[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 158 (Tuesday, September 25, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1287-E1288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING CHRISTIAN RELIEF SERVICES CHARITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONALD S. BEYER, JR.

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2018

  Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Christian Relief 
Services Charities, an international charitable organization located in 
Alexandria, Virginia, for its 33-year history making a difference for 
hundreds of thousands of children and their families in America and 
abroad.
   Christian Relief Services Charities has always had one overriding 
goal: connecting with those in need, caring for them, and making a 
sustainable difference in their lives. Working through local churches 
and civic organizations, they strive to give fellow Americans and 
others a ``hand up, not a handout.''
   Christian Relief Services Charities' aid spans from the struggling 
towns of Appalachia to the desolate plains of the Native American 
Indian Reservations in South Dakota as well as children's homes and 
medical clinics in the poorest countries in Africa. Specifically, the 
organization's aid seeks to ensure that people have not gone to bed 
hungry, are able to heat

[[Page E1288]]

their home, have clean water to drink, receive lifesaving medical care, 
and finish school to obtain good jobs.
   Christian Relief Services Charities is a family of nonprofits 
focused on long-term development and self-sufficiency by providing 
impoverished children and their families with the necessities of food, 
clothing, decent living conditions, and access to education and 
healthcare.
   Through its affiliate programs, Christian Relief Services Charities 
delivers many basic commodities we take for granted. For families, 
including Veterans and the disabled, they provide warm winter clothing, 
medicine, medical equipment, safe water systems, housing, materials for 
home repair, and equipment for organic gardens. For children 
specifically, their programs provide books, school supplies, fund youth 
programs such as summer lunch buses, camps, after-school enrichment 
classes, project grants to Native American youth and teachers seeking 
to improve their communities and other programs that build self-esteem.
   Working in partnership with public and private non-profit agencies, 
Christian Relief Services Charities provides over 3900 units of 
affordable, transitional and permanent housing, and resident related 
services in Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Texas, Ohio and Iowa to persons 
with very low to moderate incomes, chronic mentally and physically ill 
adults, homeless families and individuals. In Northern Virginia, 
Christian Relief Services Charities offers a program that provides 
transitional housing to victims of domestic violence and their 
children, with victim advocacy therapy and case management support.
   Christian Relief Services Charities is highly esteemed throughout 
the country and is one of the original accredited charities of the 
Better Business Bureau having consistently met their rigorous standards 
of excellence.
   As great as our Nation is, poverty and need sadly still exist. It is 
comforting to know that, for a third of a century, Christian Relief 
Services Charities has been making an impactful difference in the lives 
of many people in the 8th Congressional District, American Indian 
Country, Appalachia, and across the United States.
   Each day the number of served grows. I commend Christian Relief 
Services Charities for its service to humanity and thank them for 
making the world a less harsh place, feeding those who are hungry, 
providing housing and medical supplies to the homeless and sick, and 
giving hope to those who had none.

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