As part of Mission 2 Merced, Christian Life Center is committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus in our community. While we serve in many different ways throughout the week—from helping local organizations to caring for our church home—one of the most meaningful ways we show up is by feeding those at the shelter. We don’t just come to provide a meal; we come to offer dignity, compassion, and a reminder that they are loved. Serving food is a simple act, but through it, we share the heart of Jesus, and the hope found in Him.
Donation of 3,100 pounds of food for our programs!
Thank you to Young Farmers & Ranchers, who donated 3,100 pounds of food for our programs! The food was collected in collaboration with the Merced Mariposa FFA Section.
Pictured from left to right: John Camacho, Bob Railton, and Martin Orozco from the Mission, and Pierce and Karyn Hanning from Young Farmers & Ranchers.
Thank you for blessing the Mission!
Oasis Fundraiser 2025
When you give to our faith-based, life-transformation program - Hope for Men and Women - you give HOPE to men and women in your community. Men and women who are hopeless, find that God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3).
When you read testimonies of the men and women who have gone through our Hope for Men and Women programs, you see that the Mission shows them God’s unconditional love. So many men and women have found Jesus, healing, jobs, have been reunited with their families, and have found HOPE.
All of this is possible with your help. It takes a village, and your donations keep this community-funded program alive!
Thank you to everyone who will be joining us at our annual Oasis Fundraiser on Friday, May 9th, at Gateway Community Church. We are ready and excited to host you!
It’s not too late to donate toward our Oasis fundraiser! Donate online now through the end of May to keep our faith-based programs going strong throughout the year! Choose Oasis Fundraiser as your gift designation at the time of your donation. It takes YOU to help HOPE GROW!
Congratulations, Graduates!
A Truckload of Blessing
Dale Johns, CEO of Mercy Medical Center, and Val Fogelberg made arrangements for the Rescue Mission to receive a truckload of food that will make thousands of meals. Through the generous donation from the Church of the Latter-Day Saints 24 pallets of food were delivered. The Mission which feeds over 900 meals every day at over 30 locations throughout the County has been blessed and will use this food to feed hundreds of people every day.
New Activities Director
The Mission’s Hope Respite Care facility is for participants who have been discharged from the hospital and are in need of a place to recuperate after surgery or illness. In the beginning of February, an Activities Coordinator was hired to provide activities to help stimulate the minds and bodies of our participants and aid in their healing.
Sidney, our new Activities Director, came to help us get started. She has her A.A. degree and will begin her nursing program in August. She has been busy building relationships with our participants and having lunch with them. Different activities are being offered like games, such as Bingo, and puzzles. Sidney is also involving the participants in decorating cookies and cupcakes, as well as teaching people how to crochet. She is also looking forward to getting participants involved in games like Cornhole and Bocce Ball. The participants at Hope Respite Care, and even at Hope for Veterans, are paying attention to what is going on and getting involved. We hope and pray that these activities will bring about better mental and physical health for all those we serve.
Mission Campus Update
In March of 2022 the Mission opened its doors to three facilities on the Village of Hope campus. Two of the facilities are buildings with ten apartments each. One building is for unhoused families with young children, and the other building is for unhoused veterans. The apartments in the Hope for Families and Hope for Veterans buildings are each 600 square feet one-bedroom apartments with a full kitchen. Each building also has laundry facilities. The Hope for Veterans apartments filled up within a week of opening, and the Hope for Families apartments were filled within a few weeks. These facilities have operated at capacity throughout the three years since opening and have provided a home for many families and veterans.
The third facility, Hope Respite Care, is a building with 32 beds for unhoused people being discharged from the hospital who need recuperative care. During the first year in the new facility, Hope Respite Care operated at between half and three quarters capacity. Since that time, it has operated from near to full capacity, even having to turn down people at times who were in need of care. During the three years of operation on the Village of Hope campus, Hope Respite Care has served hundreds of people who have received loving care while regaining their strength.
With the need for more capacity, the Mission is planning to break ground on the next phase of the campus. Originally, the plan was to use the open two acres of our campus to build our Hope for Men and Hope for Women faith-based facilities, but there was a pressing need to expand our Hope Respite Care facilities and provide more housing in this area. We are now in the process of acquiring land adjacent to the campus where we can build the facilities for the Hope for Men and Hope for Women programs.
This summer we will break ground for an expansion which will provide a second 32-bed facility for post-hospitalization care and 40 studio apartments. Half of the studio apartments will provide housing for those coming through recuperative care and post-hospitalization care. The other half of the studio apartments will provide housing for a portion of our Transition to Hope program. This is a great undertaking, and we hope to have the project completed by the fall of 2026. We are grateful for grants from Central California Alliance for Health and Central Valley Opportunity Fund which have made this project possible.
The Village of Hope campus has given the Mission the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many people. People’s lives have been changed, and healing has taken place and continues to take place. The core of the Mission’s work and ministry continues to be the Hope for Men and Women programs which centers on life transformation through Jesus Christ. The Village of Hope campus will not be complete without building facilities to expand these ministries. We are excited about the opportunities and possibilities that God has provided. Please continue to pray for the Mission as we move forward on the path that God has placed before us, and we thank you for your generous contributions which go completely to fund these faith-based ministries.
Workforce of Gratitude in our Community
By Dr. Bruce Metcalf, CEO, Merced County Rescue Mission
When I think of the many programs at the Mission, I think of the faith-based program – Hope for Men and Hope for Women. I also think of the transitional programs, the program for people coming out of the hospital, and the programs for people coming directly from the streets or from incarceration. But, until recently, I have not considered that the many people who work for the Mission have received the opportunity to be part of a great team.
Today the Mission has about 140 employees, and over 90% of them have come through one or more of our programs. In fact, when we are looking for a person to fill a position, we first consider the people in our programs to see if one of them would be a good fit for the position. During the time that people are in the Mission programs, we get to know them and experience their work ethic and their integrity.
For one of our staff retreats, I assigned our employees the task of reading The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni. In this book, Lencioni identifies three characteristics of the ideal team player – humble, hungry and smart. Lencioni shares that Jesus Christ is the best example of humility in all of history. When Lencioni speaks of being hungry, he means that a person is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. When he speaks of smart, he is speaking of being smart in relationships between people. These three characteristics are an important part of our team culture here at the Mission. When we hire, we are aware of these three characteristics and look for people who will emulate them.
People who have gone through Mission programs and now work for the Mission have become part of this culture and part of a team. They understand the importance of being humble, being willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, and the importance of relationships. What’s more, employees whose lives have been transformed are excited to help others so that they might experience what employees have experienced for themselves.
The people employed by the Mission are part of a workforce where they are not only part of a team, but part of a family. In this environment, our employees have a sense of belonging as they learn to become productive and accountable. People who at one time were dependent on society to take care of them are now joyfully helping others, paying rent, buying groceries, and paying taxes. As the Mission has invested love, time, and treasure into the lives of people through our programs, we have inadvertently discovered that we are overseeing a wonderful workforce which is making a remarkable difference in lives, the Mission and our whole community!