Christian Assistance Ministry

CAM would like to acknowledge this week as it's Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week. As you know, CAM does tons of work with San Antonio's unsheltered street homeless population. We provide daily sack lunches which often times can be someone's only meal for the day. We provide weather-appropriate clothing, shoes, hygiene items and daily showers where they can get new socks and undies every single time. We take care of our unsheltered friends and view them as our own. Join us in raising awareness for homelessness in our community! #homelessness #hunger #awareness #camsa #campassion #community #resources #sacklunch

CAM is honored to announce the selection of our own team member Valerie Narvaez as the 6th honoree of the Chris Madrid’s Beacon of Love award. Since 2019, Chris Madrids has recognized exceptional individuals who have made a profound impact on our community. This year, CAM was honored to have the current owners of Chris Madrid’s restaurant, Brooke and Richard Peacock volunteer to be our Gala Honorary Chairs. Through this volunteer work with us over this past year, they gained a greater understanding of CAM’s mission and the work that Valerie does for those experiencing chronic homelessness. Because of this, they selected her to be the recipient of this award and made a donation of $5,000 to CAM that her team can use however they like to love on our clients experiencing homelessness. Thanks to Valerie and her team for all their hard work and thank you to Chris Madrid’s for this award. #camsa #campassion #homeless #clients #servicetoothers #beaconoflove #chrismadrids #award

Thank you so much!

The Big Give SA is LIVE! CAM needs your help in raising $30k this year. Every single dollar raised through Big Give SA goes directly to our client services in an effort to serve those in need in San Antonio. The Big Give is South Central Texas’ 24-hour online day of online giving fueled by the power of generous donors, creative nonprofits, social media, collaboration, and you! The goal of the Big Give is to support our local nonprofits that are committed to making South Central Texas a great place to live, work, and play. Since 2014, 188,937 donors have given over $20 million dollars to over 2,000 nonprofits through the Big Give, making it one of the most successful giving days in the country. Click here to donate! https://lnkd.in/gCMJ6DJn

We'd like to thank The Beacon for highlighting CAM in an article they did most recently! For those who may not know, The Beacon is a local nonprofit online Christian news platform that reports on God's activity across the San Antonio area. They so graciously reached out to us asking if they could do an article about CAM, our services, the impact we're making in this community and so much more. We're incredibly grateful they reached out to us as we're honored to be featured on their online platform. The visibility this will give us is huge - we're blessed to have people sharing the mission of what we do. Click to read the amazing article they wrote about us: https://lnkd.in/gwucs8CZ #sabeacon #camsa #article #1000beaconsoflight #community #impact #sanantonio

Thank you for your support!!

CAM is incredibly grateful to the Wade Richmond Foundation for allowing us to participate in their Annual Matching Grant Challenge. If we can raise $100,000 during the month of August, the Wade Richmond Foundation will match that and give CAM an additional $100,000! These dollars will go directly to serving those experiencing hardships or facing a crisis situation. What does this mean for you? It means that, while CAM still needs consistent monetary donations from our amazing donors throughout the year, we hope that you will donate during the month of August too. Jack and Laura Richmond created this foundation and left a legacy of love and support throughout the community during their lifetime and beyond. "We should love each other - that means caring for our neighbors. Where those in mourning are comforted, where the hungry are fed, where the poor hear good news. Our foundation strives to give energy to those angels among us who are actively caring for such neighbors." - Jack & Laura Richmond Mark your calendars for August 1st and consider helping CAM reach $100,000! You can donate online at?cam-sa.org/donate.

Recently at Haven For Hope, where our team from CAM helps clients with recovering ID documents, a client arrived who had lived in San Antonio for some time but was originally from Louisiana. She needed help with getting a Texas ID. She had asked a friend to mail her some of her needed documents - many were water damaged from days of living outside, but had been faithfully saved. She had everything she needed to go to the department of public safety except her social security card. When advised of this missing item she burst into tears of frustration. Our new volunteer, Annie. helped her to take a few minutes to calm herself and reminded her she was so close to having everything and "that it was just one more step." David, our long-time volunteer excused himself kindly from the client he was working with to come over to offer her reassurance and an easy tip about how to obtain a medical record next door at the Haven Medical clinic, explaining that a medical record will help with getting her social security card adding there was no charge to get a replacement social security card. He repeated the reassurance and sat with her as she regained her strength and looked at the map our CAM team has for walking to the local social security office. We think so much of what this team is providing is encouragement to stay the course and keep working on what are truly hurdles for those living in a shelter. It's confusing, it's complicated and it's frustrating when it takes so many steps to get a new Texas ID or replace a lost or expired one. Seeing this team in action, working one on one, figuring out hard problems together, and helping to pay for much needed documents should make all of us feel hopeful! CAM is part of the good things happening at Haven For Hope. #camsa #havenforhope #teamwork #idrecovery #campassion #nonprofit #community #encouragement #hope #staythecourse #whatlovedoes

Those familiar with CAM know that we have an awesome shower program for our unsheltered homeless friends! Our shower program works like clock work and runs so smoothly. During these summer months, those experiencing homelessness sure do appreciate a shower, which they can receive every day at CAM! Did you know when someone takes a shower at CAM they can receive a full hygiene kit filled with things like deodorant, a brush, a razor and shaving cream, lip balm, new socks and underwear and much more! However, we've run into a snafu - our shower program is in need of a few things: * Hand wash basin stand with rolling wheels * Travel sized deodorant * Socks for men and women * Men's and women's underwear (new) * Shaving cream * Razors * Combs * Brushes * Lip balm * Face towels * Shower curtains Consider gathering your friends, family members, church groups, coworkers, school-mates, etc. and consider collecting some of these items for CAM's shower program! For more questions on how to donate, contact Sarah at [email protected] today. #showerprogram #camsa #homeless #clients #campassion #donate #help #community

Such a great and simple way to help our houseless friends and honor the legacy of Billy Mahone III, a dear friend to CAM.