Mar 11, 2016

Computer Lab payoff, showers, and answered prayers!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


Showers are a hit with clients
We have prayed for years that we would be able to provide shower facilities for our clients, and this summer we have had the chance. And we didn't want to offer showers that had a bad reputation so we have really good rules and high expectations so they remain safe, sanitized, and clean. We've had no problems and in our first week 10 people took showers. That's the maximum number of slots we have. At least two other groups that serve our clients might follow our lead and offer showers. And we have two facilities where showers could be part of the offering if we had sufficient volunteers and interest.


"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." -- Mahatma Gandhi


The computer lab is paying off!


Our computer lab seems to be a hit and is accomplishing good things. We had nine computers that are continually in use this past week, and we even have a printer! We admit that our clients mainly want to relax and have fun using the computers. That's fine with us. However, we do require them to demonstrate one cloud-basic computer skill from our list every hour for them to be able to use our computers. We have a list, and they can pick from it. And so far, there's been no pushback, and lots of skills have been demonstrated.

It may sound like a small thing, but people who haven't remembered their email passwords in months are creating new (and well-named) accounts. They are using them to register for PayPal and Amazon. They even have demonstrated that they can create an Amazon Wishlist. All this may sound trivial, but it's just the beginning. We will be making sure they know how to set up alerts on Craigslist, use eBay, sell some of the items we no longer need on Amazon, receive payment (from us for selling some of our no longer needed items) on PayPal, etc.

This is a big confidence booster, and we know it's leading toward change for our clients. We also are making sure they know how to look up information online from reasonable sources.

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