November 3, 1999

Hello,

I can't believe how fast the time flies. How are you? I hope and pray that this letter find you in the best of health both physically as well as spiritually. Since my last correspondence with you the Orange County Rescue Mission is ever evolving and taking on new challenges as we reach out to our neighbors with the love of Jesus. We are making considerable impact ministering in the motels of Orange County. The cycle of poverty that many motel families are stuck in seems like a never-ending trap. Many motel residents lack the training or experience to land a good paying job that could help break them free of the motel environment.

Unfortunately, these families rarely have the money or transportation to get them into a vocational training course that could open new doors. We are currently designing and constructing a Technology Vehicle - a mobile computer-training center built into a 5th wheel trailer. We will be able to take this mobile classroom right to the residents and provide actual Microsoft certified training to residents who complete the education course on board! These students will walk away from the course with an industry-recognized certificate and will have vastly improved their chances of getting a good paying job!

On board the technology vehicle we will have a staff member who can provide vocational counseling, skill evaluation and the teaching ability to take these residents through the certified course - equipping them for a new future

Also we have volunteers from certain churches conduct Bible studies in the motels and many have come to faith and learning how to live for Him daily.

Thanksgiving and Christmas is around the corner as we prepare to feed the least the last and the lost of Orange County. The holiday season is an incredibly busy time, but one filled with tremendous blessing for the Mission. During the last months of the year, we feed and help thousands of people through hot holiday meals, boxes of non-perishable food, encouraging holiday messages, music, Christmas presents and other events to restore hope and offer assistance. We greatly covet help from our supporters to bring in the canned food and help these impoverished families.

The Men's Recovery Program and the House of Hope will stage their annual graduation ceremony on November 16, 1999 at the House of Hope in Orange, Ca. It gives me great pleasure to announce eight program members will be graduating from the Men's Recovery Program, and five ladies and eight children will graduate from the House of Hope Recovery program for women with children. Grace Womack will introduce the staff and graduates of the House of Hope, and I will introduce the staff and graduates of the Men's Recovery program. Natalie Womack will minister in song to us all.

The Sunday Services is the anchor that affords me the continual outlet to speak to the people who frequents the service. In spite of my ever-increasing workload, it is always such a delight to minister to the congregation Sunday after Sunday. The congregation is growing and those (the Homeless) who regularly attend consider me their Pastor. What an honor! I not only have the privilege of evangelizing them but more importantly to disciple them. Teaching them by God's Word how to live their lives for Him on a daily practical basis.

At the Men's facility a desire of mine has come to fruition. For years I have lobbied for a women's shower to be instituted at the Mission, and God has answered my prayers to minister to homeless women. Staff member Vicky Young oversees and coordinates the women's shower, providing clean clothes and a warm shower and also counseling.

Grace and I manage to juggle a busy and demanding schedule to be foster parents. We are considering legal guardianship of our present foster daughter. We are also the proud grandparents of two additional grandsons. One grandson, Robert James, was born to my elder daughter, Tina Coles, and my one-and-only son, James Jr., and my daughter-in-law adopted a new born baby, Timothy James, just three weeks ago from today's date.

Well, that is the latest happenings with the ministry and our family. I can't thank SonLight Missions Board adequately with words. Your continual support over the years is of great assistance in the fulfillment of the assignment God has ordained us to. I love you all and I thank God for our Pastor, who is and always has given his love, time, support, and ear to the Womack family.

Sincerely,
Pastor James Womack

Director of the Men's Recovery Program and the Mission
OCRM

1901 W. Walnut St. Santa Ana, Ca. 92703