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November 2011

Dear Friends,

We thank God for you each day. We asked for your help – and you responded with such care – thank you.

Your prayers and donations allow us to help some of the most forgotten people in our world. Some will never be missed by anyone, others just want to be invisible, and others are desperate for someone to care about their plight. Each person has their own story and reason for being where we come across them.

Pete was sitting with a group of children in the woods recently and their conversation was about the upcoming “holidays”. One of the boys, who is seventeen years old and lives among the trees with his parents, had just asked Pete if it would be at all possible for Pete to get them a Nativity set for Christmas – so they could keep it near where they sleep in the woods.

“What is Nativity?” asked one of the little boys who was sitting with them.

The young man who had made the request said: “Nativity is when Jesus is born and everyone cares about each other.”

We’re going to think about that a lot as we work with the people during these winter months.

We are so grateful you care about God’s poor.

Sue was helping at the Outreach office in our parish last week, when a woman called to ask where she could get help paying for a motel room. Because of your generosity this woman and her husband and two children were able to stay at the motel, where they were two nights short on rent money, until her husband got his first paycheck at his new job. You also helped them with food for those two days.

In the last couple of weeks Pete has helped several people get bus tickets so they can go home. One man went home to his mother’s funeral. Others are leaving the area because they did not find the promised jobs.

Sue has been driving a woman to physical therapy two times each week for the past two months. This is a woman who has always worked, but last December she slipped on the ice on her back steps and broke her hip. In March, when Sue met her, she walked with a cane – leaning so far to the right that she looked as though she would fall over with each step. She had not gotten physical therapy, because at the time of the accident she didn’t have insurance. Finally with the help of the parish Outreach office, she was approved for disability and now has Medicaid insurance. Two months of physical therapy and she is walking upright – which is a great thing, because her feet are her only mode of transportation around town.

Pete is working with our parish to provide hot Thanksgiving meals for the communities he is serving in the woods and in local motels. The excitement at having a real hot meal is overwhelming. One boy in the woods told Pete that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just like all the other days. They collect cans along the highway so they can get money for recycling them -nothing special. Now he has something to look forward to.

Sue has been working with a lady who lives in a small one bedroom apartment. Her roof is leaking – water runs down the bathroom wall and into the light socket. She is afraid to pester the landlord – afraid he will kick her out. She was sure she could not find another place for the $185.00 she pays for rent each month – until Sue took her to the Rock Hill Housing Authority. She will put in her application on the second Wednesday of  November – Sue will sit with her and help her fill out the paperwork – she doesn’t read too well. Now she has real hope of a better living situation.

When these people and others ask us how we can buy food, give rides for free, help with utilities, buy medications and so many other things – we always tell them we know a lot of people who care. We thank you for continuing to care – all year round. You are bringing so much joy and light into so many lives.

Please look at our website www.truckoflove.org and read Pete’s Corner and Sue’s Corner for more detailed stories of the people we are working with.

We love the notes you write to us. Know we keep you all in our prayers and please continue to pray for us. “Stay all prayed up.” as people here so often say. It helps with all aspects of this life we share.

As a good friend of ours, Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C. , said: “It was all so simple a life, just to be full of Love.” To love as Jesus loves is to care as Jesus cares.

God bless you,
Pete and Sue Fulerton