Our desire to raise money is with the intention to provide our family with a safe, reasonable, healthy home and neighborhood to live in. This year, we packed all of our things one afternoon and left New York that night. We were driven by two major motives. 

First, our neighborhood had become an unlivable environment. The gang violence, kidnappings, crime and death rate, had taken a hike in number right in our own neighborhood, where I was born and raised. We feared for our children's well being, and were petrified at the thought of them starting school in the Bronx. The zoned public schools were reporting suicides and gun violence in elementary schools. "Justice for Junior" was happening walking distance from our home- it was no longer "things you hear about on the news" but a major reality that had reached our own neighborhood. We were literally avoiding going outside if not extremely necessary, and than we stopped, and asked ourselves, "How long are we going to live like this?"

Second, we had been serving our community for five years. Feeding homeless, providing basic supplies and necessities to low-income families in shelters, mothers, infants, and children. We strongly felt it was time to expand, do more, and reach new territory. Included in that, was starting a church of our own after so many years of serving different churches and their surrounding communities. We have decided to bring freedom, deliverance, and the love of Christ to a new community, to a new place. We've considered it a new step, a new call.  

The night we left, we left our two oldest children (2 and 3 years old at the time) with their grandparents, and took our youngest, a newborn and drove to Allentown PA. In two weeks we had new work, a new church, and an apartment. We took the only apartment we could afford on such short notice to bring our children home and a decent place to be able to start school in September. Although we knew our goal was to serve the Allentown, Pennsylvania community through ministry work, it wasn't our long term goal to live there and establish a life for our children there. We quickly became very frustrated in our home, that isn't maintained, taken care off, and literally falling apart. Our landlord's only concern is receiving his monthly payment. Fortunately, we have only been making and accomplishing goals since we arrived to Pennsylvania, despite life's curve balls. 

We have been able to get a loan and sign a contract on a beautiful mobile home in our budget. We've been approved by the community to live there, and we are beyond excited about the school district of the area. The idea of owning our own home always seemed impossible, unrealistic, but we decided to push the limits that we put on ourselves and other people have put on us. At first, we wanted a home, but were not able to get the loan in time, and had no idea how to go about purchasing a home, so we missed our opportunity. We were very, very disappointed. After being prayerful, we knew GOD was reserving better for our family- after having waited so long, we knew there had to be more. We found THE home, we knew it was it, it was better than what we had originally laid our eyes on. It definitely is going to need some paint and new light fixtures since it's very vintage (a 1978 home), but nonetheless, stronger, sturdier, and better than some of the newer homes we've seen. Right away, we took all the money we had, signed a contract and began the approval process for the community. 

We are SO excited to say we were approved for the loan and residency in the community in Northampton, Pennsylvania. Another goal with GOD's help we have been able to accomplish. Because the home had a higher price tag than the other, the expenses came out to more than we had expected. We have 20 days to come up with the remainder of the down payment for the mobile home loan ($1,000), the First Month's Rent + Security ($990) for the land, and roughly ($300) for closing costs and a residency permit by the town. 

We've exhausted all possible resources by taking on overtime, selling baked goods, and getting rid of anything in our home that we don't really need and selling it. 

Thanks for taking the time to read and understand a bit of our story, and why we really need to raise this money.