On Tuesday, May 28th, nearly 300 people showed up at the His Hands Extended store at the Dream Center. This store is unique in that the clothes are given free of charge to people in the community who are in need. Each Tuesday, between eight o’clock in the morning and four o’clock in the afternoon, hundreds of individuals in the neighborhood are given the opportunity to “shop” for various articles of clothing, bed and bath items, and essential toiletries without taking out their wallets.

The majority of people who come to the clothing ministry are homeless and cannot buy clothes at the local retail stores. Parents with children have also been seen frequenting the Dream Center in hopes to find some outfits to wear that they would not have been able to afford otherwise.

“We have seen an increase [in recipients] weekly because of how the economy is,” says Sandy, the overseer of His Hands Extended. The ministry has received donations from various sources, including Gifts in Kind, partnering corporations, private donors and secondhand providers. However, the donations have reached a staggering low this month. The decrease in items has not halted the outreach of His Hands Extended, which not only supplies individuals in the Rampart area with clothes, but also takes a truck filled with items to other inner city communities in Los Angeles.
The women who are in the Dream Center Discipleship program give of their time to help volunteer with the ministry. “The workforce in here is Women’s Discipleship,” comments Sandy. The contributions that His Hands Extended have received have also helped to provide for other nonprofit organizations in the surrounding areas, churches, and ministries at the Dream Center that have need for them. In doing so, His Hands adheres to the motto of the Dream Center, which aims to find needs and fill them, and find hurts and heal them.

Once a month, Dream Center missionaries are also able to update their wardrobes from His Hands. Those who attend Food Chapel may receive a surprise clothing ticket, which they can use to go on a shopping excursion at the Dream Center store. “We do things with excellence here,” says Sandy. It is thanks to your support of the various ministries of the Dream Center that people in the inner cities will continue to be helped, and those who lack outfits will be clothed.