Well my friends the time is getting very near. By the end of August of this year, yep about a month away, if we have not raised a minimum of $50,000.00 I will be forced to cease all Straight Ahead Outreach-Taking Back Your Life activities. This is one of the reasons you have not seen me on Twitter or FB alot lately as I have been scrambling trying to put some things together.
We have done some really great work in Knoxville TN for the homeless including taking one off the street who is wheelchair bound with a brain injury and caring for her for 6 months total, 4 months in our personal home. Yes. A lot of really important, great work. Over the years, almost 24, I have helped the homeless and people who are suicidal and their families manage their root causes, acknowledge them and grow from them. I have done the work and funded it entirely from and while working at a full-time job with no funding from anyone else. In the last two years, from April 2007 - January 2009 when we moved to Knoxville from Florida and then back again we did the same,,funding from our full-time jobs wages and also did receive approx $1820.00 in assistance from others. We lived in Knoxville and provided our homeless assistance services from April 2007 to December 2008 and then continued after we moved back to St. Petersburg FL by driving back and forth to Knoxville and via phone/computer contact.
In December it became apparent our regular jobs, which funded everything we did for the homeless, would be coming to an end. My fiance Pat's place of employment(IMAGEPOINT) shuttered their doors on Jan 9th, 2009 and her job was done. My full-time job had already lost many sales due to the economy and my wages went from $600/week down to $370/week and then in Jan of this year down to part-time at $128/week. Not enough for us to survive on ourselves. We were poised to lose our home we were renting etc. My fiance Pat received an offer to come back to St. Petersburg FL and return to work at her old employer here. So, our family borrowed us the money for the move and we moved back to St. Petersburg FL where at least one of us had a full-time job. I continued to work for my Knoxville employer part-time doing phone work. I continued to drive back and forth to Knoxville to assist a few of our homeless "friends". Then, in March of this year my part-time job ended.
I have been trying very hard to extend our information out to people who have expressed interest in helping us. I have created and re-vamped a 35 page proposal into a 50 page proposal for our Straight Ahead Outreach-Taking Back Your Life program and will be presenting it August 4th to prospective interested parties.
I could no longer make the trips back to Knoxville. Could no longer do much of anything but keep in phone contact or computer contact with a few of our homeless "friends" who were fortunate to have that capability.
So, here we are. Dead in the water. Yes, I feel it is a direct hit from Satan, as everytime I get close to doing a great deal of good for others in the name of Jesus, Satan makes another attack on me and those around me. It is very frustrating and each time I have been able to fight him with Jesus's help and prevail. So, we shall see this time. I will keep fighting him always, but this time he might win in the fight against me helping the homeless.
So, The Reality of this is, we are needing to raise a minimum of $50,000.00 by the end of this August 2009 so we can get back on our feet, return to Knoxville TN from St. Petersburg FL and continue our work helping the homeless.
If we do not raise these funds. It breaks me to my core, but I will be forced to cease all Straight Ahead Outreach-Taking Back Your LIfe activities. Completely.
If you can or want to help us you can reach me by my cell phone at 865-964-1461. Our Home address is below if you are able to help us. We are not 501c3 non-profit certified yet but we have given the paperwork to our attorney for the 501c process. So any "gift" at this current time would need to be just because you want to, not because you need a tax deduction.
Well, there you have it. The exposed, cold, hard reality.
Please, if you can help, we need it before the end of August of this year, yep one month from now.
Yes, I can provide you with references if you need so you can verify we say who we say we are and do what we say we do.
Thank you in advance,
Lance Greene-Founder-Straight Ahead Outreach-Taking Back Your Life
ADDRESS to send donation "gifts"-Please make checks out to Lance Greene/Straight Ahead Outreach and send to:
Lance Greene
7419 10th Ave N
St. Petersburg FL 33710
Cell: 865-964-1461
Home: 727-329-8187
