Our Piece of the Puzzle

Three of us attended a meeting of the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District meeting this morning and while sitting there listening to the plans the leadership has for Gwinnett, I realized how Across The Bridge will be a vital part of that plan. They spoke of improving the community, sharing highlights of lower crime rate, and then along came a speaker that hit home. He spoke on the problem of homelessness. 

There are about 8,000-10.000 believed to be homeless in our county, though the state says there are only slightly over 200, and presently no immediate shelters to house them. In fact, there is no real system to put them through to change that condition except for The Salvation Army and Family Promise. All of that is fixin' to change, as we would say here. They have a plan, they have money and they have partners who will make this happen. And they understand that addiction is a major contributor to this statistic.

That's where Across The Bridge comes in. Our Piece of the Puzzle is to help this statistic reduce, help the addictive to heal, and recover to become productive citizens. Last year alone we addressed 10,000 people through our meetings, Sponsorship and Celebrations. We helped many of these not only get clean, but also bring them into a relationship with the Lord. The amount of people who have picked up long term chips has more than quadrupled and our ministry has grown by leaps and bounds.

So now, effective January 1st we embark on a new journey in our own facility with room to expand on the two churches and five recovery places where we hold meetings. We are our own 501(c)3 charitable organization that will solely rely on our partners who donate, those organizations who partner with us, revenue from our building, and grants from private funders and the government.

We will have meetings in our 6000 square foot building that was formerly a church, that include AA, CA, 5th Tradition, ATB 12 step, Women's Groups, Men's Groups, Bible Studies, a Friday Night Worship service especially designed for those in recovery and their families, a food bank, clothing thrift, and so much more. And, the most important thing we will have is a place for those who are striving to get out of addiction can come, be accepted, steered in the right direction, and given hope that a loving and merciful God can and will join them in this battle.

We are the advocate of the lost, we have a plan, we have some partners, we have some money, but we need the seeds of added support from others who can donate time and/or money, as well as equipment, furniture and prayers. We are that piece of the puzzle that may be the best investment you could possibly make because we address the issues that not only affect the human soul, but also the soul of our community. 

Homelessness, crime, broken families, broken lives, we are on the very front line as not only their advocate, but yours because there may come a day when we are needed by you for a problem in your own life within your own family.

We humbly ask that you help us get off to the right start, until all these other financial situations kick in and I assure you we will continue to work to connect other major partners to ATB. So far we have raised over $15,000 toward our facility and outreach work, applied for over $50,000 in grants with many more applications to come, but we need about $15,000 to reach our startup goal.  

If we can raise that money by January 1st, we will track down a Santa Claus who will match your donation dollar for dollar! All we need from you is to help us put that last piece in place of our own puzzle and we will have made a complete picture of human kindness in technicolor!

We thank those of you who have already provided part of that beautiful picture!
Love your servant hearts, Glenn
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Mailing address: Across The bridge Inc, 6600 Sugarloaf Pkwy #400/281, Duluth Ga 30097 

New Address January 1st: 900 Cripple Creek Drive, Suite A, Lawrenceville Ga 30043