You and all the folks from Seeds of Faith are such a vital part of who we are at Chase Home. You are a special gift to us.

With deep appreciation,

Katy

She is only four years old, can not speak, and rarely smiles. She is a resident at the homeless shelter with her mom, her mother’s boyfriend and 7-month old baby sister. She didn’t stand out because of how cute or how smart she was. It was the pain in her eyes, and the sadness that drew me to her. As sad as her story is, no matter how dark, no matter how difficult, no matter how insignificant, young or old someone is, God steps down from His heavenly throne to reveal His Love. Sometimes through the smallest of acts.

From the time we met Isabella, I noticed that she would wear the same pair of worn out pink crocks. (plastic shoes) Her mom let me know it was the only pair she owned. Well, since fall has arrived and the weather is getting colder, it was time for a new pair of shoes for Isabella.

So I took Isabella to the shoe store, had her sized and fitted for a pair of the most beautiful pair of shoes a little four year old could own. A pair of “Dora the explora light up shoes!”

At first the feeling was strange, but as she got used to them and without taking her eyes off her feet, she began to realize that every time she took a step, the lights went on! Amazing to see life in her eyes-BUT THEN we got to the shelter and even more amazing, for the first time I saw Isabella (still watching her feet) with a HUGE smile on her face as she began to DANCE in excitement in front of everyone there! What a testimony to her mom, and the residents at the homeless shelter who stood in amazement as they watched Isabella dance with happy feet!!!!!!

Cost of the shoes: $29.99
Sacrifice of time: 60 minutes
A smile on a little girls face, dancing feet, and the testimony of Gods love: PRICELESS

“How can we know the power of Jesus is still at work? When we see the simple needs of simple people being met in a powerful way.”

My mother runs Seeds of Faith ministry, and she spends much of her time helping the homeless. My brother and I went with her to deliver food to a homeless family that was staying at a campground. When we arrived, the family wasn’t there, so we drove to another site where another homeless person lived. As we pulled up, my mother said that he wasn’t himself. He was normally excited when he had company, but this time he seemed very scared! He came over to my side of the car and looked in. Then walked over to my mother’s side, which was a relief to me!

He was a single, deaf man who had been through so much. He appeared to be somewhat “rough” (you know, the biker type) but after only ten minutes he almost had me in tears. My mother asked him what was wrong. He told us that early that morning someone had cut a hole in the pop-up trailer he lived in, crawled inside and stole all his money. Then he told us that he was being kicked out after getting into a fight with the guy who had taken the money. At that point, he began to fall apart.

He said, “They ran from me, like they were scared of me.” He seemed confused that anyone would be scared of him. He didn’t want to put fear in people. During the conversation, he mentioned that the man was at the same campsite where we had just delivered food. These two men had known each other before they ended up at the campground!

The man knew him—his whole story—that he was deaf, had been hit by a truck and left for dead. His mother had passed on, and he had nothing left! He showed us all his cuts, and told us that neither the police nor the people who owned the campsite would do anything! The man is no larger than me. He is just a tiny man who has tattoos and dresses tough, but, in all reality, probably couldn’t hurt anyone. But apparently the man who stole the money is one of those scummy guys who makes people believe he is innocent. As we sat there watching, my mom held him while he wept, and trying to console him and think of some way to help him, when a police officer came to escort him from the campground.

What is it you can do for a man like this? He needs help, and he has so many reasons to deserve it, but he is stuck in a campsite being treated like this! Is this what he deserves? I can’t understand how any person could not see the fear and sadness in this man.

I am so confused!

As Director of Seeds of Faith ministry for the last eight years, and now assistant to the director at The Homeless Center in Rochester, NH, i’ve seen thousands of orphaned, men, women and children who struggle to survive. I see so many precious souls who not only have to deal with the degrading affects of poverty and hopelessness, but also strive through a broken system to get what help they can. The story you just read was written by my beautiful daughter, Eva Marie Tozier. It affected her so much that she came home that day and began to look into grants to help people like the friend you just read about not fall through the cracks. Eva didn’t see him anymore with her eyes, but with a heart that wept for him.
But this story has a very happy ending… God uses Seeds of Faith to help connect them to the resources they are in need of. Not only did he get help, but because of people like Joyce and Fred Ricketts, whose comfort, love, and friendship in time of trouble made such a huge difference in his life that he is not just a friend anymore, but he is now our brother in Christ here at Christian Life Church! He has also just recently moved into a new apartment.

Theresa Tozier

There are so many masterpieces in the world that go unnoticed, but God gives us the gift of being able to see the inner beauty of a person. This is a story of one of His masterpieces.

We will call her Beautiful. Her story is nothing short of a complete miracle. So let me start at the time we first met our friend, Beautiful. We were serving a hot, delicious meal at our local homeless shelter when someone said, “Theresa, someone is looking for you to pray for them!” I thought, “What? Someone is making a public announcement to be prayed for? I can see the enemy cringe at such a suggestion spoken out loud in this place of hopelessness!”

“Hallelujah!”

She arrived at the homeless shelter “much afraid”. Not understanding the cruel environment she was being thrust into, she asked one of the caseworkers if there was anyone who would pray with her. The one thing Beautiful had to hang onto was her hope in Jesus. She started to share her story as we were serving dinner, and she began to weep. While Robert Beauregard and Giacamo Sayahi continued serving, Angela Taddeo and I took her aside to pray with her. While she “hugged us with her tears” and continued with her story, we prayed with her and comforted her with the Love of God. During the coming weeks, as we began to spend time with her, it was obvious that Beautiful was having a hard time with the emotional shock she was enduring at the shelter. She had never experienced all the freedoms and privileges we are blessed with. The freedoms of going outside, watching TV or talking on the phone, etc. were not allowed by the strict rules her adoptive parents imposed on her since her adoption ten years earlier.

She had no identity—in herself or in society. But that was about to change thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior! At first, the task in front of us seemed overwhelming as we were not equipped to help someone find an identity—or so we thought!

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” ~
Psalm 139:13,14

Part 2
It has been 6 months now since we first met Beautiful, and she is well on her way to living an independent life. That doesn’t mean it has been easy, but because of her tenacity to learn and to succeed, she pushes through as she finds her identity.

First, we moved Beautiful to a dry shelter—one that was safer and had more resources. She was assigned a wonderful caseworker that has made a huge difference. Then we obtained all the necessary documentation, such as a passport, social security card and birth certificate. We also realized her education was minimal, but her hunger to learn was endless! So she was enrolled in school where she is excelling. We also learned that at the age of 23, Beautiful had never worked a job. So Christian Life Church hired her temporarily—the very same church that became her lighthouse when she was lost and confused. She has gotten new glasses to help her see better, and has had an ear operation to help her to hear. Among so many more changes that Beautiful has had to make and grow through, I find most precious is how she sees herself. She came into our lives as a frail, scared, beaten down little orphan girl who knew nothing about who she was, or where she belonged. But now she is growing into a beautiful young woman who is not just finding her identity, but her identity in Christ as she reads and hears the TRUTH of God!

“He has drawn her by grace and put the banner of love over her, has given her the garment of salvation and placed over her the robe of righteousness”

A week later, she came into the shelter and asked if she could talk to me, alone. It was obvious that she had been shaken by something. She then began to unfold her story. You see, she had a child that she had given up for adoption three years ago due to the situations and circumstances in her life that prohibited her from keeping this precious child. Because of the poor choices of her past, they landed her before the court system with a conviction that cost her a year of her life. Newly married and very pregnant she gave birth only 9 days of her second child before starting her incarceration. The prison then sent her to our little homeless shelter on 9th street to wait out the rest of her time before she can go back home to her beautiful baby girl and husband who have been anticipating her home coming in Kentucky.

She stated “I have been reading the bible a lot since I got it. I have also been asking God to please give me some sort of sign that the little boy I had given up three years ago was OK.”  Well on this day, she went to do her community service hanging Christmas lights downtown with a few other people. She noticed a little boy walking towards her. As he got closer, she could not help but notice how cute and how happy he was as this little boy was walking with his mom. “Then the little boy stopped and looked up at me, and said “I like your lights!” That is when she noticed it was HER little boy that she had given up for adoption. (As she wept while telling me, she still was having a hard time grasping what had happened!) “All I did was ask God for a sign?” Because guilt and condemnation from her past kept her from asking what she really wanted, the cry of her heart did not go unheard! I know that God himself had an enormous grin on his face as it pleased him to lavish his grace upon this young lady as He answered the cry of her heart! What a priceless gift she had been given, not only to see her son happy and well cared for, but she could know go home having laid aside all her fears and doubts. This little boy should remind us what Christmas is all about!

“He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted” Job 5:9

I wonder if the Grinch’s blues where because no one knew he would like to celebrate, too. For fifty three years the Grinch was isolated three thousand feet up Mount Crumpit! I am sure that the Grinch was depressed when he went up to the mountain or else why would he want to live three thousand feet high, isolated from Who-Ville? Isolation is a by-product of depression and it leaves the mind alone with endless words of hopelessness and failure which deepens the depression.

This year Seeds of Faith with the help of Wentworth Country Club and CLC were able to have a memorial remembering a young man Michael Choi who died tragically by taking his own life. It was a privilege for us to help those who loved Michael Choi have closure, and say goodbye. What was so amazing at the memorial was how many people expressed such love for this man through beautiful poems, stories, and letters. Why did Michael feel so alone with so many people around him? They say he had a “gypsy soul” traveling from house to house, never settling anywhere for very long. So whether you live in the South End of Boston where people live so close that all you have to do is put an empty cup out the window to borrow sugar, or on a “crumpet” mountain three thousand feet up all by yourself, you are not alone!

In Proverbs 12:25 It says

“Anxiety in the heart of man cause depression, but a good word makes it glad.” (indent with shadow box)

Why did the Grinch wait fifty three years to come down from the mountain? “All those Who-Villes holding hands and singing; I’ll teach them!” (or maybe It was I want to join them in his head was ringing?)

Depression hits believers as well as unbelievers.

“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.” Proverbs 12:25

We tend to think that somehow they are a lesser class of people or that maybe they deserve it. Maybe they were somehow destined to be homeless, although I have never heard of anyone in a hurry to grow up so that they could be homeless.

I would like to introduce you to someone very special who was homeless. His name is Henry Bowden. We first met him in the food line at our local homeless shelter. He was 61 at the time and had been a resident there for about a year and a half. He’d been homeless for five years before that living out of his car.

As he hobbled through the food line with the help of an old crutch, we realized that he was going to need extra help. As we got to know Henry, we began to find out what some of his needs were. We helped him get clothes, food, medicine and transportation for doctor visits.

At the same time, we would pick Henry up on Sundays to bring him to church with us. He always looked forward to being with those who had become his church family. Before service, he especially enjoyed the baked treats and a cup of coffee. One day, I asked Henry, “What are your goals for getting out of this homeless shelter?” Like so many people who are stuck in their circumstances, he said he had none. So, for the first time, Seeds of Faith began to help transition someone from homelessness to independence by arranging for his medical needs and moving him into an apartment in Portsmouth.

It was furnished with a brand new bed and his favorite leather chair, and it had cabinets stocked with food and much more! Henry didn’t quite know what to say but, “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!”

It was Henry’s needs that drew us to him, but very quickly it turned into a love between forever friends! Henry passed away DATE HERE, and as I listened to the many recollections of him at his memorial service, one in particular stood out. His fondness for dandelions was one of the memories that his family had of him. When he was a little boy, he would often carry one around.

Because Henry was homeless for a time, people didn’t see the great value he possessed. Like so many homeless people labeled with the scarlet letter of rejection, people could not see his tender heart, sense of humor, child-like faith, or his desire to help! Funny thing; people don’t realize the value in dandelions either.

Some interesting facts about dandelions: (BULLETS LIKE ON PREV PAGES)

• Open during the day and close at night.
• Can play an important role in the human body as an antioxidant. They fight free radicals that cause cancer.
• Their flowering is used as an indicator that the honeybee season is starting. For bees and early emerging butterflies, they are also an important source of nectar and pollen early in the season.
• They can produce an average of 200 seeds per head and as many as 460.
• Last but not least, the dandelion seeds have built in parachutes that carry them to their destination when ready.

Henry always gave from his heart. He didn’t have much, but he did what he could. From a little boy with dandelions in his hand until his last days, he had a smile that pierced our hearts and jokes that sometimes weren’t that funny but still made us laugh. He challenged us with many questions that he now has the answers to!

But just like the dandelion that reproduces and leaves behind its seed, our Henry also leaves behind something far, far greater! A legacy.

His legacy includes the development of the Henry Bowden Trust Fund for the Homeless Its purpose is to help others just like Henry— people who are valued and priceless, as every life is, but just need a hand to help them get out of the circumstances they find themselves stuck in.

If you would like to contribute to the Henry Bowden Trust Fund, (INFO???, It just ends)

Reminders:

December 21: Cross Roads Christmas Party