To: Fresh Start, Ministry of the Christian Service Center, Orlando, Florida

Praise God for all of you who opened the doors and rolled out the welcome mat of the Fresh Start Program. My life is completely and wholly restored. By the Grace of God, I now live a drug free life.

Yes, I was there. Right where you are sitting. I worked those day labor pools to support my addiction every day. I lived in what ever was abandoned: house, car, truck, underpass, bushes. You name the place, I slept there, just to keep from spending my money on anything but crack. I think most of you know what I am talking about. I was homeless, a transient.

I am writing to say thanks be to God, my Heavenly Father.  By the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ, I was Saved. The Blood of Jesus washed my system clean of the need for crack.  The blood of Jesus, there is no other power I know that could have saved a wretch like me.  

In my last days, before entering the door of 816 West Central Boulevard I was literally weary & wounded.  I hadn't slept in about 3 days.  You know, I was "chasing Jason", going non-stop trying to find that next hit, thinking it was like the first one.  Trying to ignore the pain I was physically in.  You see not only was I at the curb of life, I was rock bottom, below the curb. My feet blistered very bad, 50 to 60 sores and blisters. This made walking very difficult. I didn't know it then, but God was trying to save me from the life I was in. For all the things I had gone through for 1½ years on the streets of Orlando, God said to me "I will give you rest." My rest came through the Fresh Start Program.

After going to the Hospital by the Paramedics there on Central Blvd., where they cleaned my sores wrapped my feet in bandages, and gave me antibiotics, they asked where they would take me. I said 816 W. Central Blvd., Christian Service Center Fresh Start Program.

Your doors were open to me, and I thank you. God has placed you there for a reason. I am a prime example of that reason. Of how a crumbled life can be restored. By the grace of God, and a program like the Fresh Start, I am here today, an active member of The Greater First Full Gospel Baptist Church, where the pastor is Bishop Tavis L. Grant. I am working a job that pays me $30,000 a year. God is Good. He is so good that just recently He has spoke to my Heart concerning I give back to others what he has given me, LIFE. So, my Pastor & I are in the process of starting a ministry similar to Fresh Start, it's name will be The Damascus Road.

May God richly bless the Fresh Start Program. For if you hadn't been there when I submitted my life to God, if you hadn't been there when I said "Lord, take me, use me, mold me to what you want of me;" IF YOU HADN'T BEEN THERE, I WOULD BE DEAD.

God Bless all who have heard my words

Yours in Christ,
Thomas C. Sanders, Jr.

Margaret Farris and Robert Stuart (CSC staff) pose with Wayne Brady at the "Homecoming with Wayne Brady" benefit comedy show held in November 1999.

Daily Bread of Orlando would like to give a special "thank you" to St. Andrew Catholic Church whose members have been volunteering at our Daily Bread program since 1975. For 24 years, parishioners have spent one week each year serving the homeless of our community.

Oakland Presbyterian Church recently donated a new freezer to the Daffy Bread of Ocoee program and has tiled the front waiting room area of the Center. The Christian Service Center would like to thank the congregation of Oakland Presbyterian for their support.

The Christian Service Center for Central Florida, Inc. has been recognized for outstanding achievement by the Community Services Network, Heart of Florida United Way, The Brookdale Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Chamberlain Foundation. The Center was also recognized for their support of the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, the National Day of Prayer and the Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast.

5,600 hours of client support was provided for 64 men; each man stayed an average of 141 days. 30 churches and support groups (one for each day of the month) have kept this program alive and viable. Without their regular support it would not be possible to have this program. As Paul says, "we thank God for you every day!"

Besides the 9,260 people we served through pantry items, clothing, financial assistance and referrals to other agencies, our staff answered 20,600 telephone inquiries from potential clients at our three branches (Downtown, Ocoee, Winter Park).

DAILY BREAD

Over-all, 99,447 individual meals were served in three locations (Downtown, Ocoee, & Kissimmee). In April we celebrated our 2,000,000th meal. This year we will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Daily Bread.

4,409 attended worship services raising almost $12,000 through weekly offerings. In August, we celebrated 25 years of Hotel Ministry!

More than 40,000 hours of service were provided to more than 560 unduplicated clients. In September, Share the Care Center opened next door to our administrative building at 800 W Central Blvd. and was built to serve up to 34 clients each day.

More than 8,400 client hours were provided to 37 families in the West Orange Community. With funding from the Heart of Florida United Way, we began serving Daily Bread at West Orange on Mondays in August, serving four days per week. After a few months, we began serving five days per week!

Client Assistance
Family & Emergency Services

During 1999, our Family & Emergency Services program in Orlando, Winter Park and West Orange County served more than 10,000 people with much needed help. This graph shows you how many clients were served with each type of help. in pantry items, we gave bags of groceries to 2,023 client households. Each bag contained about nine meals for each member of the household, the total number of people helped was more than 9,000!

The Fresh Start program would like to begin collecting men's work boots and work tools for their new reserve bank. The idea is that men who enroll in the program would have the items needed for industrial jobs. The Center is also in need of a digital camera and a vacuum cleaner. If you can help with these needs, please call the Center at 407-425-2523.

A good time was had by all at the Alzheimer's Respite Care Holiday Ball,
Jim Brittsan (not pictured) was named Volunteer at the Year.

SOUP'R SUNDAY

The Center held it's fourth annual Soup'R Sunday food drive on Super Bowl Sunday January 30th. Over four dozen area churches and businesses collected over 3,000 conned goods.

Rev. Julius Tipton of John Calvin Presbyterian Church delivers canned goods to Louis, a volunteer at our downtown food pantry.

Revised: January 18, 2008