Blue Dream Ministries

Bethlehem House

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:37:38 +0000

I love it when we can bring large donations to the Bethlehem House.

The Bethlehem House is more than just a shelter for Pregnant women, they help educate them, and obtain their goals.

Bethlehem House’ mission: “We will provide support to pregnant women to choose life for their unborn child in a residential environment both during and after pregnancy. We will educate the woman on child care and personal life skills to assist them to be self sufficient.”

Last night, thanks to Elaine and her husband, we received another wonderful donation from Super Saver and half of it is going to the Bethlehem House and the other half to the Steven Center.

Crane Coffee joins us!

admin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 19:35:33 +0000

Today, we will be picking up donations from Crane Coffee for the first time!
It is very exiting to us when someone new joins us and we have Jenny to thank for it.
We hope to develop a great and lasting relationship with Crane Coffee to help those in need with their wonderful baked goods.
Thank you!

Wow! Amazing Donation!

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:59:41 +0000

We received an amazing sweet donation from Super Saver thanks to Elaine!
The donation included Cakes, Cookies, bread, donuts, etc. Such a wonderful gift to those in need!
We were able to distribute it among many people and even help one the families we adopted celebrate their youngster’s 1st birthday!

Thank you!

Help for the holidays

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:25:22 +0000

We all know how difficult the holidays can be when we don’t have any money. Right now, winter and the economy are hitting many many families and we are trying to make it a little bit easier on a few of them.

We are very lucky to receive regular donations from our Aunt Rhoda, who sends care packages for the homeless and we are enormously grateful to her for supporting Blue Dream, and as another winter begins, we do need more supplies for the homeless.

When talking to them, it is amazing the types of things that they say they need… things, WE wouldn’t have thought of… for instance: Towels, and Socks! We also need more hand warmers, hats, gloves, coats, etc. If you wish to send a donation, you can mail the items to:

Michelle / BlueDream
5062 S 108th St. #272,
Omaha, NE 68137

You can also make a monetary donation to through chipin or PayPal.

On the other hand, we are looking for more specific items for a few families that we are helping directly. For instance, we are still looking for winter clothing for a 9 year old girl size 8/9 and shoe size 3.5, we would like to be able to get a few gifts for her for Christmas, since her family cannot afford anything this holiday season; she has a 13 year old brother, size Husky 20 shoes 8, who also needs clothing, and again, we would like to get him a present: their mother gave us a copy of their Christmas wish list: Spy Net Stealth Video Glasses, Spy Gear – Digital Alarm Safe [Toy] , skate board, hair ties, Pokemon Black & White Catcher – Zoroark Oshawott and Sandile, Bakugan Bakumeter.
We also have a family with 8 kids that is still struggling to pay their rent. They have a dog with severe food allergies that needs to be taken to the vet, and needs to be on a special diet, which, of course, is more expensive than regular dog food (we have been providing this food for them, but we cannot afford more). We would like to be able to give each child a present in addition to what we provide them with every weekend. They have 3 girls ages 12, 6 and 1; and 5 boys ages 16, 12, 10, 8, and 3.

If you wish to help any of these families, please send items to:
Michelle / BlueDream
5062 S 108th St. #272,
Omaha, NE 68137
Or, you can make a donation directly to us through Chipin or PayPal.

If you wish to make a donation for Nahla, please click here through CHIPIN or PayPal. If you wish to send some dog food for her, please send Taste of the Wild – Pacific Stream Canine® Formula to:
Michelle / BlueDream
5062 S 108th St. #272,
Omaha, NE 68137

Thank you very much for checking us out, and Merry Christmas.
Michelle

Adopting families

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:43:59 +0000

The hard part about helping the homeless is that many times, the people you meet one week are not there the next, and you don’t really know what else they need or if they are doing better… you just hope for the best.

We also help homeless pregnant women that live at the Bethlehem house. But again, we deliver food to them, but we do not develop a relationship with the mothers at the shelter…

In the past few months, we have started to find more and more families that need immediate help with the most basics of needs… food and clothing. And we are extremely happy to have become part of their lives.

Blue Dream Ministries now also helps families in need by delivering food and other items directly to them.

It has been challenging, but we feel so happy to be able to help and develop relationships with them; watch them grow and hopefully, watch them improve their financial situation to where they don’t need our help anymore!

One of our families is an elderly couple. The husband has Parkinson’s and is bedridden. His wife, Stormy, takes care of him. They receive one meal a day through meals on wheels and every once in a while their nephew brings them some groceries. We have been providing them with additional food every Saturday and I have found that Jim really likes chocolate chip cookies! They have a dog name Red, who is dying of stomach cancer, and they are both very sad about it. We would like to continue to help them, and also, their pet Red, so, if anyone would like to donate some dog food or treats for Red, it would be great!

We met a great family of four that rescues animals and find homes for them, but the husband suffered a back injury and now is out of a job. So, they are having a very difficult time paying their bills, clothing and feeding their children, and this is without even talking about how hard the holidays are going to be for them… they don’t have budget for it…
We are extremely happy to help them with some food and through other friends, we have been able to get a few clothes for their two kids, but they still need more. Their children (9 and 13) grew during the summer, and of course, now, they don’t have much to wear. We thank Melana for donating a coat for their kids and Monica for donating a couple of shirts and pants for them! Thank you so much! They are extremely grateful. We would like to continue finding more items for them, especially for the holiday season.

Life is a little bit strange, and a few months ago, a beautiful family of 7 that was looking for a puppy. After talking to them, I decided that they were the perfect family for a dog I had rescued back in July. As part of our adoption agreement, they needed to keep in touch with us, which is how we found out about their need. Suddenly, unemployed due to medical circumstances, this family with 6 kids is going through a lot. We are providing them with food, including dog food for Nahla. I found out yesterday, that Nahla, their puppy, is sick, and we are trying to help them with the vet bill and the medication. We would be very grateful to receive and pass on donations for this family, not only for their kids but also, for their dog, so that we can help them get through this bump. If you wish to help us with Nahla’s vet bills, click on this link: http://nahla.chipin.com/vet-bill-for-nahla

We met this very sweet pregnant lady and found out that she was in bed rest due to problems with her kidneys. We checked on her progress again, only to discover that she had only a crib and some diapers for her new baby! Blue Dream Ministries immediately jumped into action and we have been able to cover her needs. We are providing food for her (she loves bagels with butter and garlic), and with the amazing help from our friends, she has now everything she needs!
We donated a ton of new born boy clothes, some bottles and a couple of other little things; and of course, we would like to thank Brenda for the clothes and the chair, Mandy for receiving blankets and baby wipes, Monica for all those diapers and wipes, and of course, Nebraskans United for Life for accepting her as a client and providing additional clothing, crib sheets and the crib bumper, a medela breast pump, baby bath, socks, bottles and pacifiers, and other very important supplies needed for a new baby.
We welcome baby Liam to this crazy crazy world by letting him know that he will never be alone, and there will always be help around the corner if he needs it!

So, as you can see, we hadn’t been posting much on the site, because we have been so incredibly busy helping through Blue Dream Ministries!

We would like to thank everyone that has donated to Blue Dream and we wish you all a beautiful and happy Christmas!
Remember that the best part of it is giving!

If you wish to help any of these families, please send items to:
Michelle / BlueDream
5062 S 108th St. #272,
Omaha, NE 68137
Or, you can make a donation directly to us through Chipin or PayPal.

Occupy Omaha and the national movement

admin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:08:11 +0000

I wasn’t going to mention this, except, when I saw this story, it reminded me of Sunday. Protesters from Occupy Omaha …well I should say, protester…there was only one at any given moment….anyway, the protesters came down to “speak for the downtrodden”. When each of these college aged kids has a nicer car than I have and bring absolutely nothing for the homeless 20 feet away, I had to wonder what they were so angry about? After all, doesn’t “social justice” sort of revolve around the plight of the less fortunate? Evidently not…see the article below. Goats milk cheese salad? Really?

Occupy Wall Street Protesters are upset that by providing high priced meals to their buddies, they might accidentally be feeding the homeless: For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

Full story here

Amazing day today

admin — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:14:50 +0000

We have today hot dogs, Italian peppers, coffee, bread and socks.
Every week we are able to deliver a variety of personal items such as socks, shampoo, soap, etc. courtesy of our Aunt, who has been making sure we always have something extra to bring to the homeless.
In addition to our Aunt’s donations, we always serve coffee provided by Harvest Roasting, and a wide variety of breads by Panera Bread; however, in the past two or three weeks we have been able to do a little bit more with the help of some friends…
We would like to thank Elaine and her husband for their donations of sweats and veggies: with them, we were able to take a large portion to the Bethlehem House, which is a shelter for pregnant women and Ann from NUFL took a box of peppers and made Italian roasted peppers for the homeless
NUFL also donated around 60 hotdogs with buns, so, today, the variety of things we have to deliver is amazing!

Thank you for your support!
Ann
NUFL
Harvest Roasting
Panera Bread
Aunt Rhoda
Elaine and her husband!

Thank you!

.-Michelle

It really is…

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:54:08 +0000

It’s an exciting month for Blue Dream. With some donations we’ve got all the supplies we need for coffee, heat packs for winter, gas for a new project we’re working on, and still have some left over for the week to week expenses. We’ve completed 2 years and are now beginning our third year with a couple weeks finished already. Hmmmm? Oh, right, the new project. We’ve managed one supplier (working on another), which has nearly tripled the amount of donations we’ve been able to give. Boxes of fruits and vegetables now join the also doubled bread amounts and we’ll be giving much more regularly to a couple places we could only help from time to time.

One of our guys keeps getting left out of the donations. He’s just one of those guys who expects a crowd to form a line, but that’s just not going to happen. For that to happen, I’d have to hand out each thing individually, and I get shy about that because these gifts aren’t from me…they are from our donors and the Lord. I’ve explained it before, but one guy just said he was thanking me for taking the time to care enough to bring it. Still, knowing what would happen, I set aside some for him this last time. I felt a little silly doing it, but he was very happy and alls well that ends well.

Let’s hope my car lives a long life and the Lord is kind to us this winter hehehehe.

In another space and time…

admin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:07:19 +0000

Our coffee maker went to be with Jesus.

It’s been very hot, so I hardly gave it a thought when it happened. Sure enough, we got requests to bring it back! So by popular demand, we’ll be making donated coffee again this next Sunday.

I’ve gotten into a few long spiritual conversations on the corner lately. I’ve honestly never seen more faith than I’ve seen on the corner. I’ve sat in church while people praised God for allowing their windshield to be fixed (seriously), and prayed for our brothers in other countries who are being slaughtered for just being Christians. So I suppose it could work that way. God fixing one persons windshield and allowing another to be violently sent “home” to our Father in heaven. No sarcasm, it could very well be, I don’t know. I don’t care to judge, even if it makes me raise an eyebrow. Who am I to say? But daily, relying on God for every moment of every day, like I see on the corner is rare. And and I’m not one to claim that Christianity is more present where there is poverty. If that were so, countries like Pakistan and North Korea would be an oasis of the Christian faith. Just that, for as rotten a gig as it can be being homeless, most people I see are thankful for what they have.

I’d like to expand to include fruits and vegetables on the corner. A neat little group the homeless call “The vegetarians” does something like this very successfully, but more equal more variety, more possibility and more people who can be served. Stores throw away much of this after it gets bruised or is on it’s last couple of good days. But take all of these and you can make a very delicious and tasty soup, which they often do.

So with these things and the donated personal care items that go like lightning, I think we are serving Omaha’s homeless in a pretty good and vital way! God Bless!

How long…

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 19:05:55 +0000

Today was interesting because the College World Series was in town. It scared off some of the guys who gather on the corner, but not everyone. Today we gave out some more supplies donated by my aunt and some of our usual breakfast items. The day cooperated with some great weather and the guys were either sitting around discussing things like last winter or reading books, etc. Now, I’m not the type to think that in a world of such beauty and tragedy, God is taking time out to worry about whether I have a parking space, but it did work out that in a place where parking is coming at $8 per space (CWS remember), I had my choice of parking spaces (which were filled almost immediately after I arrived). I thanked God, just in case…you never know. I was watching this psycho the other day on youtube (someone sent me the link), anyway, this guy was going off about sin and how God won’t hear the prayers of sinners, etc. Ignoring the idea that if God can’t hear the prayers of sinners, repentance would be impossible, the thing that struck me was that in an 10 minute rant, complete with website there was no mention of love or even caring about anybody. Just the usual “Come to Jesus and do everything right or burn forever”. That message is certainly inspiring in a creepy sort of sadistic way, but how do you make the world better that way? Sure…not killing everyone, committing adultery, etc are probably some good places to start on a better world, but it sort of misses the point, doesn’t it? I mean. Jesus told us that the two most important things in life were to love God with all of our hearts and our neighbors as we love ourselves. He goes on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan.
So if those ideals are the mission, then all these laws the guy was getting all worked about are just tools to accomplish those goals. Without a plan, and communication with the foreman, we end up misusing those tools and building a house no one wants to be in. I think that’s a pretty apt description of the churches where guys like this come from.
We had another visit from the guy who walks 5 miles to get where we are for bread. I broke my rule and gave him bus fare this time, because he was taking enough to feed himself for the week and a woman on the third floor of the place where he is staying. She’s less mobile than him (which seems an easy feat since he just walked over 5 miles), so he’s been getting her what he can.
Lastly, my best friend from childhood died this week. I had just sent her a message out of the blue with a picture of us together and we mused about it together and then 72 hours later, she was gone. It’s so unimaginable as to be impossible, not just because she was my friend, but if you had run a physical on her and me and 10 other people, you wouldn’t have picked her to be the one to die anytime soon. You’d have easily come to the conclusion that she would live to see grandchildren, not die 10 days after the birth of her daughter. The bible is brutally honest (a little too honest if you ask me) about the brevity of our existence here. Even 100 years would be a sneeze in time. It’s certainly too short to be mad about everything, but maybe, like those 72 hours, it’s just long enough to reach out with love to one another.