Give a meal.
Change a life.
Their Last Hope.
Right now, we have neighbors who are hungry, homeless, addicted, and trapped in despair.
For many people, the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission is their last stop. Their last hope. Their last chance.
With the support of people like you, each year we can:
A Meal is MORE than Food
At Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, meals are more than just food on a plate. Watch Rolf, the Mission’s president, talk about what meals at the Mission really are, and what they mean.
Only One Rescue Mission
In my 17 years of law enforcement service, I have often come into contact with society’s outcasts –– drunks, drug addicts, street people, prostitutes, vagrants, and petty criminals. For years, our approach was simply to arrest and incarcerate these people. Nail ‘em and jail ‘em, as the saying goes. The problem was that the same people kept coming back to the streets, and then getting sent back to jail. It was a seemingly endless cycle, but what else could we do? We discovered we needed partnerships, like our partnership with the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission. The Rescue Mission is what every community needs desperately –– a place where broken lives can be rebuilt.
– Bill Brown, Santa Barbara County Sheriff
“The hardest parts were not having food and not knowing where or if I was going to be able to sleep at night. . . I've never felt that kind of loneliness and fear and just exhaustion, constantly fighting for the most basic things.” – Amanda
Homeschooled to Homeless
Most people would never imagine that a beautiful young girl who grew up in an evangelical family, attended church regularly, got good grades, and earned a scholarship to Westmont College would end up hungry, living in her car, and battling an addiction to meth.
But that’s what happened to Amanda. Hunger, once something she thought only people in far off countries dealt with, became a reality.
“It’s hard to even put into words what being hungry is like. To have something so basic, so fundamental be so uncertain, was terrifying,” she says. “I was unrecognizable and lost the will to live.”
A few weeks later, she was arrested.
“I sat in jail for 3 months. I didn’t think I could stay sober, but I knew I didn’t want to be miserable anymore, so I started looking for programs. I applied to and was accepted to Bethel House at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission,” Amanda says. “During my year at Bethel House, I discovered my true self. . . I had a spiritual awakening, and I’m no longer controlled by fear. I’m present today and live and love as God intended.”
After graduating from the Mission’s 12-month Residential Treatment Program, Amanda went back to school and earned a bachelor’s degree from UCSB. She just moved to London to attend graduate school and plans to pursue a PhD in psychology so she can help others.
The only reason transformations like Amanda’s are possible is because of the generosity of friends like you. Each $2.65 you give now will provide a life-changing meal for someone else.
Together we will make a difference
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“God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”
– John 3:17 (NLT)
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535 E. Yanonali Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Email: rescuemissionnews@sbrm.org
Phone: 805-966-1316
Fax: 805-966-7495
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