeply into addiction that she was homeless for almost three years. And then she discovered she was pregnant.
With a child on the way, Kara knew she couldn’t stay on the streets anymore. She needed security. She hoped she could find it in a relationship with a man. That didn’t work out — the abuse was constant.
“I wanted to be able to give my daughter a better life than that,” Kara says. “I wanted something better for both of us.”
Kara knew she needed help; she turned to Orange County Rescue Mission. “It took a while before I was ready to hear about God,” Kara recalls, “but seeing the miracles that happened in my life made me realize there is a God, and there are people who care about you. Orange County Rescue Mission taught me that the love of God will always be there for me,” she says. “I have so much more peace knowing that I’m taking the steps to give myself and my daughter a better life, and that it doesn’t have to involve being on drugs,” or depending on someone who is abusive.
Because people like you made it possible, Kara and her daughter have a future now. Kara has been working hard to learn how to live drug free and how to take care of herself and her daughter. She’s enrolled in a Microsoft certificate program. By spring, she’ll be prepared to seek full-time employment.
“I would not have been able to do this without Rescue Mission supporters,” Kara confesses. “I don’t know if the donors fully realize it, but every single gift changes lives.”
Thanks to you, Kara found healing and hope. She still has most of her life in front of her, and she’s confident that it’s going to be a good one.
But with a new year about to begin, there’s someone else here in Orange County who still needs your help — in fact, there are many who do. It’s for their sake that we’ve got to share the hope for new lives.
Give life-changing hope!
With your help, many others like Kara can start their journey to a new life in the year ahead. Please help today by clicking here. To be eligible to be DOUBLED, your gift must be received before midnight on December 31.
