An Update From Rachael

Rachael Bauman is a member of our community who is spending her year as a Young Adult Volunteer for the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is part of the program in Miami. If you'd like to take a look at the YAV Ministry, just click on the link.

Now. . . Here's Rachael!

Dear Loved Ones,

These past two months have been pretty busy. I have completed two more trainings for the IRS to become a VITA employee. That was during the day. In the evening I organized the Thanksgiving Basket and Christmas Store at TML. I "cleaned" 15 computers and gave them away as well as "set up" replacements.

The Thanksgiving Baskets went okay I guess. It had some hiccups but I wrote down specific instructions for whoever will be in charge next year so they won't happen again. My bosses did not want me to check ID's for anyone so I didn't. What ended up happening is people came that were not on the list and claimed names that were. Then those name holders showed up to find their baskets had already been taken.

The Christmas Store is where people in Overtown can come buy toys for 20% the store cost. So they can pay $10 and get presents that would have cost them $50 at the store. It empowers people in the community to buy presents for their own children. We just make it more affordable and claim no credit. All profits go to buying toys the next year (or current year if other donations from two local churches and a few others aren't enough.) The store served 153 children this year.

I got to see the renovations that are going on for the Downtown Mission that I do Sunday mornings. The church is moving their homeless ministry to another building. There will not be as much room and so people are going to have to wait outside in line. However, the new people running the church also don't want them doing that because their members will be able to see them in the parking lot. I am not quite sure how all of that is going to work out. God will provide.

On a more personal note, I got the package from UPC with the drawings from the children (thanks Rebecca). It was so wonderful to receive that love. I showed all my roommates, whether they really wanted to see them or not. :) Sorry my letters and blogs have not really been rated for the little ones.

I received a letter from the Bone Marrow people. I was not a close enough match after the last set of tests (it was only a 1 in 12 chance). Please pray for the three year old boy in the hopes that someone else was a match.

To end on a funnier note: I actually called the police to tell them about a care parked in front of our house. We don't live in a "bad" part of town but we certainly don't have any neighbors that have a Lexus. Sure enough the car we had hoped God parked next to our house for us to use (our community car is about to die), was not God at all but just a common car thief.

Love,
Rachael