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Dear Friends,

As we enter the season of Advent in anticipation of Christmas, we want to thank you for your support of our ministry at Grace in Action. Throughout the pandemic, we have continued our twice weekly meals as a platform for outreach to homeless and low income people in Davis. In addition, we have partnered with a number of local and county services to assist people in need.

We are particularly grateful to Davis United Methodist Church and Pole Line Baptist Church who have allowed us to use their parking lots to stage our informal gatherings and lunch handouts. In addition, our volunteers and food preparers have made commitments to help us offer this consistent presence of welcome and hospitality.

In approaching Christmas, many of us look forward to hearing the story of the birth of Jesus from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of Matthew begins with Jesus’ nativity and ends with the risen Jesus’ assertion of his ongoing presence.

“Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Our work at Grace in Action is an effort to express that assertion of Divine presence.  Just as we believe the image of God can be seen in the lives of people in need, we also hope that acts of kindness and generosity will allow people in need to sense that God is with them.  We thank you for having supported our work in the past. We also ask that you consider doing so this Season. We are fortunate to live and work in a community that tries hard to care for those on life’s margins. We take our role seriously as partners in that web of caring. We get involved with our time and resources to help people with a range of challenges. You make that possible, and we are privileged to show your love and caring.

At this turning of the seasons, we say farewell to Steve Smith, our Executive Director for the past five years, and welcome Edward Johnson as our new Executive Director. Edward comes to us highly recommended by those with whom he has worked in the past. He has extensive experience in social services management and advocacy which we believe will be valuable in helping our guests navigate the various agencies and programs which can provide assistance.

We hope and pray that those you bless will sense the One from whom all blessings flow, our true Companion.

May the blessings of Advent and Christmas be with you.

Grace in Action Board of Directors

April 2021

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to you on behalf of our volunteers and board members to express our thanks for your continued support of our outreach ministry to homeless and low-income people in our community.

We are grateful that during the COVID pandemic we have been able to hold twice-weekly outdoor lunches through the hospitality of Davis United Methodist Church and Pole Line Baptist Church.

We are thankful to these congregations for their continued support of our work, and we look forward to the day when our hospitality can be extended through their indoor facilities.

During these difficult days a number of churches and individuals have regularly provided sandwiches and other lunch items that we in turn share with our guests. We are privileged to share your generous gifts with those who trust that when they approach us, they will be fed. Those who come where we gather also know they can speak openly about life’s challenges. We continue to hear our guests speak with gratitude for the Spirit in which we relate to them. We offer words of encouragement, challenge and at times caution. We try to do so without judgement or criticism.  Especially during the COVID pandemic, we try to show God’s Grace in our actions.

In these beautiful springtime days and weeks that constitute the season of Easter, when Christians focus on the experience of new life, we try to minister in ways that enhance people’s sense of worth and dignity. This is often, but consistently, done in small ways. People can count on us to see that they have access to bus rides and bicycle repair, masks and hand sanitizer, toiletries and laundry service, clean socks and overnight provisions when they lack them. When they have legal or thorny personal issues too, we are experienced listeners with an awareness of good references and connections to access help.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is recorded as having touted the merits of kindnesses as seemingly insignificant as a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple. (Matthew 10:42) In most of what we do, the names of the disciples are not uttered aloud. But when we are privileged to do such things, we think of you and the One we serve together as his disciples in these difficult days.

I recently attended an online church fellowship gathering. One person expressed a desire to sit in a familiar eating establishment. She desired to enjoy the food that had been prepared in that longed for setting, rather than having to take it home as a COVID precaution. I get it. But at today’s Grace in Action luncheon, I was struck by the stream of people arriving on foot and by bicycle, for whom we are presently that familiar outdoor establishment, a place of welcome, sharing and generous hospitality.

Thank you for being our partners in ministry during these trying times. May you experience the blessing of renewed life and hope as you have generously extended it to others.

Yours in Christ’s service,

Steve Smith

  Director – Grace in Action

November 2020

Dear Friends,

As we enter the Holiday Season, I am writing to thank you for your support of our ministry. I also ask that you consider a year end gift in support of our work at Grace in Action.  

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Grace in Action continues to provide twice weekly meals for people without enough to eat. We thank Pole Line Road Baptist Church and Davis United Methodist Church for allowing us to use their parking lots for those socially distanced meal distributions.

In addition to food, we also offer bus transportation for people to reach important medical and social services support. We offer clothing and access to laundry services for those who lack such essential things. We provide used bicycles and bicycle repair through our partnership with Davis Bike Collective. As the weather gets colder, we are particularly attuned to those who lack lodging. We advocate for a clean and hygienic approach when people must sleep outside. We provide sleeping bags and rain gear when we see that it is appropriate.

In addition to addressing people’s physical needs for food, warmth, clothing and transportation, we are a spiritually based relational ministry. We know people by name and are familiar with their life stories and current circumstances. Our volunteers don’t work miracles, but they make a difference. They pray with people and offer continued encouragement.

In writing to you, I want to thank you for the ministry you make possible. The volunteers and board members who do the work of Grace in Action are grateful to you. You provide monetary and prayerful support that we try to turn into tangible acts of kindness toward people who feel marginalized. Many of those to whom we minister are consistent in their expressions of gratitude. In asking for your continued support, I want to pass those grateful sentiments to you.

There is a story in the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus heals ten people who were suffering from leprosy.  He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests who also served as public health officers. Those officials had the authority to restore them to normal life in contrast to the continued state of quarantine that limited their lives. On the way to see the priests, the ten lepers were healed. One turned back to thank Jesus. He was a Samaritan, a social outsider, who suffered the additional stigma and isolation of disease. His gratitude endeared him to Jesus.

In this unusual and challenging time, it is easy to feel we are not up to the business of Thanksgiving. But just a few days ago, one of our regular guests thanked me for the atmosphere of hospitality, kindness and friendship that Grace in Action offers. His words are distinctly appreciative. He is the one in ten who wants to make clear that he understands whose love has touched him. Many others understand as well, even if they are more understated.

All of us at Grace in Action are thankful to you.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

                                              Steve Smith

   Director, Grace in Action

April 15 ,2020

Dear Friends of Grace in Action,

Blessings to you in the season of Easter. The good news of resurrection is encouragement to
maintain faith and hope. To paraphrase St. Paul, “Nothing is able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:39) These days of COVID-19 are a challenging time for
everyone. I want to thank you for your generosity that has made it possible for Grace in Action to
continue our caring ministry. We work to serve people who live without much of what we
sometimes take for granted.

In these difficult days, the Board members and volunteers of Grace in Action remain committed to
serving the lives of homeless and low-income people in our community. We are continuing to
provide lunchtime food on Mondays at Davis United Methodist Church, and on Wednesdays at
Pole Line Road Baptist Church. We are using a reduced team of volunteers who engage in safe
practices that include social distancing. Instead of indoor gatherings, we distribute sack lunches
that our guests take with them. We continue to make monthly laundry vouchers available to our
guests through the Laundry Lounge, a safe practices facility in Davis. We are grateful to them.
When providing bus passes to essential services, we speak to our guests about safe practices
and social distancing. One of our supporting churches is making sixty masks for us to distribute.
In addition, we recently purchased hand sanitizers to distribute to our guests.

We are also grateful to special friends and partners who continue to do important work in these
extraordinary times. Alysa Meyer is the head of Legal Aid of Northern California for Yolo County.
While she typically meets with our guests on the first Monday of each month as part of our
gathering at Davis United Methodist Church, she is making her staff available to our guests by
phone. Thank you, Alysa.

Perhaps a couple of recent anecdotes from the lives of people we serve will give a sense of the
kind of things we have been able to continue doing.

You may have heard or read about a Davis family who lost a child from an accidental gun death in
their home. Grace in Action was part of a successful coordinated financial effort to relocate the
family as it sought to move forward in a time of trauma. That family has been rehoused in
Woodland.

Empower Yolo is an organization that we frequently partner with in an effort to assist people
threatened by sudden circumstances, particularly women – often with children. Through Empower
Yolo (EY) we recently supported a young mother in her successful effort to move from the EY
shelter to an apartment. We also gave financial support to her completion of cosmetology
schooling that will allow her to be employed and housed while providing for her children.

The Board members of Grace in Action understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has strained the
financial situation of nearly everyone. If you are able to contribute to our ministry, please accept
our thanks. Regardless, we thank you for your prayers as we seek to serve what Jesus called “the
least among us.”

May the Lord bless you and keep you,



Steve Smith
Director, Grace in Action