July 6, 2016

How the Summer Giving Gap Hurts People Like Lee

Snohomish County is a beehive of activity … we’re working in our gardens, throwing barbecues and spending time enjoying the sparkling waters of Puget Sound. Unfortunately, that also means donations of all kinds to Everett Gospel Mission have dropped off steeply.

We call it the “Summer Giving Gap,” when the needs are as great as ever, but the resources to meet them fall further and further behind.

The desperate calls we get for emergency shelter remind us that homelessness is a terrifying nightmare for 966 people like Lee in our community.

This 37-year-old man had always lived with his mom because of a cognitive disability. She took him out of school when he was very young and tried to protect him all his life. But when she fell sick with cancer, the tables turned. He became her caregiver.

After she passed, he was devastated with grief, and all alone.

The stress gave him a heart attack.

 As if things couldn’t get any worse, he was evicted.

“Nobody wanted me,” he said. “So I’d just sit at the bus stop all night. If I fell asleep, then I would wake up to find my heart medication missing.”

I hate to think what would have happened to Lee if we had not been able to welcome him in with a meal, shower and safe place to sleep when he came to our doors. That’s why I ask for your prayers. Real people’s lives depend on our doors being open 365 days a year.

If you would like to help close the Summer Giving Gap, it’s easy to make a secure gift online right here.

But even if you can’t give, please pray for Lee and others like him who are falling through our safety net. Together, we can be a beacon of unfailing compassion this summer . . . proof that God’s love is constant, all year long!