April 2020 Message from the Director

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