It was early in December of the twentieth anniversary year of Angel Interfaith Network. Raquel was in the storage room preparing generously stocked baby baskets for two sets of twins just born in the new L.A. County + USC Medical Center. Sister Estelle was ministering to a grateful mother calling from Bakersfield to thank us for the Thanksgiving dinner we provided for her family. Her two year old daughter is awaiting a kidney transplant. Ann was delivering a twin bed mattress to the family of a patient in need. I was pulling together AIN interpretive materials for the Agency Fair and Alternative Christmas Markets coming up in the week ahead.
We close our twentieth anniversary year now serving patients served by a new, state-of-the-art hospital building. In a holiday season tinged with economic distress, a prevailing message of God's goodness is reinforced for us every day with miracles large and small.
The entire host of angels who comprise this network share a wish with you that the light of such miracles will illuminate your path in this holy season into the year ahead.
Rev. Donald L. Smith
Executive Director
Coping in Tough Times
Other Los Angeles nonprofit organizations were stretching to feed staggering numbers of needy folks this Thanksgiving. At Angel Interfaith Network we too scrambled to find resources to feed 42 families. Thirty families received $50 in food certificates in advance of the holiday so they could make their purchases. Twelve more families received ham dinners provided by Northminster Presbyterian Church in Diamond Bar, personally delivered by AIN volunteers. Each full dinner was supplemented with a generous supply of canned goods donated by the families of Calvary Presbyterian Church Preschool in South Pasadena. We wish that we had the resources to answer all the requests for food assistance from LAC + USC social workers, chaplains and staff this season.
Over the course of this 20th anniversary year we’ve introduced you to a representative sample of patients and families we have served. Along with others, each of them is also coping with new challenges in a depressed economy. Let’s check back in with a few of them to see how they are doing.
- You met Marion, an immigrant new mother from Nigeria, last month. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy in October with AIN Care Coordinator Ann Mills present for the Caesarean delivery. Her husband has still not been in touch with her, and she is sorting out how to make a new life for herself and her new baby in a strange land.
- Cancer patient Ruth and her professional care-giver husband Joseph are close neighbors of LAC + USC Medical Center and were featured in the September E-Newsletter. As we have accompanied Ruth for appointments and helped her navigate requirements for Medi-Cal, her hopes have been focused on two very basic wishes. She wants to be able to eat solid food again and to see her children in the Philippines once more before she dies.
- “S” was the traumatized victim of an assault whom we introduced to you in August. He and his mother have been referred for ongoing assistance and care through a partner church. They regularly access a local food pantry on referral from AIN. There is still a long road ahead until “S” can once again support the household, but AIN has provided him a set of business cards in anticipation of the day he can once again sell sunglasses, perfumes and personal items in local swap meets or pursue other options.
- In March we asked if Bobby would ever be able to walk again as he was referred to Rancho Los Amigos Hospital for rehabilitation. Sadly, the answer to that question seems to be negative. On the bright side, our friends at CARES have connected Bobby’s mother with a local family foundation which has helped this large family to cope with some of the challenges that have accompanied Bobby’s brain injury. Bobby now has a new baby brother in his family
We hope you’ll remember the patients and families of L.A. County + USC Medical Center in your prayers in these times of economic distress. Be assured that it makes an enormous difference to them knowing that there is a community that cares about them.
Strength to Help Others
 Ann tried to shed the anxious feeling that Lancaster was a long way to drive to pick up medical equipment she was not sure AIN could use. But something in Rita’s voice over the phone haunted her, and she finally made the trip. As Ann pulled into the driveway, the hot, dry wind ruffled the hen’s feathers and blew away the dust kicked up by her tires. The faded stucco house was unremarkable in the row of identical stucco houses bravely but tentatively sheltering their occupants from the economic winds that had just begun to gust.
Rita welcomed Ann warmly at the front door. The shrine in the living room caught Ann’s attention: photos, flowers, and candles surrounding a small carved wooden box. “This is my baby,” Rita explained, gently lifting a photograph off the box to show Ann. The mystery behind the request for a visit was solved. The photo showed Rita’s thirteen year old daughter with the body of a three year ol, laid out in a beautiful white dress.
At once AIN Care Coordinator Ann Mills understood the gravity of Rita’s timid offer of a hospital bed, two special wheelchairs and other medical equipment ‘to help another family.’ These parents had made countless anguished trips to the LAC + USC Medical Center as their little girl was repeatedly hospitalized. Ann was moved by Rita’s courage in making the call. Rita told Ann it made her feel stronger to be able to give again.
Holiday Giving? The AIN Alternative!
 It has been a real joy for Angel Interfaith Network staff and board members to introduce our project and the needs of LAC + USC Medical Center patients and families through this season’s Alternative Christmas markets. Peruvian shawls offered at the Santa Clarita Valley Alternative Gift Market through our partnership with Claremont Presbyterian Church helped bring in more than $700 in one weekend! (At right) We’re closing in on the final week of a string of a record fifteen holiday markets as our twentieth anniversary year winds down. They have offered new “angels” the opportunity to give the gift of hope to needy LAC + USC patients and families in the name of a loved one through Angel Interfaith Network. Click here to visit the AIN website and find an assortment of gift cards for Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and other occasions during the year.
Did you know that AIN offers some other attractive options for supporting us through your holiday giving?
 Still available through our friends at St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care is the John August Swanson poster, “Power to the People.” In this time of economic dislocation the artist writes, “It is my hope that this art work might serve as an inspiration and a tool for those working to organize those who have been displaced & marginalized by economic injustice into compassionate communities empowered to implement justice and peace.” Prints are available for $25 unframed and $60 framed, with a portion of the proceeds going to Angel Interfaith Network. Call St. Camillus Center at 323-225-4461 x221 or click here to visit circlesofhope.org for the order form. A print is also available in the AIN office for your inspection.
Do you do online shopping for your Christmas gifts? There is still time for you to visit GoodShop.com and credit Angel Interfaith Network with up to 37% of your purchase from any of more than 50 well-known online retailers. If you’d like to avoid the malls, consider ordering online through GoodShop from Macy’s, Target, Staples, Office Depot, Sears, Petsmart and more while giving AIN a healthy boost at the same time. Of course, your online web searches using GoodSearch rather than Google continue to reward us with more than a penny every time you search if you credit Angel Interfaith Network. Click here to find out more about GoodSearch and GoodShop.
If this holiday season is leaner this year, keep in mind that it can also be one that offers more compassion and hope through support of Angel Interfaith Network. |
