We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan Gray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind our success would be broken into a few aspects . .
1. God / People God blesses us with people who continue to bless us from our team to volunteers to sponsors and collaborations that we are able to walk with in helping others .

2.Support- In order to help another out of a situation means; Emotionally, Spiritually, Financially, we need to have to be able to offer several types of support for our community members in situations of sensitivity.

3. Experience.- It’s one thing to feel ” bad”, for 1 out of every 6 who might suffer with food or financial insecurities, and it’s another to have and or had lived in situations where we personally have shared this experience, so when we are offering aid to another our empathy out of grace for not being in the situations that we once were.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Doing Trials for Hope is a daily investment of 13 years in serving the population of; men, women and others. I felt spiritually called to do this from the first donation and hope to have many years after! The thing that I am most excited about is seeing the change from feeling hopeless to hope.

This was not easy! I have many mantle illnesses and don not drive.. My income is below poverty and have some cognitive challenges. The challenges were over came by others seeing my investment and others willing to invest some time to be shown what our team does. I can tell you , although experiencing is a whole different situation.

The lessons I’m still learning are; people really will remember how you treat them, so be kind. That God will always give you what you need although not always what you want. That giving people what they need is not always what they need. God is not done yet!

We would love for more to know about us!!! That you never know what a small group of people can accomplish when they truly are dedicated… don’t give up before the miracle because we all have a purpose!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m kind of a boring person . I’d take them to My Friends or Dianna’s . I’d take and show them some of the things and places that we go on outreach from the projects to the camps of unsheltered and maybe a movie…… This is my life and for anyone coming I would want them to see why this is my life…. To awaken another and to have another loved is pretty wonderful!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Community West Foundation . Peter Shidler

Website: https://trials4hope.org/

Instagram: Trials4hope

Facebook: Trialsforhope

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py3TRLB3yJc

Image Credits
We have: One of me A.J. and a Uhall ( Our manager) We have Mayfield United Methodist with toys from our School give away We have our team with; Mark, A.J., and Cody We have some of others on our team with; Jim, his wife, matt, A.j. , Cody , mark .

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