Hello Friends! We wanted to give you a quick update before the workload that hurricane season usually brings. We pray this year is not nearly as devastating as the last couple seasons have been, but we are prepared to respond when needed. April brought an exciting new partnership with our local Asheville Police Department. APD Chaplain Mark Graham and myself delivered the first load of 120 disaster relief boxes to some very grateful and excited officers. These boxes are filled with food items and a hygiene kit. Officers carry them to distribute if they encounter people in crisis or need. We are so excited to embark on this new Box of Hope project! We have been receiving updates on the Box of Hope’s being given to those in need and we are so thankful they can be a blessing in our community. We were blessed to also partner with our local WNC National Guard in May. We provided pallets of Gatorade, Wet Wipes and Cookies. These donated items allowed us to bless several different units while they are training to help us in our time of distress. In another local project, we provided donated clothing to a local children’s home. We are blessed to have our daughter join us full time in the office at Hearts With Hands as of January 2019. We were so proud of her for successfully completing the Duke University Non-Profit Management Extensive Course in May. These two weeks of intensive studies provided training in the following areas: Board Development and Governance, Planning and Evaluation, Financial Management and much more. We are excited about how she will use this training in the days to come. One exciting project we have been working on since Hurricane Michael was when we met a lady who lost everything during the storm. She lost her job and her car; her home was completely destroyed. While at a Missions Conference in February, I received a call asking if we would be interested in a car. I immediately said yes, and knew it was an answer to prayer. The Lord worked out all the details and we were able to get her a new job and a car, but that still left one issue - she needed a new home. She was still living under tarps in her home after the ceiling had collapsed, and she was crawling in and out of her “home” daily. Through generous donations from volunteers and local businesses, we were able to purchase a camper for her to live in. We were so thankful to take the camper to her and bless her in this way. We have already responded this quarter to four disasters. In early April, we received a request from Kimball, West Virginia. They were in need of water after their water source was contaminated. Thus, we were able to supply a complete tractor-trailer load of water for their community. On May 22, HWH sent a tractor-trailer load of food and supplies for tornado victims of Ville Platte, Louisiana. On June 21, we responded to the flooding in Mecklenburg County at the Catawba River. Then on July 17, a 33,000-pound tractor-trailer load was sent to St. Mary Parish, Louisiana for Hurricane Barry Relief. Before distributing the supplies, Sheriff Blaise Smith said “God provided this. He always provides a way. We need to stop right now and give Him prayer and thanksgiving.” We were so thankful to have a small part in helping that community. We would like to invite you to an exciting day on August 10. It’s a day to appreciate the beauty of what’s under the hood – along with the impressive display of chrome, white walls, and fins wrapped around the engine. The Land of the Sky Shrine Club will present its 15th Annual Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show hosted by Street-tiques of Asheville on Saturday, August 10. This year’s show has a new paved location, our parking lot at 850 Warren Wilson Road in Swannanoa. The event is a fundraiser for Shriners Children’s Hospital in Greenville. You can help patients and their families just by showing up, or by showing off your ride. Registration is from 9 to 12 P.M., with awards being distributed at 3 P.M. Organizers ask those who come to bring a can of food to donate to Hearts With Hands. We will also be providing a concessions stand as a fundraiser for storm season 2019.
GET INVOLVED
PARTNERS - If you, your church or business are not currently a monthly and regular supporter of HWH, would you please consider what you could do each month to help us to expand to help more people? BOX OF HOPE - We need individuals, businesses, and churches to help us with the Box of Hope project by sponsoring food boxes. 1 Box = $20 and 1 Pallet (100 boxes) = $2,000. RISE UP CAMPAIGN - We are in the process of purchasing our current warehouse space, the 40 acre campus with a 200,000 square foot warehouse facility. We are asking 1,000 people, businesses or Churches to commit to $1,000 a year for 5 years. This gift of $5,000 will help us in the purchase of this beautiful property. VOLUNTEER - You can Text HeartsWithHands to 97000 or visit heartswithhands.org/volunteer to receive the latest news and notifications about opportunities to serve.
HOW CAN YOU PRAY?
Please continue to pray for more "Rise Up and Build" partners. We want to pay off our warehouse space by 2021. We also are in the process of repairing and replacing the roof. Pray that as we prepare for more disasters that the donations will be provided. Pray for partnerships with business to get items donated or at wholesale rate. Please pray that we as a ministry will effectively minister and share the gospel to those in their time of despair.