Newsletter Archive

Eleven years ago Pete had a series of dreams that directed him to leave our comfortable home and live as a homeless person on the streets of the United States. Each year, as we have talked with groups about the work of Truck of Love and Pete’s homeless adventure they have consistently said this ought to be a book. He kept a diary of his travels and the people he met. He has put these into a book titled “Old Men Dream”. This is a book about following your dreams and saying “yes” to God.

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Ten years ago, after a series of dreams and an extended period of discernment, Pete left our comfortable home and became homeless for fifty-three days. During that time, he had lots of amazing experiences. But the most long-lasting result of those days on the road was the conviction that we need each other. There is no way he could have survived as a homeless person if he had not met people along the way who helped him when he was in dire need.

These days, that experience of needing each other comes back loudly and clearly. Our local creeks are swelling with the rain. The homeless people who have chosen to live near the water’s edge are being washed out of their encampments. A few days ago, Pete visited an area where he knew people would be in trouble. There is a railroad trestle and an overpass on the outside of town where the creek flows. He arrived to find four people crouching on the steep hillside under the trestle where they had tied their sleeping bags to shelter themselves from the rain. They sat on the mud attempting to get a small tarp to cover their huddled bodies. The rain and mud flowed around and under them.

Fortunately, Truck of Love had just received a donation of tarps, rain ponchos and new blankets still in plastic bags. It became Christmas on the side of the hill that day. He walked along the trestle tossing plastic wrapped blankets to lots of people trying to find protection from the water. That day he was able to help a few more of God’s children.

We need each other. In the Acts of the Apostles we read about being the Body of Christ – how if one part of our Body suffers, we all suffer. By the same token, we are each given different gifts that are meant to help this Body survive and thrive.

One of the best parts of our work with Truck of Love is being close to so many people who use their God given gifts to help people in need. We are grateful to each of you for sharing your gifts with us and the people we serve.

Of special note at this writing is the Fundraiser for the TOTOL (Tohono O’Odham Truck of Love) Day Camp that was held at the end of January. The team of Cathy Baker, Meighan Wilson, Theresa Beltramo, Mandy and Scott Bell created an afternoon so filled with their spirit and energy, that we were all overwhelmed with happiness. We are grateful to the Beltramo family who opened their home to host this event. We were graced with the presence of past, current and future camp participants as well as many people new to us who came because of the invitation of a friend. It was a great afternoon and over $7,000.00 was raised to get us closer to our goal of $23,000.00 for this year’s camp expenses.

These days the TOTOL Day Camp reaches over 170 children and adults on the reservation. More than 50 teens and adults from the reservation come for a week of leadership training which not only helps all of us to learn camp activities, but teaches skills useful in all our lives.

When we started the camp 22 summers ago, we reached children from the three southern, most remote districts on the reservation. Today the camp is advertised on the O’Odham radio station and we count participants from each of the 11 districts of the reservation. Much of the growth of the camp can be attributed to the work and leadership of Chrissy Rinki and Cathy Baker, the current co-directors of TOTOL Day Camp. We are thankful for their presence in our lives and the lives of the O’Odham youth.

We need each other. We are thankful to each of you who has donated to the TOTOL Day Camp either through the fundraiser or your general support. You enable the O’Odham old and young alike to experience two weeks each summer when they can learn and play in a safe and healthy environment.

We are thankful for all your support. You warm people with blankets and shield them from the rain with rain ponchos and tarps. You provide groceries, medicine, shelter, and clothing to countless women, children and men. It is only with your help that we can continue this work.

Your help often comes in the form of prayer. We ask you to continue to pray for the people we serve and for all those who help us. We also ask your prayers for the family of Bobbie Goodwin, a friend and a long time supporter of this work of Truck of Love. Bobbie died on February 13 after a long battle with cancer.

Thank you for your constant prayers and assistance with this work we call Truck of Love. At this time of year, when we look back, it seems as though the stories are always the same – it’s the names and faces that change. There is the single mother of five who can’t get a room in a homeless shelter because she has teen age boys. There is the father of two, whose wife is an addict, who is trying to get his act together so he can have custody of his children. There are the teens who live in abandoned houses in downtown San Jose and who terrorize the older people living on the streets. There are the tiny newborn infants in parent’s arms in the food line at the soup kitchen.

We read in the gospel of Luke: “…she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in the manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

It seems there will always be those among us who suffer deprivation. They lack housing, food, medicine, clothes, and comfort. It is for us to respond to each person we meet with love, kindness, and compassion. We thank you for helping us do that in concrete ways. This Christmas we will give out gift cards for gas, food and Christmas presents. Whatever you can do to help will be appreciated.

As we look back on this year we also remember the people who have gone to their reward with God. Our dear friend Phil McCrillis died in January. He was a person who encouraged us to go into Truck of Love full time. When we had all sorts of excuses about why we couldn’t do what God was calling us to do, he’d say: “Why not? Why wait? Go for it!” When Phil died this year we were reminded how the existence of Truck of Love really goes back to his insistence that we follow our hearts. We are thankful for his presence in our lives. We miss his presence with us here on earth.

This past year also saw the completion of the 21^st year of the camp for the Native American children of the Tohono O’Odham Nation in Arizona . The camp we started because there was nothing for the children to do in the hot summer of the desert has grown into a major happening on the reservation. Next to the annual Saint Francis Feast in Pisinemo, Camp TOTOL (Tohono O’Odham Truck of Love) is the longest continuous running activity on the reservation. Last summer it cost over $21,000 to make camp happen.

It’s been quite the year and we are ready and eager to begin all over again in 2008. We wonder what God has in store for us….

Again we go to the Gospel of Luke and hear Mary’s response to the angel: “I am the Lord’s servant.” We pray we will enter this new year with the resolve to continue to be God’s servants. We pray we will respond to God’s continuing call with a resounding “Yes!”

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

What in the world was Jesus saying when He talked about the kingdom of heaven belonging to the little children? We think Jesus is pleading with us to keep the awe and wonder that we had as children. He is telling us that we must trust and love like a child does. He is advising us that we must remain open and excited about life.

We witnessed lots of “little children” this summer. Some were three or four years old. Some were forty, fifty or eighty years old. Each of them exhibited, for a time, that spirit of fun that we associate with “little children”.

What a summer! We began in early June by being privileged to assist with the Saint Francis High School Holy Cross Immersion in downtown San Jose . We escorted 25 teens and six adults from five Holy Cross High Schools to a variety of our favorite places in and around San Jose . We spent time with the disabled people at Agnews Developmental Center , the “houseless” people at the CHAM shelter, the kids at Washington School in the Catholic Charities CHORAL Program, the teens at the Washington United Youth Center , the elderly at John XXIII Multi-Service Center and the Eastside Center , the hungry at Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen.

We watched as our Holy Cross teens interacted with people from all sorts of backgrounds. We saw their compassion and understanding grow during their week of service. We also saw the response from the people they came to serve. Faces brightened into lots of smiles, there was laughter and for a time we were all “little children”.

At the end of June we went to Arizona to spend a couple of days with the TOTOL (Tohono O’Odham Truck Of Love) Camp in Pisinemo. It is so hard to describe how wonderful it was to be at camp this year. This was the 21^st year of the camp and it was held in the new Pisinemo Recreation Center . The camp day was the same as it has been for many years – the children and counselors rotate through a variety of activities – including sports & games, arts & crafts, cultural activities, and guest presenters. More than 100 children were at camp – with more than 40 Tohono O’Odham counselors and kitchen helpers. The children came from all over the reservation – some places over an hour’s drive away.

It is apparent to us that camp is having a huge influence on the people of the Tohono O’Odham Nation. We are seeing some of the original campers returning with their children or coming back to help at camp. Many of our original campers are working for the Nation as youth workers in the various programs sponsored by the Nation. Many of the camper’s parents and grandparents return to camp each year to help in a variety of capacities from cooking to presenting cultural activities. They look forward to camp from the time camp ends until the counselors arrive for leadership training the following June. It is their chance to be “little children”.

We are very grateful to Cathy Baker and Chrissy Rinki for taking on the camp leadership for Truck of Love. We are grateful to Mandy & Scott Bell for helping Camp through Truck of Love South. We are grateful to the Saint Francis High School students and graduates who were camp counselors this year. We are grateful to Samuel Fayuant and the staff at the Pisinemo Recreation Center for hosting our group.

We are grateful to you for your continued help to Truck of Love. You provided most of the funding for the TOTOL Camp this summer.

You also help us with our local work. Just this week we helped a mother and her children get into a motel until they can be accepted into the battered women’s shelter. You helped save this woman and her kids. This week you also provided two mattresses for a father and his kids so they didn’t have to sleep on the floor of the shelter where they stay. It is because of your generosity that we are able to help people with food or clothing, beds, bus passes, quarters for laundry or any of the hundreds of other requests we get in a month. Thank you.

It is Good Friday, the day Christ died. We know Easter Sunday is coming. Christ is risen. Alleluia!

So often we encounter people when they are in the midst of death: a brother whose sister is murdered, a mother whose husband has had an accident, or a child whose father has left the family – never to return. Pete meets them on the streets of San Jose or they come to our front door. The stories are predictable the same, but the pain is as individual as each person. Because of your generosity, we are able to give them something tangible – money for funeral, gas for the car so they can get to a job, bus tokens so the children can get to school, quarters for laundry and Safeway gift cards for food. Your generosity helps them experience the risen Christ, the Christ of hope.

In early March Sue went to Arizona for the annual preparation meeting for the TOTOL (Tohono O’Odham Truck of Love) summer camp. This will be the 21st year of summer camp in Pisinemo, a small village two and a half hours southwest of Tucson. The meeting was attended by some of the O’Odham who have helped at camp in the past few years as well as Charissy Rinki and Cathy Baker, the co-directors of the camp hand the two Franciscan sisters who live in the village – Sister Carla and Sister Ange. There was a time during the meeting when they went around the table talking about why they were there and what camp means to each person. Two comments stood out. One person commented that with the new recreation centers opening in each district on the reservation (Built with money from the casinos.), they are discovering that many of the youth leaders are coming from the TOTOL camp experience. – the camp is training leaders for the children. The youth who have come to camp are returning year after year, their children are coming to camp; their parents are helping at camp. It has become a positive influence on the whole family.

Life is still very hard on the reservation. But to sit at the table and listen to each person talk about the positive effect camp has had on the lives of the participants was truly an experience of the risen Christ – The Christ of hope.

The summer camp will be held at the new recreation center in Pisinemo which is under the direction of Samuel Fayaunt. He has generously invited the out- of – state camp staff into the facility for the two weeks of camp leadership training and camp. The new kitchen will be available for preparing meals for the 180+ daily campers. As you can imagine – there is a lot of excitement about using the new facility. We are grateful to Samuel and his staff for opening their space to the TOTOL camp.

There will be six St Francis High School students joining the camp staff this summer. They will be accompanied by one of their teachers, Meghan Wilson, who is returning to camp after an eight year absence.

Camp expenses are huge. Last year van rental for the two weeks was $8,000.00. The vans are essential so the children who live in the outer villages (some as far as fifty miles away) can get to camp. Food for breakfast and lunch each day for 180+ people is the next major cost. In addition last year there were about 40 people each night for dinner, because many old friends came by to say hi and stay to share the evening meal. We estimate camp will cost about $12,000.00 this year. Whatever you can do to help will be appreciated.

After the forty days of Lent, Christ is risen! There is hope for all of us. We see the progress of death and resurrection play out each day. We are grateful to each of you for being part of the miracle of resurrection for our local brothers and as well as those who live in far away places. Your prayers and good works make a difference in many people’s lives.

This is truly a season of Thanksgiving! We are thankful to you for your continuing generosity to God’s poor through Truck of Love. You are clothing the naked and feeding the hungry.

Daily people come to our door or leave messages on our phone – pleading for help. Men and women just out of prison, families living on the banks of the Guadalupe River in San Jose, people staying in homeless shelters who lack clothing and personal items, little children and mothers wet and cold from the rain are those helped by Truck of Love.

Pete received a call last week from a mother with seven children. Her husband left and she is without his income. Her youngest is one year old. Though Pete had no idea how he could add another family to the growing Christmas list, he just couldn’t turn her down. He visited with her at her house and it was chaos. He told her he would try to find someone to help. It was that same day a class at Saint Francis High School asked Sue about adopting a family. It was a match made in heaven!

This Christmas season many families are asking for gift cards so they can shop for their own families. Many churches and schools have committed to donating some gift cards, but we have a great need for gift cards in any amount for Target, Wal Mart or Safeway. We ask that if you send gift cards to us that you also send the purchase receipt – so we know the amount on the card. It also helps to have the receipt in case the store tries not to honor the card.

We have more than 150 families that we are committed to serving with Christmas gifts and food. As always, if you want to adopt a family you can call Pete at (408) 295-7320. Adopting a family means you commit to calling them, asking about their needs and either delivering food and gifts for Christmas or sending gift cards to them. When you adopt a family you are making a firm commitment to help make their holiday a little brighter.

We thank you in advance for your help. God bless you and keep you now and always.

We are grateful to so many individuals and organizations this year who have coordinated donations: Kaye Svedeman’s annual food drive, Greg & Pat Plant’s annual gift of 500 rain ponchos, Saint Christopher’s School in San Jose, Notre Dame de Namur grade school in Burlingame, Holy Spirit Parish in San Jose, Saint William Parish in Los Altos, Los Altos United Methodist Church, Los Altos Town Crier Holiday Fund. You are the hands of Christ reaching out to the poor.

Thank you to our Board of Directors: Nel Anton, Mary Alice Callahan, Glen Haubl, and Phil McCrillis. Their guidance and encouragement is priceless.

Pete and Sue along with Father Jim Hanley, S.J. will be giving a Married Couples Retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos on the weekend of February 2-4, 2007. The theme of the retreat is “Strength for Our Journey.” These weekends are a great way for married couples to renew friendship with each other and with God in a very safe, fun, relaxing and spiritual atmosphere. You can look on line at www.elretiro.org

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

It’s been two days since our return from the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation in Southwest, Arizona. We are exhausted, but very happy. This is the twentieth summer camp and we saw many positive changes.

We have not been physically present at the day camp since the year 2000, although Truck of Love has continued to finance much of the camp expenses. The day to day planning has been carried out largely by Cathy Baker and Chrissy Rinki, with a lot of assistance from many others. Camp TOTOL (Tohono O’Odham Truck of Love)is in very good hands.

This year we had one week of leadership training with the O’Odham who wanted to help at camp. We were deeply moved on the first day the number of O’Odham who were present for leadership- We had 47 O’Odham teens and adults participating! Combined with the 15 people we brought, we had a group equal in number to the whole camp the first year in 1986!

When camp opened this year on June 26 we had 180 children and adults who ate breakfast that first day! We quickly went back to the food planning to revise our quantities – 25 dozen eggs, 60 pounds of ground beef, 20 pounds of pasta, etc…..

Sue worked in the kitchen with 15 O’Odham adults. They had so much fun! Working with one small four burner stove and several outside wood burning grills made of adobe covered with plaster, they turned out two meals a day for campers and counselors.

Pete came in toward the end of the second week of camp and boosted everyone’s tired spirits with his music and presence.

The kids who came to camp were all smiles. There were lots of children of those original campers of 1986.

On Sunday, July 1, we had our 20th Anniversary Celebration. The program included a Tohono O’Odham blessing by Anthony Flores words from the District Chairman, Johnson Jose, songs from the Pisinemo Traditional Singers, dance music from our favorite band:” Desert Spirit”( several former campers play in this group) and a special Buffalo dance by the Hunter family.

We cherish this time we were able to spend with good friends. We see lots of progress since we were on the reservation. The young people are taking an interest in the traditions, culture, ceremonies, and language of their people. The tribe is providing more services to meet the needs of the elderly and the youth. There is diabetes awareness, healthy eating programs (we had training with the O’Odham kitchen helpers about healthier ways to cook traditional foods), programs about culture and language, and more drug counseling available. More of the youth are attending college and graduating!

Youth recreation services are improving in the districts- we had a youth director from the northern part of the reservation. We spent time savoring the sunrises, and sunsets, the monsoon rain, the ragged doge, but most specially the people. Their life is still very hare. Drug addiction is a terrible problem. Unemployment makes everything an effort. Yet they come together.

Camp this year turned out to be more costly than we had anticipated. We received an anonymous of $10.000.00 designated for the camp that kept us afloat. But we had to rent four vans to get the kids to camp each day – rental alone was $8,000.00! Each day , cost of materials plus incidental expenses….

We thank you for your continued support and prayers. You have made hundreds of people happy this summer.

We’re back to our local work which never stops. Each time we help someone with food, lodging or bus passes we tell them it is you who are the ones who are helping them – we are just the conduit between you and them. Thank you!

P.S. If you know anyone who has an industrial stove (six burners, griddle, two large ovens – with racks!) who could get it delivered to Pisinemo – it would sure make cooking for 180 people way easier! Please ask anyone and everyone you know to see if that can become a reality.

Where does the time go? It was just yesterday when we were pleading for help for Christmas. Thank you for enabling so many families to experience a little extra joy for the holidays. Every family likes to celebrate and your generosity enabled many people to have that special holiday feeling.

Now it is spring and we are soaked with the rain. Water logged people arrive at our door each day. The emergency shelters have announced their seasonal closing. More people are back on the streets. Your help is always needed.

We also look forward to this coming summer. In June Sue will accompany five Saint Francis High School students to Arizona for the 20^th year of the camp on the Tohono O’odham Nation. By our estimates this is the longest continuing summer activity for the Tohono O’odham children on the reservation.

After twenty years of camp we now have the sons and daughters of our original campers in attendance. The camp staff has gone from mostly outsiders we bring in; to a mostly O’odham leadership, with some outside help from Truck of Love. Several years ago the O’odham chose to change the name of the camp to TOTOL (Tohono O’odham Truck of Love) Camp. Our partnership has been enriching for all of us.

On Saturday, July 1 in Pisinemo, Arizona , the site of the camp, we will have a 20^th Anniversary celebration. Pete is coming in for the weekend. Everyone is welcome- we are hoping some of you who were at the camp in the early years might want to return for a couple of days! Of course it will be in the middle of summer, temps are in the 100+ range and lodging is at least an hour away in a small town called Ajo , Arizona . But if that doesn’t scare you, please feel free to join us. Our celebration will include music, food and fun! We will schedule it for midday.

If you decide to come, please let us know – we will need to alert the reservation police that there will be out of state cars driving in. call Pete with questions at 408 295-7320.

When we started the camp with Sister Patrice and Sister Anne, we never imagined we would still be there twenty years later. Although we, Pete and Sue, have not been present at the camp for the last five years, there is a loyal group of people who have carried on each summer. They have been dedicated to a vision of an environment where the children are nurtured in a safe and welcoming community. We are delighted to return this summer to be with them.

With our local people in need as well as the summer activities, our budget is preparing to stretch even more. Although we have not been physically present at camp, Truck of Love had funded it each year. Camp costs about $10,000 – this covers food for two meals each camp day for about 140 people, transportation to bring the children from villages as far away as fifty miles, camp supplies and any variety of incidental expenses. Camp costs are on top of the approximately $8000 we spend each month to serve the people of this local area with food, clothing, transportation, lodging and emergency medical help. We thank you in advance for your support of all the Truck of Love endeavors. You are truly the hands of Christ reaching out to people in need.

Recently we have been blessed to speak with several Just Faith groups in the San Jose Diocese. Pete has spoken at St. Williams and St. Thomas Aquinas as well as in Social Justice classes at Saint Francis High School. It is always a gift for us to meet people who want to know about the work of Truck of Love. God calls each of us to some special work – God has given each of us talents to be used in the service of others.

“What good is it, if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? Suppose a person is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed”, but does nothing about the person’s physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 1:14-17

It would give me great joy if you could meet Lynne. She is a middle-aged woman, really quite simple, who we have known for about 15 years. Our daughter will never forget one Sunday when Lynne came to our house and wanted to clean up her car so she could live in it more comfortably. At that time, Julie was a teenager and she innocently volunteered to help Lynne. About 15 minutes into this project Julie called me outside to see what she had uncovered – maggots in the upholstery. All we could do was scrub and vacuum and hope we had cleansed the car of the pests. Lynne was getting ready to have her children for a visit in her home – her car.

A few years later, Lynne was on our doorstep again, This time it was Christmas and she wanted some help with gifts for her son and daughter. They would be spending Christmas day in her car with her. She had a puzzle of a Christmas tree and really wanted a flat board so they could work on this puzzle together in the car.

Today, Lynne’s children are older and have been living for some time with their grandmother and aunt. But recently these two women were in an auto accident and can no longer care for the boy and girl. They now live with Lynne in her car.

Each day your donations enable Truck of Love to help people like Lynne. These are the people who fall through the cracks of our society. Some people have homes, some have cars and some need bus passes or food. All of them need a loving person to listen to them – to help counter their fearful existence.

We are entering the “holiday” season. As I sit here at the computer, it is early October. Already in the first 6 days of October, Pete has sixty-five families who have asked for help at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. He is receiving more than 30 phone calls each day from people in need of some kind of help.

We must match each of these requests for help with one of you who wants to help!

THANKSGIVING ADOPT-A-FAMILY

Last year we helped 130 families with food for Thanksgiving. Of these families only 80 were adopted by you – the other 50 families received Scrip from Truck of Love to take to the grocery store. Our goal this year is to have each of these families adopted by you. We need your help!

· Help on Saturday, November 18, to sort and deliver food to families in need (we will meet at St. Nicholas School in Los Altos beginning at 10am – call Pete for details)

Last year we helped 198 families at Christmas. Of these there were 50 non-adopted families that received scrip for gifts and food from Truck of Love. We desperately need your help by adopting a family! Here’s what you can do:

· Help on Saturday, December 23 to sort and deliver food and gifts to families (we will meet at St. Nicholas School in Los Altos starting at 10am– call Pete for details)

UPDATE ON ROBERTO

Many of you have read about Roberto on our web site www.truckoflove.org. Please check out the web site for all the information. Roberto has finished his treatment in the United States. He has returned home with some new equipment and new medicines. Kate and Greg Kremer continue to be in touch with the family and, as needed, are sending medicines to them. We are about to pay the last of the bills – your donations covered weeks of care in some very specialized physical therapy programs. Roberto and his family are deeply grateful to each of you who cared so much to sacrifice your hard-earned dollars to help them. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. This is a lifelong journey for this family.

Scott, Mandy and Zoe Bell have sent us their newsletter about last June’s summer camp on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation. Thanks to your continuing donations, we were able to help fund the summer camp (even though this was the first year Pete and I were not present). Thanks to your generosity Scott and Mandy and their able staff had an incredible three weeks with the O’Odham leaders and children. The camp tradition has become a reality. This is an annual event that children and adults of the tribe anticipate with great excitement.

I just had an e-mail from one of our original campers from 1985. She is now mother of two children and lives in Tucson where she has a job. She wanted me to know that her children go to visit their grandmother in Pisinemo each summer just so they can attend the camp. They look forward to it all year. Thank you to each of you who helps make this possible.

THANK YOU Shoreline Printing in Mountain View - Kathie Behnke for our labels and mailing list - Scott at Sherman’s Auto in Mountain View for keeping our vehicles in good running order - Tom Smith for keeping our computers up and running - Rob Perrier our webmaster (Please e-mail him and let him know what you think about our web site.) – Mark Smith for web site help – Scott and Mandy Bell –Nancy Novak and John Akers for long service on our board of Directors (they have moved out of the area) – Nel Anton, Mary Alice Callahan, Glen Haubl and Phil McCrillis, our remaining Board members - Fr. Elias Galvez,OFM and the Poor Clares and all of you for your prayers for the work of Truck of Love – we are well aware this work does not happen without your continued prayers.

PLEASE REMEMBER IN YOUR PRAYERS

Larry Bell who died just as our last newsletter went to press. Larry was a long-time supporter of our work and was the father of Scott Bell who has now formed Truck of Love South. Cind Tresser, who died very suddenly last month. Cind was a participant on two Truck of Love trips – one to Tijuana and one to the camp in Arizona . We are grateful to each of their families for designating Truck of Love for donations in memory of Larry and Cind. We will continue to remember Larry and Cind and their families in our prayers and ask you to also remember them in prayer.

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

Since our last newsletter we have received so many wonderful notes from so many of you. We give thanks to our God for your prayers and support!

Every year on Christmas there is a reading from Isaiah that fills me with hope and joy for the coming year. In part it says:” The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light….For a child is born to us….His dominion is vast and forever peaceful….”

During this year we have seen many kinds of darkness: the darkness of family abuse, drug dependency, physical hunger and sickness, the darkness of despair and death. We have listened to stories that can’t be possible, but are real.

Recently I met Sheryl. She is a mother of three teenaged girls, and one eleven year-old boy. Currently they are living on the second floor of a low rent apartment complex. Tow years ago the family had a father and lived in a house in a neighborhood much like yours or mine. Late one night in January of 2004 the Dad was returning home from work. He was struck and killed by a drunk driver. The father was insured for just enough to pay for the funeral and a few months of rent on the house.

When money ran out for the rented house, Sheryl and her children had to move in with her late husband’s parents. In July of 2004 the in-law’s home burned to the ground and the children’s grandparents were killed.

Friends of Truck of Love have adopted Sheryl’s family for Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Once again, that light of the Christ child is beginning to shine in Sheryl’s life.

You continually bring that light of Christ to us and to those we serve. Your prayers and your support are witness to the vastness of Christ’s light and peace.

Thank you to the clients of the Laurel Street Center in Santa Cruz for stamping and stapling our newsletter.

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

It has been a busy time around the house lately. I came home one afternoon to be greeted by a woman who was in the process of writing a note to me. She was carrying one small child in her arms and had another holding onto her belt.

“Hello,” she said. “I was going to leave this note with my phone number so you could call me. I’m glad you came home while I was here.”

“A friend told me to come here. She said there is a kindness house on Margaret Street. They will never turn you away.”

I gave her my last Albertson’s gift card. She gave me the note with her phone number. She had written” To whom it concerns: I heard about your generosity to the less fortunate and here I am with hopes you can help me and my 2 children out in anyway possible.”

The next day I had fifteen boxes of food and fifteen hams from St. Isadora’s Parish in the East Bay. I had told people to come by the house between 2-4:30pm. The food was gone in the first hour.

Times are tough for the poor. According to Sandy Perry of the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry in downtown San Jose, there were released in February by the Interagency Council on Homelessness that showed the Silicone Valley, the richest area in the nation, has now become the homeless capital of Northern California. We live in downtown San Jose - we know it’s bad.

Your donations help Truck of Love to continue to serve the poor. Work here in Silicon Valley as well as continue to help communities in Mexico and Arizona.

This year the camp for the Tohono O’Odham children will celebrate its 19^th summer. Though Sue and I no longer go to Arizona for the camp, there is a wonderful staff of people who conduct camp for the children of the desert. Your donations continue to fund the camp – this year Truck of Love will give the camp $8,000.00 to help provide summertime fun for the more than 150 children who come. Check out the camp website at www.orgsites.com/ca/totol/

Thank you for your continued generosity to God’s poor. You helped several hundred families during Thanksgiving and Christmas with both food and gifts. Thank you to Los Altos Town Crier Holiday Fund and the many donors who contributed to the generous check we recently received.

We are so blessed to live in a house that the people on the streets have dubbed the” kindness house”. It is your generosity that helps continue to serve the people who come to our door in San Jose. Your donations are spread in a wide arch each month from Mexico to the Tohono O’Odham Reservation in Arizona to the wider San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you from hungry children and desperate mothers and fathers.

During this Easter season we are reminded so clearly of the hope we have each day as we begin again after suffering through many little deaths in our lives- losing loved ones, losing a job, changing patterns in our lives. It is the message of Christ coming through loud and clear that after all death there is resurrection! We are people of hop. Thank you for sharing that hope with the poor.

If you are a married couple and want to spend some reflective time with each other next year, Sue and I are helping facilitate a Married Couples Retreat at the Jesuit Retreat House in Los Altos February 17-19, 2006 . See the Jesuit Retreat House website for details www.elretiro.org/

Last week we received an envelope in the mail. When we opened it we found three scraps of paper. On the torn and ragged pieces were photographs. One picture shows an incredible bunch of purple grapes with red and green and gold grape leaves – really stunningly beautiful. The other shows several horses in a pasture yellow with mustard blossoms. The third is of a two story white house and a white Adirondack chair sitting in the front yard covered with leaves from the maple tree above it.

In the margins of these pictures there is writing: “Happy Thanksgiving! & Merry Christmas next month! Here’s a Thanksgiving picture of fall leaves…. We lost all our Christmas stuff (our little tiny imitation tree w/our little decorations…) are all gone!!! We lost our car in that fire. It’s hard living in cars, trailers or garages with no way to cook for the holidays or wash up or use a phone. I sure wish my family could be in a house. I hope there will be a few funds for some store cards – we only replaced a few clothes… I’ve been praying and doing the best that I can for my family. I don’t have a phone so I gave you my address… Thanks, L”

The note comes from a woman who has lived in her car for many years. She is very simple and wants little from live, but she doesn’t have the necessities. She has tried to work, but she is so simple she has a hard time holding a job. She has two children who cannot live with her. She has a mother she tries to care for.

Many people served by Truck of Love are just like “L”. These are people who fall through the cracks of our social service structure. During this time of the year we help people with blankets and sleeping bags, tents and cook stoves, food and clothing, bus passes and medical care.

This year several church groups are collecting gifts, which will be distributed to our regular clients. The Los Altos Town Crier Holiday Fund will help us tremendously

We thank you for your continued prayers and support. We cannot do this work without you. Please know that the people served by Truck of Love feel blessed in this season of hope to be the recipients of your generosity.

LOVE- “Always Watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

Thank you for your continuing generosity. You are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the sick.

Truck of Love is serving more and more people who “fall through the cracks”. These are the poorest of the poor in this valley: the people who live under the freeways, along side the creeks, in the underbrush. There are whole communities that move from place to place. They take care of each other and usually don’t let outsiders see where or how they live. Some people have a little income that buys some food. But emergencies happen. People get sick and need medical attention. They need new clothes to replace the ones that they have no way to clean. One older woman who cares for a group of people said: “I sure would like some ice cream.” Thanks to you, Truck of Love can give some measure of comfort to these children of God.

Truck of Love helps lots of people who are also clients of other agencies. There is a huge collaborative effort going on among agencies that serve the poor. We frequently get calls when an agency cannot provide everything an individual of family night need. Sometimes it is a bus ticket home, or help with part of the rent, or a ride to the doctor, or cleaning an apartment to prevent an eviction notice.

Truck of Love also helps community of Laotian refugees in Santa Clara valley, several communities in Tijuana and one in Guaymas, Mexico. Our work on the Tohono O’Odham Indian reservation in Arizona is continuing with the summer camp for the Tohono O’Odham children.

This holiday season we will continue to meet the daily needs of the ever growing population of poor in and around San Jose. We do not have the time this year to organize the Adopt- a- family program as we have done in the past. The daily routine requests for help are more pressing this year. If you have a desire to work directly with a family, Pete can give you the name of a family for you to contact and help. The gifts that organizations are giving to Truck of Love will be given out to our regular clients.

The phone calls keep coming. The need keeps growing. The bank account is going down. We are saying “no” to an increasing number of people. We need your help now more than ever. At the rate we are spending your money we will be broke before December. Pete, our one employee, has not gotten his regular check for several months.

Our budget is small – we took in $150,000.00 last year and we currently spend about $12,000.00 each month.

Please consider supporting Truck of Love with your donations. The people we serve are deeply grateful to you.(We keep telling them we are not rich, they have many people who care about their welfare.)

Thanks for all of you who have sent donations for Pete’s CD. We have your address, and we will get a copy to you as soon as we can. Included on the CD are Truck of Love favorites like “Let’s Get Together, “If You Want To Live Life Free”. Day By Day” and many more. These make great Christmas presents!

Check out our new updated website. Thank you to Mike Nevarez our new webmaster. Thank you to Rob Perrier for many faithful years of web mastering service. And thanks to the whole Smith family for computer and CD help. www.truckoflove.org

Thank you for helping Truck of Love, help God’s poor. One of those poor went home to God this summer.

Art died July 2^nd,2003 at the age of 83 – a good , long life by most standards.

We had known Art since 1984 when Pete met him at a soup kitchen in Mountain View . He was living on the street, sleeping in a dumpster next to a liquor store located on Middlefield Road . He became our friend.

During that first of our acquaintance Art began to sleep on our couch in the living room. He spent a Christmas morning with our family and was deeply touched when our children gave him a present.

The next year around the same time of St. Patrick’s Day, Art showed up with a green beard. He was Irish at heart (at least in March).

We attempted to help Art in any way we could. He moved from our couch to a semi-permanent bed in our van. We would listen to his stories of his family (a wife and two children), his war years, his teaching experiences (he said he had a masters degree) and his political views (he had a lot of opinions about the homeless situation and the current political candidates). He rode his bike everywhere.

As the years went by Art began to call us from the Veteran’s hospital. The hospital staff would dismiss him after hospital admission due to accidents on his bike or other medical conditions and he’d need a ride “somewhere”. Eventually he had a pacemaker installed, had cataract surgery, and seemed to have a new life.

One day when I was visiting a San Jose shelter, I spied him pushing a wheel chair down the sidewalk to the entrance (I had thought he was in the hospital).He refused to stay anywhere against his will and the street was where he felt free.

When Art had his final visit to the hospital he called Pete to come visit. He tried to convince Pete to sign him out, but his health was too frail to be back on the bike touring the peninsula. He died in the early evening about the time we were praying at the dinner table – a place he had sat many times. The phone call came from the nurse on duty who said Art had wanted her to call Pete. Pete asked if they had called his daughter. They didn’t even know he had two grown children. When Pete called Art’s daughter late that July night , she seemed more upset about the time of the call than she was about the death of her father.

Art was unique. Each of God’s poor that Pete meets on the street have their own unique journey. Because of your generous donations, Pete is able to spend time with people who have no one in their lives who care about them. Because of you, Pete can sit with a mother who is grieving that her daughter is in jail for the third strike. He can spend the afternoon with a person who needs to go the hospital. He can provide bus passes and quarters for laundry so kids can go to school in clean clothes. He can help people who have shelter, but have need of other essentials: food, clothing, medicine and comfort. Thank you for helping Truck of Love to help the people who are unable to fit into society, who are not wanted nor missed by anyone, who are God’s poor.

Christmas is coming – be sure to call Pete (408-295-7320), if you want to help with a family. Our donations are increasing thanks to you, but the need is growing. More and more people need some help making ends meet each month.

Pete has recorded a CD! He went into a local recording studio and sang and played. He has included some Truck of Love favorite: “If You Want To Live Life Free”, and “Lady Poverty” (to name only a few). You can receive your copy of this CD for a donation of $15.00 to truck of Love (this includes postage). Send us your mailing address and we’ll get you a copy ASAP.

Our children said:” It’s like listening to Dad playing in the living room.”

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

We went to a wedding yesterday. Two of our young friends got married at Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Alviso. It was a joyous occasion. Family and friends were gathered as the pastor presided. The bride was beautiful in her long white dress and the groom was so handsome in his dark suit. It was a great day!

It was a celebration of life. It was a celebration of faith, hope and love. It was a celebration that happened because of the grace of God.

We met the groom in Tijuana , Mexico when he was about three years old. He was the child of two hardworking parents who lived in Colonia Tenochtitlan. At the time, he was one of seven children. His mother used to make tamales for our Truck of Love groups.

The older children in the family came and spent time with the participants of our summer and Christmas trips. His dad made ceramic objects and sold them at the border.

Our young friend had an opportunity to move to Alviso when he was about 11 years old. At that time he met a very sweet young girl. They were friends for a long time and then during their high school years they became boyfriend and girlfriend. He dropped out of school for a while and she went on to receive a scholarship to a local Catholic University . He went back to school and now works and goes to school at Mission College .

They got married yesterday and all who were present felt the faith, hope and love that come only from our God.

This past Christmas you were instruments of God’s love to serve several hundred people who were adopted for the Holidays. You answered the call and adopted families, bought presents. Wrapped and sorted gifts and delivered lots of Holiday cheer. we are grateful to you and so are the people you served. We had many cards and phone calls from people who were very thankful for your generosity.

This year is already a very difficult time for the poor. With the economy failing, budget cuts and a country at war; the poor are feeling the crunch. We are still serving several communities in Tijuana , financing camp on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation in Arizona and helping hundreds of people locally.

Here in the Bay Area the calls are increasingly frantic. People are in need of medical help (many prescriptions are not paid for by the state), food (food stamps don’t make it through the month), clothing ( it is hard to get used underwear of larger sizes in used clothing stores), transportation ( there are not many agencies that have a budget for bus passes) and the personal touch (Pete goes to each family and interviews them in their home to see what their living conditions are and how Truck of Love can be of the most help). Our phone rings from 5:30am to midnight including weekends. Pete is out almost every evening and part of each weekend day meeting with people trying to give them some small measure of help or assurance.

Truck of Love continues to need your help. Right now there is money in the bank, but if our requests for help continue at the rate they are going we will be out of money in about three months.

Please help Truck of Love to continue being an instrument of God’s faith, hope and love in this difficult time.

Please feel free to call me with any questions. I’m usually out working with our brothers and sisters in need… Please leave a message at: 408-295-7320

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength.”

The image of the Holy Family , Jesus, Mary and Joseph is uppermost in our minds this day. What a wonderful model for our lives. To us they represent love and care for each other and the world around them. They were uncomplicated people who did what God asked – so simple and yet so difficult. Their example gives us the strength to embrace each day and to ask God,” What is it you want of me, this day?”

This day we thank God for you and your prayers and your generous donations. It has been a full summer. We were able to be in Arizona for the dedication of the shrine in Eric Wilson’s yard – our young Tohono O’Odham friend who died last spring. This summer camp was once again very successful. Each year more O’Odham become part of the leadership and this year they outnumbered the other counselors! We are grateful to you for your $10,000.00 in donations that kept this camp going one more year. We are thankful to Truck of Love south, Scott and Mandy Bell, who now take on this responsibility.

We thought that when we gave up the group trips to Mexico and to Arizona that we might have more summer time. This is not to be. In June we again collaborated with St. Francis High School to assist Campus Ministry with a one week immersion in downtown San Jose . This was the fourth year we have done this and it was wonderful! Thirteen St. Francis students spent their days working with the people at Loaves and Fishes soup Kitchen, the First Methodist Church , the First Christian Church, Catholic Charities John the XXIII Center for elderly, Agnews Developmental center and poor, disabled or elderly. Even more extraordinary than the agencies, were our students. They went from fear of people who live in very different circumstances to an openness, awareness and acceptance of the people they encountered. It was a great week.

The summer was a very difficult one for the poor in the bay Area. We received more calls for help; more requests for lodging, food, medical expenses, clothing transportation and furniture As people begin to be taken off the welfare rolls, they are panicking. As people loose their jobs, they don’t know where to turn. Now with the beginning of the school year, families need school supplies that cannot afford.

Our donations are stretched thin – what comes in is going out – and this week we are having to tell our clients that we cannot help them with food cards or motel nights or anything else that demands cash money. We know that will change, but our clients don’t understand since Truck of Love always helps when other agencies cannot.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming and families will begin to call soon to ask for holiday help. Last year our Holiday Adopt-a-Family Program cost Truck of Love $11,000.00 beyond the money so many of you spent when you adopted families and provided their Holiday cheer. Currently we are looking at how we can alter our program so we can continue to help the families who would otherwise have no extras at holiday time.

Our prayers are with all of you as we near the anniversary of September 11^th 2001 (911)

Much has changed for all of us in this past year. The poor people of our country are still in great need. We know many of you are between jobs. We also know that when we help each other, we are enriched and strengthened. This is certainly the example we have in Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Since our last news letter we lost tow close friends: Carol Mori and Suzanne Enfield. Both were women who exemplified great love of family and are missed.

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

People often ask:” How do you do so much?” My reply is, “Moment by moment.” If I look at the whole picture of life, it is overwhelming. I can accomplish a lot if I listen to the person who is with me, if I smile at the child playing in the park , if I give a bottle of water to a man on the street corner.

I run in circles if I worry about how I am going to get through the day with all the demands I have on my time. I attempt to encounter each person in my day as if they were the only person I want to be with. I attempt to address each request as it comes my way. My motto is:” Worry doesn’t accomplish anything.” Jesus said:” Fear not.” And I believe Him!

The sad part of life is that there are lots of people who do worry. They worry about where their next meal will come from. They worry how they will pay the rent now that they are out of work. They worry about their children who are sick and have no medical insurance. They worry about how to provide their children with clothes, shoes and essentials to live in this valley.

That’s where Truck of Love is able to ease some of the burden. Because of your generosity today I was able to take a mother shopping so her children would have shoes and underwear. You have helped several older women have the medicine that is not covered by their Medi Cal insurance. You have bought food for families that are at the end of the month with their meager budgets.

You also help to fund the TOTOL Camp ( Tohono O’Odham Truck of Love Camp), on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation in Southern Arizona . This is the 17^th year of the camp that serves about 160 children on the southern most part of the reservation – the poorest and most remote part of the land. Camp will begin July 1^st, 2002 with leadership training the week before. Each year more and more of the Tohono O’Odham work the camp and take leadership roles.

This year the camp will be even more important because March 1^st, 2002 one of our long timed O’Odham friends, Eric Wilson, died. Erick was only 3 years old. He had been a part of camp since the beginning – first as a camper, then as a valuable leader. The children loved Eric- he was a role model for many of them.

Your donations have helped to fund camp for this year –so far it has cost about $10,000.00. There are vans to e rented, buses to be driven to pick up the children and bring them to camp, food to be purchased and cooked, leadership training for the staff, t-shirts for the camp and all the other things that go into making camp happen in such a remote location.

All year the children ask when camp is going to start. There are some children who come back to the reservation just for camp because their parents were once campers. It is a wonderful tradition for love and caring that helps these children forget for a couple of weeks all the problems and worries that make them old before their time.

We thank you in advance for being Christ to the people helped by Truck of Love – Jesus who said:” Fear Not.”

September 1, 2003

Dear Friends,

Thank you for helping Truck of Love, help God’s poor. One of those poor went home to God this summer.

Art died on July 2, at the age of 83 – a good, long life by most standards.

We had known Art since 1984 when Pete met him at the soup kitchen in Mountain View. He was living on the street, sleeping in a dumpster next to a liquor store located on Middlefield Road. He became our friend.

During that first year of our acquaintance Art began to sleep on our couch in the living room. He spent a Christmas morning with our family and was deeply touched when our children gave him a present. The next year around the time of St. Patrick’s Day, Art showed up with a green beard. He was Irish at heart (at least in March).

We attempted to help Art in any way we could. He moved from our couch to a semi-permanent bed in our van. We would listen to his stories of his family (a wife and two children), his war years, his teaching experiences (he said he had a masters degree) and his political views (he had lots of opinions about the homeless situation and the current political candidates). He rode his bike everywhere.

As the years went by Art began to call us from the Veteran’s hospital. The hospital staff would dismiss him after hospital admission due to accidents on his bike or other medical conditions and he’d need a ride “somewhere”. Eventually he had a pacemaker installed, had cataract surgery, and seemed to have new life.

One day when I was visiting a San Jose shelter, I spied him pushing a wheelchair down the sidewalk to the entrance (I had thought he was in the hospital). He refused to stay anywhere against his will and the street was where he felt free.

When Art had his final visit to the hospital he called Pete to come and visit. He tried to convince Pete to sign him out, but his health was too frail to be back on his bike touring the peninsula. He died in the early evening about the time we were praying at the dinner table – a place he had sat many times. The phone call came from the nurse on duty who said Art had wanted her to call Pete. Pete asked if they had called his daughter. They didn’t even know he had two grown children. When Pete called Art’s daughter late that July night, she seemed more upset about the time of the call than she was about the death of her father.

Art was unique. Each of God’s poor that Pete meets on the street have their own unique journey. Because of your generous donations, Pete is able to spend time with people who have no one in their lives who care about them. Because of you, Pete can sit with a mother who is grieving that her daughter is in jail for the third strike. He can spend the afternoon with a person who needs to go to the hospital. He can provide bus passes and quarters for laundry so kids can go to school in clean clothes. He can help people who have shelter, but need other essentials: food, clothing, medicine and comfort. Thank you for helping Truck of Love to help the people who are unable to fit into society, who are not wanted nor missed by anyone, who are God’s poor.

PETE HAS RECORDED A CD!

He went into a local recording studio and sang and played. He has included some old Truck of Love favorites: “If You Want to Live Life
Free”, “Lady Poverty”, etc. You can receive your copy of this CD for a donation of $15.00 to Truck of Love (including postage). Send us your mailing address and we’ll get you a copy ASAP. One of our children said:

“It’s like listening to Dad playing in the living room.”

God bless you,

Christmas is coming – be sure to call Pete (408-295-7320), if you want to help with a family. Our donations are increasing thanks to you, but the need is growing. More and more people need some help making ends meet each month.

June 11, 2002

People often ask: "How do you do so much?" My reply is, "Moment by moment." If I look at the whole picture of life, it is overwhelming. I can accomplish a lot if I listen to the person who is with me, if I smile at the child playing in the park, if I give a bottle of water to a man on the street corner.

I run in circles if I worry about how I am going to get through the day with all the demands I have on my time. I attempt to encounter each person in my day as if they were the only person I want to be with. I attempt to address each request as it comes my way. My motto is: "Worry doesn't accomplishanything." Jesus said: "Fear not." And I believe Him!

The sad part of life is that there are lots of people who do worry. They worry about where their next meal will come from. They worry about how they will pay the rent now that they are out of work. They worry about their children who are sick and have no medical insurance. They worry about how to provide their children with the clothes, shoes and essentials to live in this valley.

That's where Truck of Love is able to ease some of the burden. Because of your generosity today Pete was able to take a mother shopping so her children could have shoes and underwear. You have helped several older women have the medicine that is not covered by their Medi Cal insurance. You have bought food for families that are at the end of the month with their meager budgets.

You also help to fund the TOTOL Camp (Tohono O‚Odham Truck of Love Camp) on the Tohono O'Odham Indian Reservation in Southern Arizona. This is the 17th year of the camp that serves about 160 children on the southern most part of the reservation ˆ the poorest and most remote part of the land. Camp will begin July 1 with leadership training the week before. Each year more and more of the Tohono O'Odham work the camp and take leadership roles.

This year the camp will be even more important because March 1, 2002 one of our long time O‚Odham friends, Eric Wilson, died. Eric was only 23 years old. He had been a part of camp since the beginning first as a camper, then as a valuable leader. The children loved Eric he was a role model for many of them.

Your donations have helped to fund camp for this year so far it has cost about $10,000. There are vans to be rented, buses to be driven to pick up children and bring them to camp, food to be purchased and cooked, leadership training for the staff, t-shirts for the camp, and all the other things that go into making camp happen in such a remote location.

All year the children ask when camp is going to start. There are some children who come back to the reservation just for camp because their parents were once campers. It is a wonderful tradition of love and caring that helps these children forget for a couple of weeks all the problems and worries that make them old before their time.

We thank you in advance for being Christ to the people helped by Truck of Love. It was Jesus who said: "Fear not!"

We are grateful for your prayers, checks and support that you show in so many ways. Feel free to call Pete at (408) 295-7320 if you want to know where to take your donations of clothing and furniture.

LOVE- “Always watching – Always caring – Reaching out to a hurting world – Seeks Justice and prays for strength “

Your generosity with time, prayers, money, food and gifts helped Truck of Love to serve 121 families at Thanksgiving and 254 families at Christmas On November 17^th we had 20 volunteers who sorted food and delivered to 35 families. In December we had about 65 volunteers who helped wrap gifts, sort food and deliver to almost 120 families. Many of you called and adopted families who you contacted and met and delivered personally your gifts of love. Thank You!

This newsletter must be a huge thank you to everyone who was involved this past holiday season. It was just a few short years ago that we started by helping one family. As you read the following list look at the breadth and scope of people involved in this endeavor. It is YOU who keep saying yes to God and His poor. We feel the need to list as many of the groups that helped as we can. If we miss some, we are very sorry – please know we are so very grateful for all the help. (If you want to call us and gently remind us that we left you out, we will be very happy to list you in the next newsletter.)

Thank you ( in completely random order.): St. Victors Church newcomers in San Jose; St. Lawrence Academy and Mary Carroll; California Avenue Community and Denise; Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Alviso and Isaac; Adella for making so many phone calls and maps; St. Francis High School, the Service Club, Mrs. Carroll’s classes, Mr. Pilawski’s class and Mr. Bigg’s classes; Momma Branch and Nate in east Palo Alto;

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Los Gatos; Hispanic Social Services and Marie; Housing Consortium and Charlie; local Head Start coordinators who recommended families in need; 3 Com and Patrick; Canyon Heights Academy and Rose; Faye Svedman and her annual Christmas gift party; Caldwell Banker and Judy; Albertson’s for food discounts; Paul Nyberg and the Town Crier Holiday Fund; St. Christopher’s students and Nancy for the food drive; St. William Church for their annual Angel Tree drive and Cathy and Olivia; St. Lucy’s Parish Angel Tree; St. Leo’s Parish Christmas tree program and Lisa; Los Altos United Methodist Church and their annual Angel Tree; Holy Spirit Parish and Cassy for the parish Angel Tree program; St. Nicholas Parish and Fr. Gary for the use of the school facilities on our sorting and delivery day; St. Katherine’s in Gilroy and La Lo; Castro School in Mountain View and Adella; Adventures in Learning Academy and Mrs. Albacht; and Patricia and Faline for the prayer hot line; Bounsey and La Viresak and the Laotian families; Kathie for our mailing list and Shoreline Printing and Mike and Victoria.

In listing all these groups and individuals I am overwhelmed by the amazing volume of people who have been touched this Holiday Season. We have not listed the over 150 individuals who actually adopted and took care of one or more families.

This is what the Holidays are about. This is what the Holiday Season has to teach us about life. We are created by our God in His likeness to love. Each of us has a path in life that affects others. Some of us are blessed with extra material recourses that are meant to be shared.

Pete and I are fortunate to have been called to this work with the poor. We meet so many generous loving people who really understand that we are the Body of Christ. If one of us hurts, we all are affected. When one of us helps another, we affect more than that person, we help to make the world a much better place to live. We tank you for sharing your material recourses and your time and being the hands of Christ.

Please don’t forget that the people we serve during the Holidays are with all year round. Times are very hard right now and the poor are always the people who suffer the most. Your donations of money help us top help so many others. If you have other items to donate, call Pete and he can give you suggestions of places that will take your clothing and furniture.

One of our faithful donors reminded us that some of you might like to gift Truck Of Love with stocks- it is very easy to do so- we have a Charles Schwab account to accept your gifts quite easily. Just give Pete a call at 408-295-7320 and help is on the way.

Some of the people served by Truck of Love this Christmas expressed their thanks – we want to pass on a few of these calls and letters.

Phone Call:” Hello Pete- I just wanted to thank you for all you have done for me and my family .I was really so down and out and appreciate it.” KD

Letters:” I just wanted to say thank you for all the involved for everything that was done. Thank you so much.” Mrs. A

“Thank you Mr. Pete for helping to make our Xmas a nice one and , to , the family that helped us.” MP

“Thanks again for the gift cards. There wouldn’t have been a Christmas without them./ I used the gift checks for a Xmas tree. My grandson is 3 years old. You should have seen his eyes. It was precious.” CB

November, 2001

Thank you. In our last newsletter we told you our bank account balance was decreasing too rapidly and you have responded with overwhelming generosity. We are able to write checks, buy food and continue to help some of the very needy people of our society. Thank you.

We often read the passage from the gospel of Luke that tells the story of Jesus feeding five thousand hungry people who were following Him. This is referred to as the "miracle of the loaves and the fishes". As we reflect on this story, it strikes us that there were two miracles. One was in Jesus' act of multiplying the food to feed the people. The other miracle was the willingness of one hungry person to give away what little food they had so that others could eat.

When we admit to being Christians, followers of Jesus, we are not asked to do extraordinary deeds. We are asked to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick or the imprisoned.

We are again asking you to follow Christ's example. This year we have 160 families who have asked for help at Thanksgiving and more for Christmas.