The James II Project

05/12/2026

05/11/2026

It always gives me such a kick how God brings people together in so many crazy ways!

We met an amazing guy last week who came to our meal that is wanting to set up a 501c3 and we are excited to help him get started! It will be for a much needed resource in Jefferson County! In talking with him he actually is really great friends with an amazing guy that we love to support in his ministry work.

Reminds me of the passage, "God works everything together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." He will accomplish what He sets out to accomplish and I am here for it!!

Karin

05/11/2026

We are inching closer to our next location opening! We are working with our new volunteers to get the training they need and our partner agencies to ensure we have support on site for those in need. God is good, faithful and always keeps His promises!

05/09/2026

James II has been an amazing blessing to so many in our community. One of the reasons we are able to succeed in bringing the ministry to those in our community is our amazing volunteers. The amazing people who come each week to prepare our meals have a heart to serve and love to minister to our friends that attend our meals. I am encouraged and blessed when I watch as a card game is taking place or a cup of coffee is shared as life stories are shared. That is why when one of our volunteers or friends hurt or we lose someone we grieve. That leads me to the purpose of this post.

One of our volunteers who came along over almost 2 years ago was just told they have stage 4 cancer and it has spread and is aggressive. The news has just hit so hard today and processing it is not happening easily. This person has given their heart and time way beyond the time they served on their day. They helped me with scheduling volunteers on our holidays, helped tremendously last year when we prepared meals for a week after the tornado for The Salvation Army to take out to those affected and has been a HUGE encouragement to me personally over the past 2 years of knowing them.

Please pray for them as they go through this time of discernment and uncertainty. Please pray for our volunteer team as we process this and walk through this time. God will receive the glory, but right now we are just heartbroken .

God is good, faithful and always keeps His promises!

Karin

05/05/2026

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! Today was busy at Salvation Army! We love to be able to celebrate holidays with our friends! So many card games, Scrabble and Yahtzee games happening....our volunteers were able to get a quick game of Pass the Trash in...building community is what it's about!! We were able to connect many of our friends to resources today and helped a friend find tires for a reasonable price!

All in a day at James II!

(*Note: To protect the privacy of our friends we do not post pictures of them. The tables were full as we began.)

05/04/2026

Festus was so busy today!!! So many friends but so many new faces!!!

It occurred to me today as I watched our unhoused friends interact that God made us to be relational. Those that are unhoused are still looking for that family. They make up a community and look out for each other, fight like families and then come back together to support each other.

Beautiful picture of God creating us all in His image and to be relational!

04/30/2026

Spoke tonight at the Twin City Optimist Club. They were the title sponsor at Women of Impact earlier this year where I was given the honor of being recognized one of 4 women of Impact in Jeffco.

What a great organization! Loving on kiddos and making sure they are cared for as they go into foster care but also all kiddos everywhere. They provide hygiene products, shoes and other needs for youth in our area.

04/30/2026

What a great way to end our week! We served 73 meals today at Sal Army!

We saw many new faces and our sweet friends from Aspiring Solutions came to serve and have lunch with us!

We were able to connect someone to St. Vincent DePaul to get help with their Personal Property Tax bill, connect someone else with Connect Church STL to check it out this Sunday and near the end of the meal receive a message that someone had a refrigerator to give away and as I mentioned it a Compass caseworker who was working with his client said they needed it as their refrigerator just went out! God is in the details!

Have a great weekend! God is good, faithful and always keeps his promises!

Karin

04/28/2026

Today we served over 60 people at our meal. We had many friends that are familiar and a few new faces.

On Saturday morning we were contacted by a good friend to James II, Karen, about a young woman who lives in her van and was basically stranded because her brakes were in bad shape. We reached out to another friend of James II, Jim Avery, and asked if he could help us with an automotive recommendation and with in hours he gave me the information we needed. We reached out to the automotive shop, Fairway Automotive, and they were very excited to help us. We contacted our new friend who was so excited that we were able to help. She took her van over to the shop yesterday and they checked everything out. We received a call that the repairs were close to $2,000, they said they were stunned that her brakes even worked. We then reached out to Tara Lang at JCCU to send out a request covering the expense. The shop also reached out to the police officer association to see what type of assistance they could offer. We received feed back today from some organizations that said they could help including Holy Family St. Vincent DePaul, The Southern Vicariate, Compass Health, people from the shop are chipping in and we will also be a part of the funding. We are short some, but we know that God will deliver. We were able to get her a room for the night and some groceries. She is just so thankful that anyone would want to help her! As we stood talking I told her that we all work together as partners to help those that God sends our way. She travels and her van is her home. She said that if she would not have gotten out of her bad relationship, driven here to where she has a few friends she would never have met us...but here is the great thing...God knew just where to place her!! We told her that she is made in the image of God and worthy of more than her circumstance and she broke down! We prayed together and we will see her tomorrow.

Guys! This is what it is all about! Partnering with others to get the work done!!! If you would like to help, please message us. We still have a bit of a gap to cover, but God is good, faithful and always keep His promises!!!

Karin

04/27/2026

HEY, HEY, HEY.....look what we got going on! Can't wait to meet our new friends in High Ridge!