January 2007 Report

It's official: our volunteers served 4,487 sack lunches
in 2006 -- triple the amount vs. the prior year.

FLIPPING THE CALENDAR

2007 marks our fourth year of helping the homeless, the hurting, the hungry and those who need healing. Our niche remains the same: serving sack lunches and ministering to people in a very personal way -- shaking their hands, learning their names, praying with them and sharing the gospel. We’ve served approximately 6,400 lunches since we started three years ago.

BACKED BY BLESSINGS

We often get asked how we pay for all the lunch bags. There’s an easy answer – our donors. More than 60 percent of our funding comes from individuals. (The remainder comes from businesses and churches). Our donor base surpassed 100 sources in 2006. These donors come from both near and far, including Alaska, Arkansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Will you be next? Gifts to Filling The Void are tax deductible. We're a 501c3 non-profit.

WALKING ON WATER

We’re going to have to get used to snow and ice if we’re serious about serving sack lunches in Denver sometime. For its part, Tulsa is proving to be a pretty good training ground. The city was licked and slicked by three waves of freezing rain and ice Jan. 12-14, leaving behind a treacherous trail of frozen tundra for 12 of our volunteers to tackle outside on Jan. 17. Despite a morning-low temperature of 16 degrees, 81 people still came out to see us and get a sack lunch.

A MILLION BUCKS

That’s exactly what Lisa looked like when we saw her in December at the downtown bus station. It was quite a contrast from the last time we saw her in June, staggering stone-cold drunk into oncoming traffic on 2nd Street. She had also been involved in an abusive relationship – the black eyes gave it away. But what we witnessed in December was an answer to prayer. She looked and spoke like a different lady. In a matter of months, she found an apartment, started AA, got involved in church and was working – big steps toward a new beginning.

PASS THE TAPE, PLEASE

Our volunteers did it again – outdoing themselves, that is. They filled our volunteer center on several days in December, all in an effort to wrap our presents for people staying at the downtown YMCA, Salvation Army and John 3:16 shelters. By the time we finally ran out of boxes, they had wrapped nearly 400 new winter shirts for some very needy, worthy and appreciative recipients.

ALWAYS LOW PRICES

Our friends at Wal-Mart may take a beating in the press from time-to-time, but they’ve certainly been willing to work with us. They’re one of our best corporate sponsors, along with the Williams Cos. In fact, we just received some mail from Wal-Mart: a check for $1,500.