Matthew 17:20 “…Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as

I read this quote on Facebook the other day and it really touched my spirit. “If a tiny virus could do this much damage, imagine what a tiny mustard seed can do”.

What does it mean to have faith like a mustard seed? This seed is one of the tiniest, most insignificant seeds found in the Middle East. A fast-growing annual herb, the mustard seed grows up to a 10 feet tall in just a few short months, demonstrating the striking example of the potential of a small insignificant seed. As we are all dealing with the quarantine and taking care of each other, the needs of the outside community are growing rapidly. Most of the calls and emails that we are receiving are people who are waiting on their unemployment, waiting on B.C. Board of Social Services applications, looking for jobs, no income, some people in outpatient drug and alcohol treatment, 2 people that experienced house fires, etc. We have assisted 36 households in our Rapid Rehousing Program enabling them to go into new apartments, 56 households in our Homeless Prevention (back rent) from January 1st to April 13th 2020. We have assisted 77 households (37 of them in the past 6 weeks) with emergency shelter motel placements to homeless individuals and families. We continue to run our 2 Men’s Shelters--90 day program--with 8 men in them. We have adapted our food programs to a drive through pantry, curb side lunches and we continue to go on the street/motel outreach every Wednesday and Friday from 10am-2pm. We are serving an average of 60 households in the pantry and serving 50-65 lunches each day we are open. The county is predicting the numbers needing assistance in May and June to double. We have run out of our grant funding that started on January 1, 2020 and we are applying for all the grants that we can find, but we are waiting. Donations are down due to the economy and we have already heard from one Corporate Funder that their charitable contributions are based on their sales and they have been shut down so they are not expecting to be able to grant anyone this year. We also had to make emergency sewer replacement and water pipe replacement at both of our shelters on Norcross Lane. Thanks to the Holman Foundation who gave us a grant for $27,000--Praise the Lord! However, like most construction projects on a 60 year old building, when the contractor, Superb Home Improvements, started digging and uncovering pipes there were many more problems. The contractors donated over $10,000 in labor and materials, but the overage is still $16,000. However, we have faith much bigger than a grain of mustard seed! We know that you do too. We can feel your prayers and we see your support coming in and encouraging notes, food and diaper donations etc. We are asking God to open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing to you and in turn to the Christian Caring Center. We are saying to this mountain--virus, repairs, program costs--move to become a blessing! Thank you for all your support and prayers, we can never serve as much as we do without you! Madelyn Sutton Executive Director