Volume 10 Number 20 | October 17, 2016 | www.agrm.org

This issue of Street Smart is sponsored by:

AGRM’s Board of Directors Begins Meeting Today As you read this, the AGRM board is gathering in Edmonton, Alberta, (home of Hope Mission) for three days of meetings. The agenda is quite full, as the board will be conducting normal business as well as strategizing about some great opportunities for the future. Please keep the AGRM board in prayer as they spend three days together in these important meetings. Note: The AGRM board officially meets twice a year, once in February or March and once in October. District Elections to Be Held in November Election day is coming! Yes, there will be a pretty significant election in the U.S. on November 8, but also in early November, the Northeast, Northwest, and North Central Districts will be electing an AGRM Board Representative, a District President, and a District Vice President. And all AGRM Members will be electing a Board Member At Large. Watch your email for additional details on the slates of candidates, as well as how and when you can vote.

Fall Means Travel Time for AGRM Staff This time of year always finds the AGRM team on the road with members, presenting, mentoring, and offering a number of requested services. Selena Hayle, Robert Loggins, Brad Lewis, Justin Boles, Christine Matos, and Lisa Miller all visited district events and/or had various meetings with AGRM stakeholders the last couple weeks. The most miles are put on by AGRM President John Ashmen. This past weekend he spoke at a staff and board event at Springs Rescue Mission (not all that far from the AGRM office) and then was the speaker at Bridgeport Rescue Mission (Bridgeport, Connecticut) annual stewardship banquet. Following the board meeting in Edmonton, John and Hope Mission Executive Director Bruce Reith will be visiting homeless services providers in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and then meeting in Calgary at two ministries there. Please keep the AGRM staff in prayer as they continue to make the rounds, representing and serving rescue missions. Baylor/AGRM Study Nearing Completion The extensive research project undertaken earlier this year to get a handle on what percentage of sheltering in U.S. cities is handled by faith-based organizations (versus secular/government-funded entities) is in its final stages of analysis and preparation. In early November, a meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. to explain the study and its preliminary finding to the heads of several national nonprofits. The final report will come out in early December with press releases, live interviews, and the like. AGRM members will have the opportunity to hear a detailed analysis via a webinar. The information, which is extremely interesting (and not totally surprising), will be critical to new lawmakers as they take office in January. Youth Leaders to Bring Volunteers to AGRM Missions Over the next few weeks, as part of Pure Flix's I Am Hope movement, youth leaders from across the continent will be reaching out to AGRM member missions in hopes of bringing their youth group members to volunteer and help at your mission. This movement is inspired by the movie I'm Not Ashamed, the true story of Rachel Joy Scott at Columbine High School. The idea is to continue Rachel’s chain reaction of hope and compassion toward those who are homeless. Most of the youth leaders will submit a form to AGRM through the campaign’s website, which we will compile and send on to the most appropriate person at your mission. However, some youth leaders could contact you directly, so be watching for those emails and calls. In any event, please reach out as soon as you can to engage with these individuals and their

group(s) as they have a heart to serve your community. For additional information, contact Director of Communications Brad Lewis at blewis@agrm.org. Readers Will Be Urged to Find AGRM Member Missions Thomas Nelson, publishers of Same Kind of Different as Me, will be including an ad in the movie version printing of the book, urging readers to volunteer at and give to their local rescue mission. The publisher is estimating that some 300,000 copies of the book will be sold, and readers will be guided to www.agrm.org/locate to find their local mission. The book is scheduled to be released January 3, 2017, ahead of the February 3 opening date for the motion picture. Reminder: AGRM hopes to have 100 missions that are willing to sponsor special screenings of Same Kind of Different as Me in February 2017. More than 80 missions have already signed up. If you want to become “1 of 100,” fill out the online formindicating your interest (there is no obligation to buy anything at this point). Indicating the number of tickets your mission is willing to purchase in advance demonstrates our commitment level to the studio. New Canada District to Meet October 26–28 AGRM’s 2016 district conferences are successfully in the books, except for a meeting of members in the new Canada District, which will be held October 26–28 at the Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites in Toronto, Ontario. Additional details for the event, which will feature times for fellowship, networking, and vision-casting for the future—as well as some great in-depth training—please visit the conference webpage. The registration fee includes dinner on Wednesday; breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Thursday; breakfast on Friday; and two nights of lodging. Thanks to a generous scholarship grant, registration rates have been discounted by 70 percent. Add Donor and Volunteer Links to Your Mission’s Profile A reminder to CEOs, billing contacts, and profile managers: Due to an increasing number of organizations contacting AGRM to find ways to partner with missions at the local level, we have added two new URL fields to your Organization Profile (which displays in the Locate a Mission directory). You can now add direct URL links for your volunteer and donate

webpages. To update your profile, log in at www.agrm.org and click on “My Organization Profile.” Click the green "Edit General Information" button. Scroll to the bottom of the screen to add the new URLs starting with http:// or https://. As you scroll by, be sure to verify your Services Provided. AGRM staff members use these frequently to assist people in need who call looking for local rescue missions. Final Look at Hurricane Matthew News and Info Page During the height of Hurricane Matthew, AGRM created an information webpage to help the public understand the role that many gospel rescue missions take during natural disasters, and to learn ways that individuals who aren’t affected by the hurricane can help their local mission. As part of the effort, the page included updates from missions affected by the storm as it hit the U.S. With the storm over (even though some areas hit near the storm's end are still experiencing record flooding), the page will be taken down soon. But if you want to read how some member missions in the region fared, please visit the webpage and scroll to “News from AGRM Member Missions” near the end.

Looking Down the Street…

• Please be in prayer for Preston Ward, development director at Winston Salem Rescue Mission (Winston Salem, North Carolina). Preston's wife, Mandy, had complications from her pregnancy, and their baby girl was born early and is doing fine. However, Mandy, 33, had bleeding, headaches, and blood pressure complications, and was unresponsive after the baby's birth. Mandy went to be with the Lord on October 1 at Forsyth Hospital. Please pray for the baby (Ava Lynn), Preston, and the families as they work through this untimely loss. Mandy’s funeral was held October 8.

AGRM Member Benefit: Job Search Software Through a partnership with AGRM, business member NextJob will provide each requesting AGRM member mission with up to 500 free access codes per year for use of the company’s software. This will allow each mission to assist up to 500 people a year in finding employment using NextJob’s system. This offer is available exclusively to AGRM member missions. The comprehensive and easy-to-use online training system covers such topics as:

• Résumé writing and cover letters • Networking • Interviewing • Job retention • Career direction • And many other job search tools

All learning styles are covered with text, videos from real job seekers and hiring managers, audio examples of cold calls, and teach-show-do exercises, including interactive résumé-building, which allows job seekers to instantly apply what they’ve learned. To obtain your mission’s free codes to utilize this software or request a demo, contact NextJob’s Mrs. Dale Falini at (719) 306-3492 or via email at dalef@nextjob.com.

Nine States Vote on New Marijuana Rules Voters in nine states will decide next month whether to relax their laws governing medical or recreational marijuana use, with California potentially the most significant market, reports USA Today. Four states—Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, plus the District of Columbia—have already legalized recreational marijuana, and 25 states permit medical use. But this election has the potential to dramatically shift the conversation because so many Americans live in those nine states where relaxation measures are being considered. California and its approximately 40 million residents represent a potential tipping point for a country where marijuana remains completely illegal at the federal level. California, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada are considering legalizing and taxing

recreational marijuana in this election, while voters in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota are considering whether to permit medical use for certain conditions, like cancer or chronic pain. New York’s Homeless Children Have Difficulty Getting to School A new report on the obstacles that homeless children in New York schools face maps out just how difficult it is for students who live in shelters to get an education, reports The New York Times. Roughly one out of every 13 children in the New York City public school system is now homeless. The report, called “Not Reaching the Door: Homeless Students Face Many Hurdles on the Way to School,” focuses on students in shelters, who tend to face the biggest educational obstacles. Children living in shelters attend school significantly less than other students. One of the biggest problems is the location of the shelters where families are placed. Homeless children have the right to continue at their original school, even if they are moved outside its catchment zone, and the city tries to place families nearby—at least in the same borough as the youngest child’s school—to make continued enrollment easier. But only about half of homeless families are placed in the same borough as their youngest child’s school. Such moves leave parents with an excruciating choice: keep their children in a familiar school and commit to hours spent commuting; or uproot the children further and enroll them in a school closer to the shelter. And because families are often required to move from one shelter to another—sometimes with as little as 24 hours notice, the report said—children can be bounced repeatedly from one new school to the next. Burial of 278 Unclaimed Bodies a Sign of Homeless Crisis As Seattle’s population booms and a state of emergency over homelessness continues, King County officials say they’ve seen a rise in the number of unclaimed bodies buried by the county, reports The Seattle Times. In death, they didn’t draw much attention. Some spent their final days in hospitals and shelters. Others were homeless and died outdoors. All were without family members to claim their bodies or arrange their funerals. But each one of the 278 people, whose cremated remains last week joined the hundreds of other unclaimed laid to rest at Renton’s Mt. Olivet

Cemetery, had a story. Several speakers paid their respects to the 223 men and 55 women whose bodies the King County Medical Examiner’s Office Indigent Remains unit has stored since the last memorial ceremony in 2014, when the remains of 137 were buried. Although they are entombed together, each person’s remains has its own container marked with name, date of birth, and date of death when that information is available. The containers are also given a serial number, in case a relative comes forward.

Average American Household with Credit Card Debt Has Five-Figure Tab The average American has $3,600 in credit card debt, but that number doesn't tell the whole story. More than 60 percent of households carry no credit card debt whatsoever, meaning the others have five-figure balances, reports USA Today. A study found that the average credit card debt for households that carry a balance is a shocking $16,048. At the average variable credit card interest rate of 16.1 percent, this translates to nearly $2,600 in credit card interest alone. Even scarier, consider that based on the average interest rate and a minimum payment of 1.5 percent of the balance, it would take nearly 14 years for the typical household to pay off, at a cost of more than $40,200. This assumes no additional credit card debt is added to the tab along the way. To be fair, it's worth mentioning that not all of this credit card debt is the high-interest variety. Many people take advantage of 0 percent introductory APRs as a cheap way of consolidating debt or financing a big purchase. There is a big difference between $10,000 of credit card debt at 0 percent interest and $10,000 of debt at 20 percent interest. New Findings on Christian Theological Views in America Americans don’t seem to know much about theology. Most say God wrote the Bible, but they’re not sure everything in it is true, according to a new report by LifeWay Research. Six in 10 say everyone eventually goes to heaven, but half say only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. And while 7 in 10 say there’s only one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—two-thirds say God accepts worship of all faiths.

Those are among the findings of a new survey of American views on Christian theology. Many Americans still identify as Christians, but seem to be confused about some of the details of their faith. Researchers asked 47 questions on topics from prayer and the Bible to heaven and hell. Among other findings:

• Two-thirds of those with evangelical beliefs say heaven is a place where all people will ultimately be reunited with their loved ones.

• Almost 60 percent say God is the author of the Bible. About half say the Bible alone is the written Word of God; 64 percent say the biblical accounts of the physical resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate.

• More than half say Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. And 56 percent say the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. The Holy Spirit seems to be particularly confusing: 28 percent say the Spirit is a divine being but not equal to God the Father and Jesus.

Nearly Half of Americans Couldn’t Afford a $400 Emergency Since 2013, the Federal Reserve board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, is less than earth-shattering. But the answer to one question is astonishing. The Fed asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency. The answer: 47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all, reports The Atlantic. Financial impotence goes by other names: financial fragility, financial insecurity, financial distress. But whatever you call it, the evidence strongly indicates that either a sizable minority or a slim majority of Americans are on thin ice financially. A 2014 survey found that only 38 percent of Americans could cover a $1,000 emergency-room visit or $500 car repair with money they’d saved. Two reports published last year found that 55 percent of households didn’t have enough liquid savings to replace a month’s worth of lost income, and that of the 56 percent of people who said they’d worried about their finances in the previous year, 71 percent were concerned about having enough money to cover everyday expenses.

The Association of Christian Thrift Stores (ACTS) Workshop will be held January 8–11, 2017 at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulffront, Pensacola Beach, Florida. For more info and to register go to actswebsite.com.

The following job positions are currently open at AGRM member missions. Please visit www.agrm.org/careers to view full descriptions and to apply. Click here for instructions on using AGRM's Recruiting Center to post open positions for your mission.

AftercareDirector:JubileeMinistries,Inc.,Lebanon,PA

AssistantDirector:VenturaCountyRescueMission,Oxnard,CA

CaseManager:BuffaloCityMission,Buffalo,NY

CommunityCaseWorker:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Cook:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

DentalAssistant:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

CrossroadsMen'sCrisisCenterManager:TheCityMission,Cleveland,OH

CulinaryChef:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Dentist:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

DentalAssistant:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

DevelopmentAssociate:ThePathofCitrusCounty,BeverlyHills,FL

DirectorofDevelopment:TheShepherd'sHouse,Bend,OR

DirectorofFinanceandAdministration:KansasCityRescueMission,KansasCity,MO

DirectorofOperations:RockfordRescueMissionMinistries,Inc.,Rockford,IL

DirectorofProgramOperations:RockfordRescueMissionMinistries,Inc.,Rockford,IL

ExecutiveDirector:GrantCountyRescueMission,Marion,IN

FamilyOutreach/ReceivingCoordinator:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

FamilySupportWorker(Evenings:Sun-Thu):OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

HealthcareCaseManager:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

HRManager:RescueMissionAlliance,Oxnard,CA

HumanResourcesManager:TheCityMission,Cleveland,OH

KitchenManager:BreadofLifeMission,Holbrook,AZ

MaintenanceCoordinatorTechnician:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

MaintenanceTechnician:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Men'sAddictionRecoveryProgramManager:OpenDoorMission,Rochester,NY

Men'sCenterSupportWorker(Evenings:Fri-Tue):OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Men'sCenterSupportWorker(Evenings:Wed-Sun):OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Men'sCenterSupportWorker(Overnights):OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

Men'sEveningSupervisor:GrantCountyRescueMission,Marion,IN

ProgramDirector-NaomiFamilyResidence:UnionGospelMissionTwinCities,SaintPaul,MN

ProgramManager:CentralcoastRescueMission,SantaMaria,CA

ReceivingClerk:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

RecoveryProgramCoordinator:WestminsterRescueMission,Westminster,MD

ResidentAssistant,CenterforWomen&Children:BayAreaRescueMission,Richmond,CA

ResidentialCoordinator_CornerstoneManorFacility:BuffaloCityMission,Buffalo,NY

RiskManagementLead:BuffaloCityMission,Buffalo,NY

SafetyMonitor:BuffaloCityMission,Buffalo,NY

SeasonalToyCoordinator:OpenDoorMission,Omaha,NE

SeniorVideoProductionSpecialist:Seattle’sUnionGospelMission,Seattle,WA

Staff:BreadofLifeMission,Holbrook,AZ

ThriftStoreManager:HopeCenterAtHagerstownRescueMission,Hagerstown,MD

VPofAdvancement:WaterStreetMinistries,Lancaster,PA

WelcomeCenterSupervisor:Seattle’sUnionGospelMission,SeattleWA

Where Is Your Hope?

“Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption” (Psalm 130:7).

A lot of hopelessness exists in the world today. Homes have been destroyed by wars. People are being displaced from their homeland. Economies are not doing as well as we would like. Politicians running for office are not people we would even invite into our homes. During these times of turmoil and fear, where is your hope? Be careful, because the things we place our hope in can keep us in an endless cycle of disappointment. What we end up doing is to create little saviors to rescue us from whatever we think is wrong in our lives when our hope isn’t first and foremost in the Lord. Consider your finances and the dollar. How many of us place our hope in little green pieces of paper and silver coins, thinking that if we just made a little more then we would be happy? When we place our hope in little saviors, we doom ourselves to a life of disappointment and idolatry. We submit ourselves to an endless cycle of regret, an existence that constantly cries, “If only…” When our hope is placed in anything less than the perfect God of the universe, we will live in the darkness of dissatisfaction. Follow Jesus into the light of eternal hope.

Used with permission from Daily Devotionals, www.shortdailydevotions.com.

To contribute: If you would like to write a devotional thought for StreetLight, please make it about 200 words

and include at least one Bible verse or passage, and submit via email.

AGRM is a nonprofit organization committed to furthering rescue missions. AGRM provides limited space in "Market Street" for advertising opportunities, services, and products to advance the cause of rescue missions. AGRM is not responsible for the claims made by its advertisers and reserves the right to select or reject any advertising, in the sole discretion of AGRM, for any or no reason.

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All Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, unless otherwise noted. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Street Smart is sent to you as a member service of AGRM, and is published on the 1st and 15th of each month (unless those dates fall on a weekend or holiday). The content does not necessarily represent the views of or imply endorsement by AGRM. To submit items for publication, e-mail editor@agrm.org. To unsubscribe, email unsubscribe@agrm.org.