SYM donors do all of this -- and more!

Your funds do all of this -- and more!

As we pass mid-2016, we believe we are in a strong position to continue helping street-dependent youth in Austin find more stability, sobriety, re-connection with God and a faith home. We do that by working with the West Campus neighborhood, churches, partners and volunteers, with whom we are so richly blessed.

These recent quotes will let you know whether it works or not:

A man who was addicted to meth and homeless just a year ago sent me a text. He attended a wide variety of our events, and now we keep in touch mainly by electronic means: "Terry, everything's going okay. I'm truly following Christ. Every step I have taken has been revealed. I see when I turn to wants it becomes a struggle, but when I keep my focus on Christ nothing is a struggle."

Or a note from someone served only briefly in November and December 2013 who wrote to say: "You probably won't remember me. I hung around for a little while in 2012-2013. I remember speaking to you multiple times ... . I don't know how many success stories you hear, but I just wanted to let you know that I haven't done dope in 2 1/2 years, and I just bought my own house in a suburb of Kansas City. I've been in and around churches for most of my life, and the single greatest gift I have been given was a hot meal, a fresh pair of socks, and a safe place to sleep for a few hours. Unlike a lot of places, at my worst you guys never turned me away. Christmas was the best taco dinner I've ever had. So thanks. Anyway, if you don't remember me that doesn't hurt my feelings. I remember you and the rest of the staff and how much the simple things y'all did for me helped. It made me feel like an actual person."

Or a comment from a client still on the street at today's Cookin' It Up event: "I've been sober only three days now, but one day I'm going to help people like you do. I'm going to stay sober because I have a baby on the way in November. This Christmas is going to be special. I'll have a new son or daughter. I'm really grateful there are people like you and your team."

SYM donors do all of this and more. If we could color what their funds do with a bright green SYM dye, you could see swatches of color painted all over Austin, Texas, and even across the country from the eight years we have been in "business" and into the next decade as former clients influence others with what they have learned and received at SYM. Again... thank you!

Mayor Pro Tem Cole Reading Proclamation

We previously posted about our clients that helped the family out of their trapped car.

You can read about it here:

The Mayor Pro Tem, Sheryl Cole, read the proclamation of thanks, when she presented the awards to our four clients. Below is a wonderful picture of the event showing Cole,Terry and the clients.

Clients Receive City of Austin Award

Street Youth Ministry had 24 clients at a laundry, for an event, when a four or five story scaffolding surrounding a new apartment complex collapsed during the terrible storm in West Campus (24th/San Gabriel) on the evening of April 7. 

Two of our clients, Taz and Thomas, ran into the mess, even as stuff was still falling, to determine what was involved. They discovered that there was a car trapped under the rubble. You couldn't see it at all. They called out and learned that the people were trapped but OK. They came back and told us to call 911 to tell them about the people trapped in their car.

As we waited, two more clients, Jeremy Cruts and Chris Shirey, decided there wasn't time to wait for emergency response. There were live cables on the ground in the water, and the scaffolding rubble on the ground was still attached to the third of the scaffolding still on the building. The situation was definitely not stable. 

They went into the rubble of pipes and boards to free the people trapped in their car under all the mess. They brought the four victims, a family badly shaken, back into the laundry with our group to wait for police and ambulance to arrive. All were OK.

Those four clients received the City of Austin Distinguished Service Award.

There was a write up in the university newspaper, The Daily Texan. Read the story here.

A comment to The Daily Texan article posted online:

"Wow, and very true, they showed that heroism and bravery come in many forms, and not everyone on the street is what/who you may think they are about."