Residents That Elevate - Lilian Phan

At Sequoia, we have many residents that stand by our mission to Elevate The Everyday. At a time when people need it most, one resident is giving back to her local community in the greatest way. Meet Lilian Phan, from Paragon at Old Town in Monrovia, CA. Lilian volunteers through her church, Redeemed Life Church in Azusa, with their homeless outreach program. Twice a week, Lilian and other volunteers make food to bring to homeless people in the community and also bring clothing donations, toiletries, and more.

Lilian loves getting involved with the community and helping those in need. “It's always been something that God has placed on my heart. I've served on my church's outreach team for years prior at another church. There was an opportunity with my current church, Redeemed Life Church in Azusa, to launch a homeless outreach. We got connected by someone who used to be homeless at the Duarte riverbed, and that's how it all started. We have a team of 2-5 people who visit them bi-weekly.” This small but mighty team has one goal in mind: to simply love the people they are giving back to. Lilian and her team are there to hug, support, feed, and pray for the people they deliver supplies to weekly. “We celebrate the day if we could plant a seed, say a kind word, be an encouragement, hug them for real, remind them of their own value...”

Recently, the kitchen range that the volunteers use to cook the meals each week slowly started to break. Our team at Paragon quickly stepped in and donated the kitchen range from their community. It's times like these that bring a smile to our face. “It meant so much to have the range donated! Our two stoves were giving up on us, and cooking times went from one to four hours. We could have used donated funds to buy the stoves, but that would take away from buying food/goods that can go directly to the homeless. It really meant a lot. Paragon is so extremely kind and generous. I'm not sure many organizations have that giving back mindset.”

Lilian continues to Elevate The Everyday with her kind heart and willingness to listen and help the people around her. Redeemed Life Church is always in need of volunteers and donations for their Saturday Food Pantry and Homeless Outreach program.

For more information and to learn how to get involved you can visit their website HERE.