Permission has been granted to pass this story along, and I hope you all have others you can pass it along to, as well. Andrea (Ademink) has been an inspiration to me and to many others in her work to help the homeless. And now, her dreams will be coming true! Bless her! :)
As Andrea says in her 2nd email, "This is a bit lengthy but please grab a cup of coffee & take the time to read it all!" It's worth it! :)
Brenda
Email #1
> Good morning!
>
>
>
> I will try to make this succinct and coherent but I
> might wander, so bear
> with me! Hehe
>
>
>
> As some of you know, my future vision for The
> PourHouse is to have a
> Community Center for the homeless that gets away
> from the "services and
> shelters" mentality. I would like to have a place
> where the people we serve
> can begin to look again at the "whole man" and move
> beyond daily survival to
> recognizing their dreams, talents and desires.
>
>
>
> In this Center, I envision a free (nice) coffeehouse
> where they are SERVED,
> a library, arts center, music area, job and computer
> training, a place for
> men to have their own area to garden and various
> other more unconventional
> ideas. In addition, I would like to have a floor or
> two of transitional
> housing where men are paired up with a
> "non-homeless" man to build a
> relationship.so that he can help him on his journey
> toward wholeness. My
> vision also includes multiple AA and NA meetings in
> the facility as well as
> a free counseling center. There is much more to my
> ultimate vision but that
> should give you a good, nutshell idea for now. :-)
>
>
>
> Over the last several years when I have envisioned
> this facility, I always
> pictured it in an actual location in my mind's eye.
> It seemed that every
> time I talked about it.this particular area is where
> I could see it
> existing.
>
>
>
> In the last couple of days, I have received
> information that THIS ACTUAL
> LOCATION has come up for sale! To say I was blown
> away would be an
> understatement! LOL It is 3.5 acres and is located
> in a PERFECT
> spot....close to the city but not SO close that we
> would constantly fight
> against being pushed out. It is not in a
> residential area and is more off
> of the beaten track so it is not right in the public
> eye.
>
>
>
> It was previously an industrial facility that has
> since been torn down and
> so it is land only. It has environmental issues
> (not sure what they are
> yet) that would have to be dealt with but the plus
> side of that is that most
> people don't want to mess w/ the headache and so it
> will keep most buyers at
> bay.
>
>
>
> My request to you is for prayer that God's will
> would truly would be done.
> I don't want my vision to get in the way of HIS and
> want to make sure that I
> continue to allow Him to open and close doors. We
> will be approaching the
> attempted procurement of this property through both
> conventional and
> unconventional means - tax credits, city funds,
> private donations and other
> things that I don't understand. LOL
>
>
>
> I REALLY want to make sure that we use wisdom in
> this venture and pray for
> obvious answers to our questions, requests and
> needs.
>
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read this and for
> taking the time to pray
> for me and for The PourHouse.
>
>
> If you have any questions about any of this, please
> ask away!!! I'm so
> excited I could barely sleep last night and I'm sure
> that my husband would
> love for me to process this with someone else
> besides him! Ha!
>
>
>
> Blessings and thank you.
>
>
>
> Andrea
Email #2
Good afternoon!
If you did not receive the initial email pertaining to
this follow-up, please email me and I will send it to
you. This is a bit lengthy but please grab a cup of
coffee take the time to read it all!
It appears nobody will grow an extra arm
Since emailing you last week regarding this potential
property for The PourHouse, I have some exciting
updates. We have received the environmental report on
the land and from what we can tell, it has already
been cleaned up and we have a "go" from a safety
perspective. We are still awaiting a copy of the
official Certificate of Completion verifying that it
has passed inspection but so far, it looks good and so
we will not be forming a mutant colony if we inhabit
the property!
Jesus rocks my worldÂ
Last Saturday morning, on my way to go to a
neighborhood garage sale in Geist (first garage sale I
have been to in a year, by the way), I told God for
the first time that I REALLY want to get this
property. "Your will be done" and various other
disclaimers thrown in, of course, but I (sort of)
boldly "came before His throne making my petitions
known". I went to a hundred sales, or so it seemed,
and then my mom and I went to an adjoining
neighborhood that just had a few houses with sales.
I walked up a driveway and saw a large collection of
industrial light cages with glass for sale. I love
old stuff and so perused them  noticed they were
$30.00/ea. and stopped perusing. As I was waiting, I
noticed that one of them had the name of a company on
them. I began to question the man about where the
lights were taken from. I asked him if it was company
"A", located at blah blah blah. He said it wasnÂtÂit
was located elsewhere and that the name of the company
was "B"Âbought out by company "C", etc, etc. I
continued to quiz him about who the company was
purchased by, what the physical address was at that
time, etc.
I pulled out a printout & map from my car of the
location of the property we are looking at and
discovered that the lights came from the *original
building that sat on the downtown property we are
trying to purchase*!!! The original 80 year old
building was demolished some time ago and these lights
were thrown in the salvage dumpster. Someone knew
that this man liked old items and so pulled them out
of the dumpster and gave them to himÂ..back in 1997.
He held on to them, tried to sell them on consignment
several years ago and nobody bought themÂand then put
them in his garage sale in Geist for me to find 10
years later.
It is obviously an understatement to say that we were
all blown away!!! He sold them to me for $3 each and
told me he has more that he is going to give me. He
told me that they need to be in our new building when
we build it and I concurred. I am normally not one
who calls everything a "sign" and, in fact, am often
hesitant to do so lest I push my own will and way in a
situation. However, this is a bit like a 2 by 4
upside the head and WOW, was I encouraged!
Dough re miÂ
Unless there is an unforeseen problem with the
environmental Certificate of Completion, we are going
to move forward with purchasing the property. It is
in a highly desirable location and so time is of the
essence. (The price just dropped by over 40% because
the company desires a "quick sell".)
We need $500,000 to purchase this land and I am
writing to request not only your prayers, but also for
you to consider how you might be able to invest in
this venture financially. Additionally, I would
appreciate you sharing this information with others
that have money just burning a hole in their pocket
who would be interested in partnering with us in this
venture!
Being the straight-forward nuts and bolts kind of
person that I am, I didnÂt create an "adopt a brick
with your name" program or anything. If that
motivates you, I have a giant Sharpie that can
accomplish the task  just let me know!
If you would like to sit down with me to discuss this
further or have any questions, please contact me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I would
appreciate any thoughts, feedback or ideas!
Blessings,
Andrea
comettose
jeanner
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