Merry Christmas from The Marin Foundation!

2005 has been quite a year for The Marin Foundation. Two years of hopes, dreams and prayers all came to fruition this year as I stepped down from my sales position at The Drake Hotel and started fulfilling what I have been put on this Earth to do. From our 15 classes and programs to our exciting research, The Marin Foundation has been able to bring together the GLBT and religious communities in a non-threatening, research and biblically oriented fashion promoting the strength and growth of spirituality. In November we started the most recent wave of programs, and during one of the classes being held on December 10, I was very touched by one man’s words in which I would like to relate to you this day.

I first want to thank “Chuck” for letting me tell his story. Chuck was raised Catholic while growing up in a small town in the Midwest, and had spent most of his life to that point feeling wrong; wrong about his sexuality, wrong about his image and wrong about having a chosen, non-existent relationship with God. With everyone around him telling him he couldn’t possibly have any existence with God, Chuck left for Chicago. 30 years have passed, and Chuck finds himself in Chicago living a good life that makes him happy. Though as Chuck can attest, a life that makes you happy is not always a life that makes you complete. Chuck had heard about The Marin Foundation through a friend who heard me speak at a church in August. He contacted me, introduced himself and told me he would like to attend our next wave of classes. As we started that wave, Chuck was very skeptical. He didn’t know us, what our motives were or if he even belonged? Chuck never said more than two words in any class and would always sit in the back with an inquisitive blank stare on his face…that was until the 7th class session. In the middle of class Chuck put his head down, and when he lifted it up he had streams of tears falling down his cheeks. He the stood up and said, “If you would have told me that one day I would be sitting here listening to a straight guy preach, I’d have told you that you were crazy. I am 50 years old and what I have heard over these classes is the most important stuff I have ever heard in my entire life! Where were you 30 years ago? You give us all this difficult information in such an easy way that is not biased or make us feel bad!? Over the past year I have been feeling like there is something else out there for me, and today I understand what that something else is. Thank you Andrew.”

How blessed The Marin Foundation feels to have the opportunity to each day go out and provide an open door to the GLBT community face to face on behalf of our God. Having been severely hurt as a broader GLBT community by the religious community, The Marin Foundation is humbled by the chance to continue to tread a new path. During this Christmas season we ask that you look inside yourself and decide to walk in faith, treading a new path in unison with us, by financially assisting The Marin Foundation with a one-time Christmas gift. No matter what the size, each dollar that is donated is another step closer to bringing just one more person like Chuck in the GLBT community to the realization that a life without God is a life that is incomplete. Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love and support. We look forward to another exciting year in 2006!

Thank you and God Bless,

Andrew Marin