July 2026 - Volume 38, Number 6 | Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only. (James 1.22)
YOU CAN HELP A NEIGHBOR SURVIVE LOUISVILLE'S HEAT!
Louisville's sizzling summers are more than uncomfortable, they're dangerous. For our neighbors living on the streets, scorching temperatures can lead to dehydration, heat stroke, and even death. Many already battle illnesses that the heat makes worse. As one person put it, "Even shady spots become unbearably hot. Hydration and rest become luxuries."
This is where Wayside steps in. When the heat index climbs to dangerous levels, we activate our White Flag protocol, opening extra beds and extended hours so more people can find a cool, safe place to rest. We keep them hydrated, fed, and watched over, and we connect those who need it with medical care.
Our Good Samaritan Patrol also takes to the streets. They offer rides indoors, and for those who aren't ready to come in, they hand out water and food. Patrol volunteers have helped save many lives, including finding a man overdosing on a corner and calling EMS for help just in time. Paramedics said he wouldn't have survived otherwise.
But we can't do this without you. Your gift helps us keep the doors open and supplies flowing when the heat turns deadly.
Our Good Samaritan Patrol volunteers bring water and food to those battling the intense heat.
Volunteer to help support our neighbors: Call 502-345-0081 or DONATE HERE
DIRECTOR’S CORNER: Christian Helping Hands at the Thrift Store!
A large MFUGE group helped sort all of our awesome donations today at the Bargain Center.
Youth Works volunteers helped us organize and set out donations at the Bargain Center.
Wayside’s Bargain Center has recently received help from several large volunteer groups and we’re loving it! This massive 33,000 square-foot facility, located at 9125 Galene Drive in Jeffersontown, contains a variety of donated furniture, appliances, jewelry, toys, glassware, plus shoes, clothing for men, women, and children, and more. Many of the donated items help homeless people build up some necessities as they restart their lives. And, the profits from item sales goes to help pay some of the expenses of running the Mission.
With a space that large and a wide variety of donations flowing in daily, it takes a lot of ‘people power’ to sort through everything and get it out for display in the store. Two recent large volunteer groups included MFuge (Mission FUGE), a Christian summer camp for youth (6th–12th grades), and YouthWorks, a national Christian mission trip provider for teenagers. These two groups brought amazing enthusiasm and spirit and helped us bring a lot of goodies out to the shelves for our thrifty shoppers. Wayside is grateful for their selfless service!
Do you have a group that can help us at the Bargain Center?
Contact Tracy at (502) 345-0081
Have items you’d like to donate? We’ll come get them!
Contact Holley to schedule a pickup: 502-600-8113
Ashley Ali and her daughter's Girl Scout group helped serve a meal.
A YouthWorks group praying for everyone at the Shelter.
Bellarmine nurses helped prepare and serve lunch at the Shelter.
How Can You Help Our Homeless Students?
Education is the key out of poverty. We want to be sure every homeless child in our care has the chance to learn, grow, and succeed. But that's hard to do without the basics. These kids need school supplies, backpacks, clothes, socks, shoes, and more. And without a safe bed each night, even the best student struggles to keep up.
That's where you come in. Your gift to our Back-to-School Fund, whether it's supplies or a donation, helps a child walk into the classroom ready to learn.
Together, we can spark something that changes a life.
Help a student today:
Call 502-600-8113
or donate here
How Ricky Found His Way Back to God
After 17 Months on the Street
Now clean and on staff at Wayside, Ricky shares his hard road back to God with Nina Moseley.
When Ricky's mother died in February 2023, something inside him broke. He relapsed into meth and alcohol, and he and his wife spent the next seventeen months on the streets of Paducah, a place with none of the corner-to-corner churches and shelters he'd later find in Louisville.
They slept in a tent through the cold winter of 2023. When that failed, Ricky broke into an abandoned fireworks stand, stripping PVC from the walls to rig a makeshift shelter, until police arrived, guns drawn, ordering them out on their hands and knees. There were nights in cardboard boxes, a honeymoon spent in jail, and darkness he doesn't flinch from naming.
"Addiction is a disease. It's a twofold disease, and I don't ever want to be in them dark places again," he says. The body was only half of it. The needle owned his arm, but recovery meant facing the part he'd run from — the mind. "Drugs and alcohol is only a symptom," he came to understand. Grief over his mother was the real wound, and meth was the mask. Getting clean meant treating both at once, the craving in the body and the pain in the head.
A friend's bus ticket carried Ricky and his wife home to Louisville, where a
stranger pointed them to Wayside Christian Mission. The couples program let
them recover side by side. Today they're eighteen months clean and both on staff.
The turning point, he says, was surrender: "I had to give up the power to find the power. The power that I thought I had, that I could fix and control everything, I had to give that up and ask God to help me."
BIG THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS AT METRO LOUISVILLE
Some of our neighbors have nowhere safe to sleep. At Wayside Christian Mission, we work hard to change that, and we don't do it alone.
We want to thank Metro Louisville for helping us serve people who are often the hardest to reach. Metro's biggest gift is its strong support for our low-barrier shelter, a place that welcomes people other shelters have struggled to serve.
This shelter has room for a hundred people and keeps the door open for those who need it most. Maybe someone broke the rules elsewhere but wants a fresh start. Maybe they're used to sleeping outdoors, have a pet they can't leave behind, or a partner they won't be split from.
We still have rules, but we keep the barriers as low as we can, because everyone deserves a chance.
Metro also partially supports two more of our shelters through federal HUD funding:
• Our family emergency shelter keeps parents and children together, with case management to help each family get back on its feet.
• Our single women's shelter is a safe place for women on their own, many of whom have
been badly hurt. Here, they can finally rest.
With support from our generous donors, Metro Louisville, and HUD, here's what we did last year:
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240,000 nights of safe lodging/year
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450-650 people each night
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Over 100 who moved on to a permanent home of their own
That last number is the one we love most. More than one hundred of our neighbors now have a place to call their own, and we're grateful to everyone who helped make it happen.
Helping Our Veterans:
With support from the Veterans Administration, Wayside provides transitional housing that helps homeless veterans find a permanent place to call home. We partner closely with the local VA medical center, pairing our case management and housing help with their medical care.
