We never know when God will shower his blessings on our efforts and certain homeless individuals. Events of the last few weeks are testimony to God that He is still on the Throne and in control and blesses obedience to Him! Praise God for His Love and Mercy to us!!

One person can’t help everyone, but Together Each Accomplishes More (TEAM)!! This is the whole idea behind the Greatest Commandments. Love God with all of who you are and the poor as yourself. If each of us showed the Love of God to just one poor and/or homeless person, we and other agencies serving the homeless would have to find something else to do. There would be no more homeless living in the woods, abandoned buildings or in their cars etc. for us to help.

Please pray about it and ask God how you can get involved and be obedient to His greatest Commandments. Then you to will see God and His miracles everyday in your life!

URGENT NEED: Volunteer Driver/Career Counselor to assist the homeless in obtaining jobs. No experience necessary! On the job training available 24/7. We will pay for the gas.

A country is only as strong as its people!
To make our people strong financially and morally is to build our countries most important assets!
The Bible tells us the most important thing we can do is Love God and Love the poor as ourselves!( The Greatest Commandments)
In military terms this means,” no one left behind” to suffer the agony and pain of poverty and homelessness.
At least one hundred million people in the U.S. are not self-sufficient, this is the biggest financial reason for poverty and homelessness! To me this is poverty.
Forty million people in the U.S. are homeless. It seems like a small percentage of the whole country but would you like to be there?
Los Angeles has over 80,000 homeless and over 360,000 millionaires.
Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture?
How does this make the rest of us look who are doing well with the worlds riches?
God says we have a wounded and up-side down world right now and He won’t heal our land until we turn it right side up again through obedience to Him.
God will help us if we call on Him!
So what is the answer? Here is the answer if you haven’ figured it out.
WE NEED TO DO MORE FOR THE POOR!!!

Sharon called me, sounding very desperate, from a motel with her 25 year old daughter and 5 month old grandson. She was out of money for the motel and had no place to go for the next night. I had no idea what would happen to them but I agreed to pay for another night in the motel to give us time to figure something out. This is normally the way it goes with all these calls, I support them as long as I can afford to and give it all to God.

Well God really stepped in fast with this family! The next thing I knew she called me saying she was approved for a rental house. I knew her credit was bad and she had no money so I asked her how in the world was she approved. Now this is where God stepped in. She said the landlord did not even ask for an application just the $750 deposit. I couldn’t believe it so I asked the landlord myself and it was true. So all we had to do is raise the deposit and they could move in anytime. To make a long story short we went to 4 Churches and 2 together gave us the $750. Then I could only afford 2 more nights in the motel and the check wouldn’t be ready for 4 more days so we had another problem. But with God’s grace and mercy again she called the landlord and he let her move in two days even before she gave him the deposit. What a pure miracle I have never seen that happen before!

Another example of God and His Love for the poor and homeless. I am always amazed at His miracles although I shouldn’t be I’ve seen them in action hundreds of times. I just never know what He is going to do next. Love His surprises! But I Love Him, Thank Him and ask forgiveness of my sins daily and pray He continues to bless our efforts with these impossible situations and depressed and destitute homeless the least of His people.

Thank you for all your prayers and help in our efforts to be obedient to God’s word and enjoy His great Love for us His believers and children. Please help if you can.

Another short but sweet story about a person with no hope who became hopeful through our program. Brent is a young man of 27 and recently released from jail for possession of drug paraphernalia. He only spent a few weeks in jail but it was enough to mess up his life. So with no family, money, clothes, job, transportation etc. we agreed to put him in our program.

I made sure he understood he was to apply at 15 businesses per day until he got a job. He like many new clients we see, expressed his dislike of the many aps we require to continue on in our program. But he did as we asked and called me everyday with the names of the places he applied to for work. Well hallelujah, he starts work today at one of the local restaurants at $10.00 per hour. He is so happy he is praising God, thanking us and will have a new start at life just because someone cared. Yesterday I bought him phone minutes, slip resistant shoes he needed for work and other necessities so he would feel more human and not like a pauper. Please pray he will continue in success at work, saving money and becoming self-sufficient.

We still have the 2 week period before he gets his first paycheck we have to pay for the motel at $170 per week but it is worth it to see another seemingly hopeless case become a success story. We provided a bike for him so he can now get to work in about 20 minutes. So we believe he has everything he needs now as long as he gets to the food pantries on time. We will have paid out over $500 in motel bills alone for his success but we have to ask the question “how much is a human life worth?” If he didn’t get this help he may still have found the job many weeks later but he would have had to sleep in the woods or worse and beg for food. He didn’t know anything about the services available in the area. I think I have finally arrived at a good understanding of what a human life is worth. I read where in materials the cost of our bodies is about $14.95. Just look at how we are so wonderfully made at such a bargain price. We are walking miracles created by God!

But I believe “ A LIFE IS WORTH AS MUCH AS YOU YOURSELF CAN GIVE TO LOVE AND HELP ANOTHER IN NEED.” A person who does not give or Love doesn’t think another person’s life is worth much because they just ignore the person in need and let them suffer. We live in a self-centered world and I believe this is why we are having so much trouble with the economy. If we were primarily others focused we would have a lot fewer poor and also predatory people. First we had predatory lending now we have predatory renting. The lenders and renters know people can’t afford the payments but make the deal anyway and then sew them in court for their money. We have too many people always wanting to take advantage of a weaker person. I believe God will heal our land when we learn to Love Him and others as ourselves. If anyone has a better answer let me know.

In second Timothy in the Bible Paul the apostle talks about suffering. He says our present suffering is comforted by our faith in Jesus Christ for our future healing. This is good you may have to read it a few times. I, Paul Kruse, am also comforted in my pain by knowing that absence from the body means present with God. This helps me to endure all pain and suffering. You either get healed or you go home to be with God and only God can make those decisions for us. The only control we have of that is to make sure we are saved and baptized and have given our lives completely over to Jesus and have complete faith and trust in Him. Without God we can do nothing spiritually! The best definition of faith I have ever heard is; trust in Jesus Christ alone! Let me or your pastor know if you have never prayed to receive Jesus as the Savior and lord of your life and we can show you how you can do that.

The Bible also says in 2 Timothy the Gospel doesn’t bring us a life of ease and glamour but one if adventure and challenge and some suffering along with it. But we are sustained by knowing that sometimes our suffering is beneficial to others. Our joy should come from watching others grow and become more complete in their relationship with Jesus. The first of the Greatest Commandments say we are to Love God with all that we are. The Bible says; our Love for God is measured by our Love for God’s people! This is the main reason I started this ministry to show God how much we Love Him and we pray God is blessed by the many people He has helped through us. We are seeing many people trusting in Jesus and are being blessed at this moment by God’s miracles. There are still thousands here in our county who are suffering and it gets worse by the minute. We believe God will only work through the people who step forward and show Love by action to His people.

The 27 year old girl I wrote about a few weeks ago is doing better, she has not been evicted yet and she and her sisters families are moving into a rental house they can afford together. She also found a job she loves working at a nursing home. But her suffering is still great! She has lung cancer and needs 1/3 of her right lung taken out. The doctor said it would save her life but she couldn’t work for 6 months after the operation. So her plan right now, is to keep working and try to save some money at 9$ an hour until it gets so bad she can’t stand it then get the surgery. She says she has to do this because she has to support her mom and 2 kids. There is no one else to take care of them. This is a no win situation for her and impossible for me to help except for buying some necessities and pay some past due bills for her. Once again I have to tell God this is an impossible situation and we need some divine power to Love this fragile family. I do not have the thousands of dollars it would take to give her the 6 months of recovery she will need. I have faith God will do so but I just don’t know when or how right now.

Thank you to the lady and her family who took in the last homeless lady I wrote about as a live in house keeper and is giving her room, board and transportation. God is working greatly in this ministry and it is a great honor and blessing to be his vessel!, Amen! Thank you God!

Then there is Nickey who is living at the Sal Army who has $2000 worth of debts to pay with no job or she will loose all her belongings and her car. Her only hope right now is to wait on a couple of unemployment checks which don’t even come close to that amount.

I could go on and on just with the 8 calls for help I have received just today before noon. Please pray God will send help soon and some relief for the pain, suffering and misery these poor people are going through.

I ask almost every homeless or poor person we help if they believe in God. The answer is always the same,” I am on my knees daily praying that God will help me and restore me to a productive citizen again.” If you are an atheist in a foxhole you won’t be an atheist long. God seems to pop into a persons mind especially when they are facing serious problems or death. Homelessness is like facing death in a war except in war you usually have more time and resources to get out of the trouble your in. But when you are all alone, starving and living in the outdoors the main resource a homeless person has is God!

This was the case with Devaughn who was a 10 year long drug addict who was a drug dealer. Living in a basement of an abandoned building he was finally tired of the life in the gutter. He called me and asked for help to change his life around but didn’t have a real job. So I told him to get a job and I would help him. We presently do not have the funds to support someone in a motel until they get a job. It’s hard enough to pay for their motel room at the rate of $175 per week for 2 weeks after they do get a job, until they get their first paycheck to start supporting themselves. So the next day he called me and said he had a job at McDonalds but didn’t a ride. So I gave him a ride and paid for 2 weeks in a motel. Now this is where God usually kicks in and He did big time. To make a long story short I introduced him to other agencies and Churches and a local Church really stepped up to help him. In 3 weeks he had a better paying job, housing, a car and was out of the motel. That is not the best part of the story. While I was working with him I asked him if he was Saved and Baptized and he said he wasn’t ready yet. So I gave him a Bible and told him to read some selected verses pertaining to Salvation and who God really is. Well to my surprise he called 2 days later and said he was ready. I could hardly believe it and saw God was working miracles in his heart.

So he asked me what Church I was from and I told him Westplex Community in Foristell and he said please take me there I want to be Saved and Baptized. Now this is the way it is supposed to work but rarely does. God just planned this one out perfectly and blessed both Devaughn and I greatly. So I took him to Church and he received the Lord Jesus in his heart and was baptized. To my surprise I was the one who had to baptize him along with the pastors prayers, in freezing cold water because someone forgot to turn on the baptismal heater. What an initiation to baptizing someone that was! I guess God wanted to make sure I didn’t forget it.

Now Devaugh is doing well progressing in life still receiving help from that local Church and not needing help or support from First Step Back Home any more. See, our problem with homeless, poverty, drugs etc. would be very minimal if all Churches and their congregations would help like this.

God’s people need to step up and let God use them in mighty ways to love the poor and least of God’s people. I can train anyone or group how to Love and help the poor. Also the Bible is the best training manual available for this. We just have to focus and devote most of our time in working with these people who just don’t know what to do about their miserable situations. Believe me it is a real joy to see someone go from destitute and suicidal to happy and hopeful. But this hope only comes from God and we are the ones who are chosen to present the Gospel the them and offer them the best way possible to repent of their sins and change the direction of their lives.

If there is any way I can help your Church or group learn how to Love the poor and or homeless to success please call and let me know. We have done it over 1600 times and have seen over 800 of them become successful, only by God’s grace!

Praise God we have made it to another year. Some are having a rough start and some a great one. The ones having a rough start can turn their problems over to God and He will be Loving and faithful to help you with them. When we ask Him for forgiveness, tell Him we Love Him and ask for help I believe He will help. Better yet show Him you Love Him by reading and obeying His word in the Bible and Loving and helping the poor. We stand on God’s promise in His word that states, God rewards those who diligently seek Him.” FSBH has been rewarded greatly with the honor of helping over 500 homeless, receiving 2 awards from large local agencies and God has given us over $123,000 just this year alone. We have spent over 80% of that on the homeless and have a good supply left to start the year with more homeless assistance. Out of all this we have over 300 success stories of people who have received jobs and are paying their own bills now without our assistance. We just praise God greatly and give Him all the honor, Glory and praise for all He has accomplished in our little ministry.

The first award we will receive is The Community Servant of The Year award from the Wentzville Chamber of Commerce this Saturday the 17th at the U.A.W. hall near the GM plant in Wentzville at 7:00 PM. EVERYONE is welcome to the Blizzard Ball at the cost of $40.00 per person which includes dinner, open bar and the Smash band. Please call the Chamber for tickets.

We continue to see hundreds of homeless and near homeless struggle. The effects of an old and present life of drugs, alcohol and tobacco have devastated them so much that they struggle with paying their bills and are barely hanging on to everyday life. Bankruptcies, loss of jobs, foreclosures etc. are common now also even among those who never had addiction problems. So we are now buried in requests for help from people from all walks of life and we do not have the staff, time or money to help everyone. Our staff still consists of me, my wife and a little old lady from Church.

We are working on a strategic business plan that will hopefully guide us to the next level of growth and operation so we may help more homeless as we have more staff and more people volunteer. We also We also would be able to develop a better quality of service and be able to spend more time on each case to establish an even higher rate of success of those who become self-supporting and productive in society.

Sandra is one we are now trying to help. She has been supporting her disabled family since she was 13 working as a bus boy in a restaurant. She is now 22, broke and filing for bankruptcy. She spends all but $50 per week of her paycheck on others but struggles with alcohol. I really admire her going to work everyday knowing she will never have enough money for an apartment or really anything but food and a few other necessities. She showed me her shoes with big holes in the bottoms and said they were fine until she could save for a new pair. Needless to say we bought her 3 pairs of shoes and many other clothes etc. Her car blew up and she still owes $3000 on it so she depends on us and others for transportation to work, food pantries, lawyer, doctor etc. A friend allows her to stay in a bedroom of a small apartment but the friend is also struggling financially and may be evicted if help doesn’t arrive soon. Only God knows the answer to this case.

There are hundreds of these scenarios going on all over our state and in this economy can only get worse. My heart is broken every time I see this type of case knowing we can’t help everyone. People doing well with this worlds riches and helping those who are not self-sufficient is the only way I can see to clean up this mess of 1 out of 2 of us in our state, suffering and “barely hanging on to life” in total misery.

So call and help if you can or call for help if you need it. God is in control and will help those who help others!

IF ANY OF YOU WANTS TO BE MY FOLLOWER, YOU MUST PUT ASSIDE YOUR SELFISH AMBITIONS, SHOULDER YOUR CROSS DAILY, AND FOLLOW ME. HOW DO YOU BENEFIT IF YOU GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD BUT LOSE OR FORFEIT YOUR OWN SOUL IN THE PROCESS? ( Luke 9:23 and 25 )

The above verse is from Jesus own lips explaining the risk, sacrifice and common sense it takes to follow Him. All Christians should want to do this because we say we want to Love Jesus and be Christ like which defines a Christian. Also this is what Love is as shown in this drawing of Jesus; Risk and Sacrifice. The picture is only worth 17 cents on card stock but the message is worth the whole universe to God.

The drawing is made of millions of dots strategically placed. The white area above Jesus’ head represents God and His purity.

You can move the picture anywhere facing you and His eyes are always on you because He Loves you and His believers future are His main concern; Eternal life in Heaven for their souls. Glance at His eyes occasionally as you read the following .Then look at His right hand giving the “ I Love You ” sign in sign language. He is also pointing to God’s greatest concern and guidance for our lives on earth the “Greatest Commandments”.

Along with the other two verses on the drawing we believe this is Jesus and His Fathers most important message to us in the Bible; Love, Guidance and the key to Heaven the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So we pray you give your life to Jesus today in prayer and/or in service by Loving God and helping the poor as we are commanded by God and His Son. Romans 10:9 says, “Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with your lips God raised from the dead and you shall be saved.” So believe and confess today and join millions of Christians who through God’s free gift of Grace and our faith are saved ( Eph 2:8&9), our souls are destined for Heaven for eternity. Also remember we are saved by faith but faith is dead without action ( James 2:26 ). Love for one another is the action God calls us to, specifically for the poor and homeless. We all need to stop giving lip service and give Hope, Life and a Future to those who have none.

One third of the population in the U.S. need help maintaining self-sufficiency, keeping their bills paid and supporting their families. Two thirds of the people in the U.S. are doing well with the world’s riches. So why do we have over 100 million poor and brokenhearted people confused and living a fruitless and rootless life, if you can call it life.

Could it be our selfish ambitions? Please sacrifice some thing or some time to help the poor and homeless today. Our Country is only as strong as our people. One third of our country is weak, so let’s get busy and make it a stronger Country as we are commanded by our Creator God. We all need to take action to overcome this horrible plight.

Please pass this on and pray that we can change the World.“ It would be a changed world if everyone would attend to the sorrows and suffering of others plain before them.” (Mclarin a popular 18th century pastor)

When I was 19 I took up sky diving because I wanted to learn how to fly but couldn’t afford the lessons. Little did I know I was to become the airplane. It was scary at first but was just another sport after a while. I was really scared though when told I had to pack my own chute. I finally learned and packed my own about 15 times and miraculously still lived, thank God!

During the jumps there were always a few of them I thought if I didn’t do it right I would crash and burn. A couple of times that almost happened. I pulled my rip cord and the lines to my chute were twisted all the way up to my canopy. Just before I used an emergency technique of cutting my main and deploying my reserve, which I had never done before, I though I would try to untangle the lines and still use the main to save my life. All this while falling over 100 miles an hour and very disoriented as to where I was or how high I was. FAA regulations state that a skydiver should be at least of 2800 feet when you pull the ripcord and I had lost track of how many seconds went by therefore, how high I was when I was falling with this malfunction. So I pulled and pulled the lines I could reach very hard and luckily by the Grace of God, my lines came free and I landed safely.

All this time I believed God was watching me and caring for me so I wouldn’t get hurt, although I didn’t have a personal relationship with Him then and didn’t go to Church. Now as I look back on it I realize how stupid I really was to do something like that and not even pray before I jumped, sometimes from 12,000 feet. So the only assurance I had of safety was that my reserve parachute was packed by a licensed and certified packer and was 90% certain to open if I needed it. I never met the man who packed my chute but I would like to thank him for giving me that security even though I never had to use it Thank God. Most injuries occur when someone has to use their reserve.

I stopped jumping when I learned the black stuff on my chute was blood from the previous owner who died using it. I said,”Ok that’s enough”, and never have jumped since then. I would probably like to but after escaping death 20 times I thought it was better to stop while ahead.

This story has 2 points. One is that we always have someone who has helped and gives us that security we need to go on behind the scenes supporting us as God does 24/7, packing our reserve chutes restoring our security and faith, to thank for any security and success we have had in our lives. I certainly do for my wife Lana, Helen the bookkeeper and the many Churches and volunteers who have helped with FSBH. To date we have helped over 1500 homeless and God has sent over $300,000 in 4 short years. The second is that even though we don’t pray to God we know He is always there for us and Loves and protects us His wonderful creations, with a broken heart though, knowing most of the pain and suffering in our lives happens because we don’t pay attention to Him and obey His word the Holy Bible. Most people think God is trying to ruin our pleasure with all His rules and Commandments. But we just don’t stop and think that everything in the Bible is for our own good, and its there because He loves us and wants peace and joy in our lives, not despair and difficulties!

We deal with drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and more types of people all the time. Over and over again we see that they are in their own prison because they love their pleasure and listen to it instead of Loving God and listening to Him! This week I am helping a 26 year old woman store her belongings in a storage shed so she can sign herself into a psych ward because she has totally ruined her life using crack and other drugs and can’t quit. Of course being a foster child most of her life and living in 26 different foster homes in 10 years didn’t help. The only redemptive value is that she is young and can start over again with God if she listens and obeys Him in love and true repentance. I have worked with her for 12 months and have shown her how to get a job, transportation, abide by the rules of drug court to win her 2 beautiful kids back for 4 months through the court system, co-signed for her so she could obtain an apartment etc. only to see her throw it all away for the love of drugs and alcohol. She is not allowed now to see her kids until she completely recovers and is 6 months clean. Kids tend to acquire the traits of their addicted parents when living with them or even being around them. Welcome to my world.

But the best part of this all is she knows now how to become self-sufficient and live a normal life because she has done it and has had the sweet taste of success. So when she recovers she just needs to begin the plan all over again and pray God will help her succeed again in her fight against drugs and the temptations of the devil. The devil hasn’t won yet and there is still plenty of hope for her. So please pray with me for this lost soul and let me know if you would like to help in some way. She can do it but desperately needs our help, Love with God’s Love and miracles.

We just ask that people who Love God and the least of His people will come along side and help pack her parachute so she can be assured of a safe landing after freefalling in despair and desperation so far through life, but instead live the life God wants her and her 2 kids to have as He does for all of His people!

The following is an appreciation letter/article sent to me by our Latest client Terchell. Just so you know, I AM NO ANGEL! Doing God’s Work Yes!

To: Mr. Paul Kruse First Step Back Home Inc. and whoever reads this.

Some say angels only live in heaven but it just so happened I met one on Oct. 30th 2009. He had a face full of light and an incredible gentleness of heart. As I sat in the motel lobby talking to Paul Kruse of First Step Back Home, Inc. all I desired was some help with my stay at the days Inn motel where I had been staying for the last 52 days. Instead, God helped me with much more as He usually does when I pray at long periods of time.

Here is my story:

My son and I had relocated to St. Charles County after my husband told us to leave because he was tired of us and couldn’t afford us anyway. He is not a Christian man. We got there on Sept. 8th 2009. I had a rental car and $40 in my purse to our name. I have to let you know that I am a born again, faith walking, don’t mind stepping out for Jesus kind of gal. So how did I get to this place at this particular time? On Sept. 23 I was blessed with a job as a manager of the hair salon in Walmart. But my first check would not get here until Oct.10. So I contacted as many Churches as I could to get me through. There was still a lot of month left and no money yet. But Oct. 30 was a day of destiny that changed my life.

I had walked 10 miles to a Church I was told would help me and prayed all the way there and back that I would be able to leave the motel today and move into an apartment I had previously applied for. Well my prayer was answered! Thank God almighty!! Just before Paul got there I was informed that I was accepted for the apartment and also I would receive the first months rent free. Paul said the Church had called him and would donate $200 to his ministry if he would use it to pay $200 towards her room. Then Paul said how much deposit will it take to move into the apartment? I said $500 so instead of giving it to the motel he said why don’t we just add $300 to it and move me and my 17 year old son into the apartment today. And that is what we did and I am there right now.

That was my First Step Back Home. Not only did Paul help us move out of the room with his van but gave us rental assistance, food, bedding, and transportation services to my work. But what sticks mostly in my mind is his willingness to do the Kingdoms work that God has called him to do. In addition to all that he then drove me to Florissant to get my car which had been sitting in the garage for a year. After all was said and done he paid over $1600 to get my car repaired and legal. He raised this money from the people in his Bible Study group. What a series of total miracles all orchestrated by God!! Paul I will never be able to thank you or repay you enough for the Love of God and kindness shown to me and my son. Please continue to do what God has ordained you to do.

I hope you follow your passion to help the poor and needy. God Bless You and your wife!!

Genuinely,
Terchell M.

This is just one of many examples we have seen people go from living in their cars etc. to advancing themselves in society with a little help from a friend and a lot of help fromGod and His Son Jesus. Exercising faith in God and belief in Him through His Son Jesus will take you places you had never even imagined you could go. It’s like a wild trip only without the drugs. It is God’s main concern and will that we invest in the lives of the less fortunate and do what God created us to do; Love God and the poor as ourselves!

So why don’t you call and join in on the fun of saving lives spiritually and physically. I feel bad getting all these blessings and having all this fun by myself.

On a Tuesday afternoon in November, Cherri Trantham came to grips that it might be her last day in the Budget Inn. She and her husband Joe were facing eviction, unable to pay their bill. As she left the room to take her son to the doctor, Cherri brought milk to her neighbor to store in her refrigerator in case the Tranthams were locked out of their room when they returned. (Robert Cohen/P-D)

BY Jessica Bock
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/29/2009

WENTZVILLE — The power to the lights and TV blinked off and on, probably a warning from the front desk that it was time to go.

The motel room, cramped with toys and boxes of items from the food pantry, was stuffy — the air conditioner barely churning out cool air. The counter next to the sink was filled with clean sippy cups and other dishes. Underneath, a stack of dirty clothes awaited a day when Joe and Cherri Trantham would have enough money to go to a laundromat.

It's a typical sight these days at two Wentzville motels that have become home to the homeless. Because of a shortage of shelters in the county, charities and churches pay for homeless people to stay in motels until they can find work or other housing. But the groups can't support all those who need help.

In her room at the Budget Inn earlier this month, Cherri Trantham crumpled the torn-out yellow phonebook pages and threw them on the bed. All of the area churches she called turned down her pleas for help. Her babies were fussy and crying. Drew, 2, had a bad cough. If they couldn't come up with $80, her family would be out of the Wentzville motel and on the street that night.

"My family is very desperate right now," Trantham said into the phone. "I'm at my wits' end." MULTIMEDIA
Life inside the motels

She listened for a moment before murmuring a thank you and ending the call. "They said 'No funds,'" Trantham told her husband, Joe, who was reading her numbers while Mary, 10 months old, stood in the crib behind him.

The motel owners had let them stay last night, but they were already two hours past check-out time and not any closer to coming up with the money to keep a roof over their heads.

They had been here before, about to lose the only place they call home.

The intersection of Interstate 70 and Highway 40, dubbed the "crossroads of the nation" by Wentzville officials, is also where suburbia meets a national problem. To some, the Budget Inn and Economy Inn are a place to grab a no-frills $36 room on a road trip. But for those with no place left to turn, these two motels have become a hub.

For several years, they have housed St. Charles County's chronically struggling, homeless and fragile families. The recession exacerbated the homelessness problem in a county where just one small shelter exists for families and single parents. And donations to organizations that help are dwindling.

A one-day count earlier this year found 98 homeless people staying in hotels in St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties — but Dottie Kastigar of the Community Council of St. Charles County suspects the number is much higher.

"I don't think we've hit the worst of it," she said. "I think it's going to be a really bad winter. Those (motels) are basically our homeless shelters in our community."

In otherwise affluent St. Charles County, the median household income is estimated at more than $70,000. Near the motels, newly built subdivisions have made Wentzville one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.

"You just don't think of St. Charles County when you think of homeless," said Patty Strunk, who began bringing hot meals to families at the motels about a year ago with co-workers and friends. "People don't realize there is that much of a need."

In St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties, the Salvation Army in O'Fallon, Mo., is the only shelter available to families and single parents and their children. It has just seven rooms, most of which have four beds, and frequently must turn families away.

The parking lot at the Budget Inn has some older-model, beat-up cars belonging to the homeless, and a few newer models, usually belonging to travelers on I-70 stopping over for the night.

Those passing through might not realize that the motel houses the homeless unless they see the bulletin board in the lobby with a schedule of "Motel Meals for the Homeless" that volunteers bring a few times a month. They could also catch sight of a school bus stopping in the morning to pick up students. Or they might smell microwaved food (usually pasta, a food pantry staple) wafting through the hallways.

The Tranthams had checked into the Budget Inn about three months earlier. After Joe, 26, lost his job at McDonald's in Wright City, they were forced to move out of the mobile home they were renting.

They lived in another motel for a little while, then at Joe's mother's house, before someone connected them to Paul Kruse. His organization, First Step Back Home, pays for homeless people in the St. Charles County area to stay in motels until they can find work or other housing.

The Tranthams' room, with a double bed, holds all of the belongings they can fit. Two wooden cribs are pushed up against one wall for the children, Drew and Mary.

"When you go on vacation and stay in a motel, you know it's like, 'Ahhh, relaxation,'" Cherri Trantham, 32, said. "But when you live in a motel, you're like, 'When is this vacation gonna end?'"

The Tranthams got married in a courthouse wedding last month, partly so they would be eligible to stay at the Salvation Army family shelter in O'Fallon. But the shelter was full.

In October, Joe Trantham was looking for a job at a fast-food restaurant but hadn't found one. The minutes Kruse paid for on a cell phone for Joe as he applied for jobs ran out. At that point, so did Kruse's help.

Kruse, who established First Step Back Home about four years ago, has helped about 250 people so far this year get shelter in motels. He says he gets twice as many calls these days as he did before the foreclosure crisis. He averages 10 to 40 calls a day for help in getting shelter, gas or food.

But with fewer people donating in dismal economic times, he's had to turn away more people this year.

He details every call in a spiral notebook filled with little bits of information about the person calling, what they have (job, shelter, baby, etc.) and what they need. On a recent afternoon, he had 40 people waiting on the list for help.

At this time last year, First Step Back Home had received nearly $84,000 in donations. So far for 2009, the total is hovering around $50,000.

After spending more than $1,000 on helping the Tranthams, in October, he had to turn them down when they asked for more help. Joe had said for weeks that he had a lead on a job at McDonald's in Wentzville, but at that point, it had not come through. (A few weeks later he was hired.)

"I tend to spend more money on families with kids. But I just can't help them anymore," Kruse said. "I'm actually telling people I can only help you if you're working."

He often refers families to churches for help.

some chili?'

A few times a month at the Budget Inn, volunteers bring a hot, home cooked meal. They carry in crock pots through the front desk area, making their way to a room that sits across from the motel's small indoor pool.

After setting up on the counter where the motel serves coffee and doughnuts each morning, Beth Banze on a recent day began to spoon up bowls of steaming chili she made in between shuffling her kids to piano lessons and taking care of a son with strep throat.

"Even though it's falling in the middle of my chaos, you put it into perspective," she said as she spooned peanut butter on one slice of bread and folded in it half, placing it next to the bowl on a plate. "Sometimes you think, if you don't go, who is going to?"

She and her husband, Todd, began bringing meals to the motel after a fellow church member, Bob Hessel, made an announcement at Faith Christian Family Church.

"Love you guys! Love ya!" Theresa Little, 48, called behind her back as she carried two bowls of chili up to her room, where she has lived for the past year. After she ate, Little was back, looking through plastic garbage bags of used clothing the church group had brought.

After about half an hour, Hessel's group loaded up their crock pots and headed down the service road in a caravan of three vehicles to their next stop — the Economy Inn. They pulled up outside and put the chili on the back of Hessel's truck. He and Todd Banze headed in to knock on doors.

Hessel, who knows each motel well, walked to the rooms where he knows people are staying long term and knocked.

"You guys want some chili?" Hessel asked as a mother answered the door with her 7-year-old daughter and a baby boy. They'd been living there about two months. The mother nodded and said they would come out.

"We just figure this helps a little bit," Hessel said, heading back to the food. "Some people have jobs, that's fine. If some people try to take advantage of us, that's how it goes."

Most days, Darlene Morgan's job is more like a counselor than motel desk manager.

She's worked off and on at the Budget Inn for the past few years, seeing families come and go. Many end up returning when they once again need a roof over their heads.

When help has run out for them, they come to Morgan, 44. Behind the counter in the lobby, she'll get out phone books and make copies of the pages listing nearby agencies that might help pay for a room. She'll give directions to the food pantry. She might even put in a good word with her boss. But she's also the one who often has to say, "Money or out."

Someone in crisis, looking for the money to pay the motel bill for one more night, is "a constant thing," Morgan said.

"I've even let people come and live with me. Sometimes I get tired of being tough, and I can't walk away from the situation," she said. "It got to be so much stress working here that I quit for a while."

For the owners of the motel, there is good and bad that comes with having homeless guests, Morgan said. In the slow winter season, people staying for weeks or even months at a time provide a steady source of income. But they can also drive other guests away and drain the motel's resources for utilities and upkeep.

On that day earlier this month, it was the Tranthams who had to either pay up or leave.

Cherri Trantham was sniffling as she filled a few sippy cups for Drew so they could take him to a doctor and get his cough checked out.

Neither Joe nor Cherri said it out loud, but they knew that when they returned to the motel they might not get back into the room. The owners could move out their things. But there was too much to pack in their two-door Chevy Cavalier, and they were already late.

After the doctor saw Drew, the Tranthams stopped at a church in Warrenton. Joe went inside to ask for help, and Cherri waited in the car with the kids.

Cherri said they were parked next to another car, and a man came out and asked her name. He had overheard her husband inside asking for help. Then he handed her five folded $20 bills, she said.

"I just started crying and went to get out of the car and give him a hug. I told him he truly was a blessing," Cherri said. "He said, 'No, I just want your day to get better now.'"

The family had a place to stay — at least for another night.