When I’m Gone...

September/October 2017

LIVING AS SERVANTS—NEWS

Connecting Compassionate People With People in Crisis

Would the Community Notice?

What if Servants never started “connecting people in crisis with compassionate people who wanted serve” 17 years ago? Would the community notice?

Home Helps has its 10th anniversary this year. During those 10 years, God has used Servants to assist more than 750 local homeowners. But where would those 750 homeowners be today without Servants?

Home Helps is the last resort for most of our homeowners. Without Home Helps, our homeowners would have been removed from their home a long time ago due to dangers such as flooring with holes, roofs caving in from big leaks, drywall rotting from water infiltration, and being unable to leave the home due to disabilities and the need for a wheelchair ramp.

Being a last resort for homeowners means they have no one in their life who attends to them. For many, it means they have been overlooked. Building relationships with our homeowners is our top priority. Being loved and cared for by Home Helps staff and volunteers is sometimes the only relationship the homeowner has at this moment of their life.

Servants began helping victims of Natural Disasters in 2006. Servants has been called to go into disaster areas after everyone else has left. Three years after Superstorm Sandy, there were still 7,500 low-income families without livable homes due to the Storm ’s destruction. Our Disaster Recovery teams have repaired homes for well over 100 families who are now able to live in their previously uninhabitable home.

What if Servants did not follow God ’s calling from Acts 1:8 to serve to the ends of the earth? Would our families in our Serving at-Risk Families ministry continue to be starving and homeless? Would their children continue the next generation ’s family poverty cycle with no hope of breaking it?

But it’s not about the statistics. It ’s about how many lives God touches

through Servants.

Servants has been powered by thousands upon thousands of volunteers who not only repair homes, but also build relationships with each other and with homeowners around the world.

Servants has amazing prayer warriors who cover those we serve and our volunteers who give of their precious time and gifts.

Servants has worked with hundreds of churches, organizations, and agencies not just for funding, but to improve the communities around us.

God has gifted our Volunteers, Donors, Prayer Warriors, and Staff with the resources needed to carry out his plans.

How have you been touched by Servants presence over the past 17 years? Send your stories to Trent Davis (Trent@servants.org) or Chris Gohn (Chris@servants.org).

$10,000

$15,000

Mr. G. believed in the mission of Servants. He was a committed volunteer with Home Helps and went on several Disaster Recovery trips. He created

and nurtured relationships with our older adult homeowners and with families in Mississippi. He even continued to visit with our homeowners long after the home repairs were completed.

Mr. G. passed away several years ago, but he is still a big part of Servants today. Mr. G. provided for Servants upon his death. Today, his legacy is carried on by continuing to help serve all of the families Servants touches.

Many donors have been with Servants for many years. Servants depends on their caring and support of our mission. How will our critical work continue in the future?

Leaving a legacy, no matter how big or small, ensures the long-term future of Servants and allows you to help continue the mission of Servants—Connecting Compassionate People With People In Crisis!

You can leave a specific dollar amount or percentage of your estate, or bequeath assets. A few additional ways you can leave your legacy:

Charitable bequests

Cash or securities

Life insurance

Gifts of retirement plans

Charitable gift annuities

Charitable remainder trusts

Residual trusts

Gifts in memory or honor

If you would like to learn more, please call Trent Davis at 717-378-0336 or email Trent@Servants.org.

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BECAUSE OF YOU...

Servant Mission Trips

Nov/Dec, 2017 Texas Disaster Recovery Jan 4-10, 2018 SARF School Supply Deliveries Teaching Crafts Jan 4-13, 2018 New Life Children ’s Home Feb 17-24, 2018 SARF Medical Team

Jun 21-30, 2018 SARF Kid Birthday Party and Kid Events

Jun, 2018 Mountain Spring Camp/Nebaj

Jul 6-14, 2018 SARF Trip is full!

Jul 6-14, 2018 New Life Children ’s Home

Jul 19-26, 2018 SARF Trip is full!

Jul, 2018 Uganda Trip is full!

Aug 16-25, 2018 SARF Interacting with the families

Oct 18-27, 2018 SARF Interacting with the families

If God is calling you to serve His children through an international mission trip, please email Kate at KateReed@Servants.org. A $200 deposit will hold your trip reservation.

Join us on October 24, 2107 to learn more about our 2018 mission trips where we will be

talking about our Serving at-Risk Families ministry, visiting New Life Children ’s Home,

and working at Mountain Spring Camp in Nebaj, Guatemala.

Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma were big and destructive and the hurricane season is far from over. But God is BIGGER!

Trent first heard that said in Mississippi 10 years ago and it holds true for Texas and Florida today.

At Servants we know that when a disaster strikes and people ask, "Where was God?", the answer is "God is in the recovery."

That is the role God calls Servants to

with our Disaster Recovery ministry. After the initial surge of help and relief subsides and people are despairing at the long road of recovery ahead, we will strive to provide renewed Hope that God has not abandoned them.

We are planning now to coordinate with partners in the disaster areas to provide volunteer teams for the long-term recovery efforts. We will be taking 1-3 trips a month for the next several months. Volunteer with us!

Please email trent@servants.org to sign up for email updates on those opportunities. It will change your life as a volunteer and a family ’s life in the recovery!

Let’s Head South and Support Them!

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...God is using Servants to help our Neighbors!

Home Helps Team On The Move!

Without Home Helps in our communities, this older adult couple would continue to bathe in a bathtub that is falling into and through the floor risking serious injury.

RJ’s husband is in remission from cancer. But the couple had a rough time fighting the cancer, attending to additional health issues and paying the bills. The couple ’s home has severe water damage throughout and the flooring is rotting away. Moving about the home became an obstacle course of walking around the very soft spots so they would not fall all the way through the floor.

We have all been overwhelmed by bills at one point of time in our lives, but to live it every day for years and choosing between food, medicine and heating or repairing very serious and dangerous parts of the home is despairing. It ’s impossible to save up for the repairs when your income is less than $15,000 a year and you are still paying for

hospital stays and doctor bills.

This is why Home Helps is here—to be a last resort for very low-income homeowners who live in an unhealthy or unsafe home. Because of our selfless donors and volunteers, Home Helps was able to repair the flooring and replace the tub with an ADA compliant shower stall.

Our Home Helps staff is seeing a trend of home projects that are more serious with complex and time consuming repairs.

Please consider volunteering with your Sunday School Class, your Small Group, your Club Group, your Neighbors, or your Co-Workers. We need both skilled and unskilled volunteers.

For more information, please contact Alisha Crooks, our Volunteer and Family Coordinator, at AlishaCrooks@Servants.org.

Sinking Away

In working hard to reduce the current waitlist for our older adult homeowners, Servants has hired a full-time Home Helps Project Manager.

Welcome Keith Cotton!

Our waitlist has about 100 low-income homeowners who need home repairs or maintenance. Adding Keith to the team allows Home Helps to get to our current homeowners quicker, allows us to work with more homeowners during the year, and gives more opportunities for current and new volunteers and donors to partner with us.

The risk of not getting to our older adult homeowners quickly is that they

could be removed from their home by local agencies, local government, or their adult children due to unsafe or unhealthy living conditions. This means that they will not be living in the home of their choice, will no longer see their friends and neighbors, and their sense of community will cease to exist.

The risk of turning away homeowners due to an ever growing waitlist means that the homeowner, who has no where else to turn for help, will continue living in dangerous and unhealthy

conditions. To Servants, this is not an option.

Thank you Home Helps volunteers for working so hard to serve our homeowners / your neighbors in helping them stay in their home for as long as they want.

Thank you donors for providing resources so we can help our neighbors and communities.

Pictured Left to Right: Kim Fernald—HH Project Manager; Alisha Crooks-HH Family and Volunteer Coordinator; Steve Fowler-Director of Home

Helps; and Keith Cotton-HH Project Manager

Volunteers working to install an ADA compliant shower stall for our older adults to safely use the bathroom.

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Servants, Inc. 100 Redco Ave., Ste. C-0 Red Lion, PA 17356 www.Servants.org

P. 717-378-0336 F. 717-378-0352 Donate online at:

servants.org/support-servants Text your donation to 717-722-0336

Trent@Servants.org

Join Us!

October 24, 2017 A Night in Guatemala

November 17, 2017 Extraordinary Give in Lancaster

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord ’s people.”

Ephesians 6:18

Thank you for your precious prayers for us.

Prayer requests for the month are:

• Restoration of all victims and communities affected by the severe Hurricanes this season.

• In all ways we follow God in His plans and direction as we continue to grow in Him.

• Protection and safety for our missionaries, staff, volunteers and donors.

• Relationships to grow with our donors, partners, and supporters.

• Provision for Servants core ministries, staff, and operating costs.

• Hope for our low-income Homeowners as the Home Helps ministry answers their calls for help.

• Self-sufficiency for our Serving at-Risk Families in Guatemala.

• Safety for upcoming servant mission trips and transformation of the lives of those volunteers

going on the trip and of those families served.

• Wisdom, discernment and courage for our staff and missionaries as God leads our ministries and grows our relationship with Him.

• New volunteers and groups will share their gifts and experiences with our Homeowners, with our Guatemalan families, and with our Disaster Recovery teams.

• Relationships grow with our church partners while we continue creating new ones.

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." - Max Lucado

How Can You Pray For Servants?

First Annual SARF Bday Party! Our Serving at-Risk Families (SARF) missionaries threw a birthday party for ALL of our SARF children.

They went to a local park and spent the day playing on the equipment, playing games, and enjoying time together. They had a celebration lunch of chips, soda, and shuckos, which are hot dogs with guacamole, ketchup, mayonnaise, cabbage and mustard/relish. Lunch ended with two (2) large birthday cakes for everyone.

The kids then had two (2) big piñatas filled with candy. Gifts and funding for gifts was donated by Family Sponsors and Donors and were a big surprise and blessing to the kids.

Thank you all for making this possible and for continuing to pray for our families and continuing to love and care for them in so many different ways! Consider a SARF mission trip and see for yourself.