DOOR PRIZE LINE-UP FOR STARVATION ERADICATION FESTIVAL 2009!!!
***  BENEFIT FOR THE HOMELESS & HUNGRY  ***

Just a fast FYI to let you know some of the updated door prizes we have going for just $1.00 per chance next Wednesday night, August 5th at The Stone Pony for the Starvation Eradication Festival 2009!!!http://www.starvationeradication.com

Some of our offerings include:

A custom one-of-a-kind snare drum from BIB Drums  ///  An 8 gb IPOD Touch  ///  A $60 Gift Certificate To Napster
A $50 Best Buy Card  ///  Some Cool Clothing From Some Cool Manufacturers  ///  and some other great “STUFF”!!!

Don’t forget…you get ONE FREE door prize ticket automatically for each and every can of food YOU bring!!!
100% of all profits earned from this event go to help alleviate the plight of the homeless and hungry in both Ocean & Monmouth Counties in the state of New Jersey via PassionWorks, Inc.

Can’t wait to see you all next Wednesday!!!    

Thanks,
Chuck  Gianakos, Executive Director
PassionWorks, Inc.
http://www.passionworksusa.org

Starvation Eradication Festival 2009!
***  MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW  ***
***  THIS IS AN ALL AGES SHOW  ***

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR STARVATION ERADICATION FESTIVAL 2009!
www.starvationeradication.com
www.twitter.com/starvation_erad

Announcing the 1st annual PassionWorks Fundraiser / “Positive Message” concert for the homeless and hungry of Northern Ocean and Southern Monmouth Counties in New Jersey.

NOTE:  THIS IS AN ALL AGES SHOW!!!  Anyone & Everyone Is Encouraged To Attend!!!

We just booked everything and plans are falling into place as you read this.  Keep checking in regularly for updated information @ www.starvationeradication.com!

Here are the details as we know them today.  Once again, we’ll be updating regularly.  Join us on Twitter for updates too @ www.twitter.com/passionworks or www.twitter.com/starvation_erad.

• Venue:  The Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ
• Date:  Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
• Event Times:  6pm – 10pm’ish.
• Who’s Invited?:  EVERYONE – young and not so young!
• Ticket Price:  $12.00 per person
• Door Prize Tickets:  $1.00 per person.  Bring a can of food as a donation and get 1 FREE door prize ticket per can of food you bring!!! 
• Other Details:  This will be a ”Positive Message” rock/pop concert with multiple bands to help the homeless and hungry of the Monmouth & Ocean County New Jersey areas.  All monetary profits from this event will be going to the homeless and hungry via PassionWorks, Inc. (www.passionworksusa.org or www.starvationeradication.com)
• There Will Be Door Prizes, Lot’s Of Great Music, Really Cool Guest Speakers, Band Merchandise For Sale, Other Vendors, Etc!

Bands:
1.  Last Days Of Empire - www.myspace.com/lastdaysofempire

Event Director:  Pat Cashin @ 1-908-902-3473 or jpcashin@gmail.com
Or Go To www.starvationeradication.com For Updated Information Daily!!!

Information on Ben Wilton coming very soon!!!

Just a fast note to let you all know that PassionWorks, Inc. is now on Twitter.  Check it out now and become a follower!!!

Go to www.twitter.com/passionworks

     PassionWorks, Inc. is looking for some help in multiple areas of our work/projects/outreach/communications…etc.

We are in need of volunteers or college students looking to do internships in multiple areas of our organization for college credit and/or some kind of monetary compensation.  We are looking for help with everything from telephone communications and outreach to assistance with fundraising campaigns, from electronic communications and website maintainence to office administration, from photography and press releases to letter writing to…you name it…we could use it!  AND…you don’t have to live in the New Jersey area to do it!

We can support any type of volunteer or internship work long distance if we have to.  If you are interested in exploring the possibilities, please do not hesitate to send Executive Director Chuck Gianakos a message at chuck@passionworksusa.org or call 732-272-3477.

Let’s talk soon please!

Peace and my best wishes to all of you!

Pastor Chuck Gianakos
Executive Director, PassionWorks, Inc.
Founder, Project Reflection Ministries & Church

PS: Click on www.passionworksusa.org should you need more information about our organization!

Finally!  We have a leader, a President of the United States that is speaking for equality and the rights of every individual…and “doing the right thing.

This speach says it all, so I will not bog this post down with my own words…BUT…

Those of us that are dealing with the homeless situation in Lakewood, NJ and every other area of the United States should, in my belief, use the following words as an inspiriation to each of your callings to help people in your neck of the woods.  Please use President Obama’s words to motivate yourself to “do the right thing” in ALL circumstances of your life.

Enough said — PLEASE READ ON!
Pastor Charles ‘Chuck’ Gianakos
Executive Director, PassionWorks, Inc.
Founder, Project Reflection Ministries & Church

Remarks of President Barack Obama
At The National Prayer Breakfast
Thursday, February 5th, 2009 Washington, DC

Good morning. I want to thank the Co-Chairs of this breakfast, Representatives Heath Shuler and Vernon Ehlers. I’d also like to thank Tony Blair for coming today, as well as our Vice President, Joe Biden, members of my Cabinet, members of Congress, clergy, friends, and dignitaries from across the world.

Michelle and I are honored to join you in prayer this morning. I know this breakfast has a long history in Washington, and faith has always been a guiding force in our family’s life, so we feel very much at home and look forward to keeping this tradition alive during our time here.

It’s a tradition that I’m told actually began many years ago in the city of Seattle. It was the height of the Great Depression, and most people found themselves out of work. Many fell into poverty. Some lost everything.

The leaders of the community did all that they could for those who were suffering in their midst. And then they decided to do something more: they prayed. It didn’t matter what party or religious affiliation to which they belonged. They simply gathered one morning as brothers and sisters to share a meal and talk with God.

These breakfasts soon sprouted up throughout Seattle, and quickly spread to cities and towns across America, eventually making their way to Washington. A short time after President Eisenhower asked a group of Senators if he could join their prayer breakfast, it became a national event. And today, as I see presidents and dignitaries here from every corner of the globe, it strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill.

I raise this history because far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another – as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.

There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all.

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together. Jesus told us to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” The Torah commands, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.” In Islam, there is a hadith that reads “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists. It is, of course, the Golden Rule – the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.

It is an ancient rule; a simple rule; but also one of the most challenging. For it asks each of us to take some measure of responsibility for the well-being of people we may not know or worship with or agree with on every issue. Sometimes, it asks us to reconcile with bitter enemies or resolve ancient hatreds. And that requires a living, breathing, active faith. It requires us not only to believe, but to do – to give something of ourselves for the benefit of others and the betterment of our world.

In this way, the particular faith that motivates each of us can promote a greater good for all of us. Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. This is not only our call as people of faith, but our duty as citizens of America, and it will be the purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships that I’m announcing later today.

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state. This work is important, because whether it’s a secular group advising families facing foreclosure or faith-based groups providing job-training to those who need work, few are closer to what’s happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods than these organizations. People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them.

We will also reach out to leaders and scholars around the world to foster a more productive and peaceful dialogue on faith. I don’t expect divisions to disappear overnight, nor do I believe that long-held views and conflicts will suddenly vanish. But I do believe that if we can talk to one another openly and honestly, then perhaps old rifts will start to mend and new partnerships will begin to emerge. In a world that grows smaller by the day, perhaps we can begin to crowd out the destructive forces of zealotry and make room for the healing power of understanding.

This is my hope. This is my prayer.

I believe this good is possible because my faith teaches me that all is possible, but I also believe because of what I have seen and what I have lived.

I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I’ve ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done.

I didn’t become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck – no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God’s spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose – His purpose.

In different ways and different forms, it is that spirit and sense of purpose that drew friends and neighbors to that first prayer breakfast in Seattle all those years ago, during another trying time for our nation. It is what led friends and neighbors from so many faiths and nations here today. We come to break bread and give thanks and seek guidance, but also to rededicate ourselves to the mission of love and service that lies at the heart of all humanity. As St. Augustine once said, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

So let us pray together on this February morning, but let us also work together in all the days and months ahead. For it is only through common struggle and common effort, as brothers and sisters, that we fulfill our highest purpose as beloved children of God. I ask you to join me in that effort, and I also ask that you pray for me, for my family, and for the continued perfection of our union.

Thank you.

At Left:  One Of Four Homeless Encampments In
Lakewood, NJ – January 2009 – 30 Residents

On Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 6:30pm, when the majority of us were loading our snack plates, getting a fresh beverage from the refrigerator, and preparing a comfortable seat in front of the television with family and friends to watch the annual SuperBowl football game, Jimmy Wilcox, a local Lakewood New Jersey homeless man passed away in his tent in the woods just outside the area of the Lakewood Blue Claws baseball stadium.

Jimmy’s death was not the result of freezing to death in the single digit temperatures of our area or even natural causes.  No…Jimmy burned to death in a fire, torched by the propane heater that was keeping him warm.  Immediate reports from firefighters, police, and EMT officials said it looked as though Jimmy was asleep in his tent and must have accidentally thrown his blanet off himself, a piece of it landing on the propane infared heating element.  The blanket apparently caught fire, engulfed the entire heating system along with the propane tank, and burned off the fuel supply hose, basically making the rubber hose a high pressure torch.  The hose, it is speculated, acted like a flame thrower, setting fire to everything inside the tent including Jimmy.  His body was carried away a short time later while other homeless friends in his encampment looked on in shock.  There are no memorial services, no viewings, no formal burials for Jimmy.  His homeless colleagues will undoubtedly have a church service for him at the camp this Sunday, February 8th, 2009, led by Minister Steve Brigham, the caretaker of the homeless communities of Lakewood, NJ…and a homeless person himself.

 An official town meeting is being scheduled for this upcoming Thursday, February 5th to discuss how to end the homeless problem in Lakewood.  I hope to be invited to attend that meeting as an advocate for the hungry and homeless in our area.  But past history and attitudes show that town and county officials are not concerned about how to end homelessness in the area by actually helping the homeless and their plight.  No…officials want to shut the camps down by prohibiting propane heating and open fires completely and forcefully removing the encampment residents, kicking them out of the area; basically pushing them out and moving them on to someplace else.

My question to the Lakewood and Ocean County officials (and to any other government official anywhere in the U.S. where there is a homeless problem) is…where would you like these poor unfortunates to go?  They are not going to simply disappear.  The only homeless shelters near Ocean County New Jersey are either in Atlantic City or Trenton, both 90 minutes away from Lakewood.  Many of the homeless in these wooded “tent cities” have local jobs, even if their employment is only for minimum wage.  Should a local homeless person agree to move to one of the two shelters, Ocean County will give them a bus ticket to the location and put them up in housing for one week.  The homeless person then loses their employment, and after the one week, the state kicks them back out on the streets again!  This is NOT a solution!  Where is the help and assistance by our government officials?  Where is the plan for affordable single room occupancy (SRO’s) and housing in the State of New Jersey – one of the most expensive states in the Union?  Where is the government which is supposed to ensure safety to its citizens no matter what the socioeconomic status of the person?

My organization, PassionWorks, Inc. has been serving Minister Steve Brigham and these local homeless communities for over five years now, Jimmy Wilcox being one of the recipients of our services (ie: food, clothes, blankets, jackets, fuel, firewood, tarps, etc).  Not much is known about Jimmy except a few simple things.  He was a father and a divorced husband.  He worked and lived with is family locally in Brick, NJ until he started having mental disability problems, mainly depression issues.  When his issues started taking a toll on his family, he left them all his possessions and assets and became a homeless man.  Jimmy was by no means perfect and had many issues…don’t we all suffer from something?  We need to remember though, no matter what his situation past or present…Jimmy Wilcox died Sunday evening trying to keep warm in an unsafe manner.  But it was his only option!  What would any of you have done differently?

I am angry about all of this, but I am forcing myself to go to Thursday’s meeting level headed and calm.  Fighting and yelling will not make any kind of difference to anyone on either side of this issue.  I hope to address the mayor of Lakewood, and when I do, I’m simply going to ask if he were walking in Jimmy’s shoes, what would he have done differently?  I simply just want to know how we all can make this work and live together in some kind of harmony.  When I personally look into someone’s eyes I see a child of God, someone lovingly made by the Creator of this world.  No matter what our faith (or non-faith), if we can start to see the world through God’s eyes and love the things that God loves, we can start to treat each other differently, like equals, like fellow human beings sharing this time and space.  Even if you don’t believe in God, Jimmy was lovingly made by two people at some point in time.  He was loved by a mother and father and at one point at one time was at least loved by someone.  When you break everything down to simple terms…this is the picture of each and every one of us.

My thoughts, hopes and prayers go out to Jimmy — and then for all of us.  Please, let’s start treating each other better so the lives of people like Jimmy won’t just end up wasted and thrown away.  Please!

Pastor Charles ‘Chuck’ Gianakos
Executive Director, PassionWorks, Inc.
Founder, Project Reflection Ministries & Church