Yvonne has been a single mom since early 1992. With great grace and mercy, God turned her and her children’s lives around. (See details in New Since October ’93.) She has fallen in love with Jesus and desired to share her with others.

In August 1999, after hosting a cell group for a year and a half, the Lord instructed, "Take the cell group beyond the wall." The YES team joined the Santa Ana Street Outreach. (See details in the S.A.S.O. Story.)

In July 2000, Jesus gave an apostolic and prophetic ministry, Morris Cerrulo World Evangelism (MCWE), as her global spiritual home. Part of MCWE’s vision for the past 56 years has been demonstrating gospel to souls all over the world and training and imparting to nationals to do what Jesus did.

Right on Easter 2001, we started a monthly potluck ‘party for Jesus.’ It was meant to share the Good News beyond the church walls. In few months, we saw the Lord brought mostly moms and children. Being a small group, we had a high percentage of Japanese population. Most of their husbands routinely working 12 to 16 hours a day, six to seven days a week. Joyce’s husband worked outside of the U.S. 95% of the time. Sandra was a widow from Honduras and working in America to support her two daughters. Some ladies were married without children. Some were foreign students. Some were working moms.  Some were stay at home moms. The single moms' percentage was low, although it has changed since then.  All seem to be in search of something: friendship, encouragement, support, wisdom for raising teenagers, opportunity to speak English…

One night, Yvonne’s housemate Hun-Kyun shared his high school soul searching story. He said he was home alone when dad, mom and brother had gone to Church. Bingo! "Home-alone" fits perfectly with the situation of all our guests. At the time, we even had two young men hanging out with us. One was a single young guy Kenichi. (He returned to Japan in spring 2002.) The other was Hun-Kyun, studying in the UCI Environmental Engineering PhD program. (His wife came to California from Korea in early 2002. They are now expecting a baby in March 2003.)

So, in September 2001, we changed the group name to Home Alone Mothers (H.A.M.). What a nice abbreviation too! We also transitioned from monthly potluck to bi-weekly tea parties. We do have barbeques or potlucks for special occasions like Independence celebration, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For a long while, Yukari was our marketing lady. She brought friends - boys and girls, married and single, to the group. (Yvonne opened another short-term English conversation class to serve the language need.) Yukari’s charming picture is in the H.A.M. photo gallery. She arrived in California less than a year before then. Yukari and husband Minoru have two sweet girls, Yuka and Chie. (Their photos "h.a.m. kids" are also in the gallery.) Soon mom started working and moved onto a better job in spring 2002 because her language capability had greatly improved. Minoru is a sushi chef. Yvonne and several other H.A.M.s were invited to his home sushi party once. Boy, yummy…

Unfortunately, Yukari has been too busy to come to the H.A.M. gatherings since our Mother’s Day celebration. So the only marketing now is a newspaper announcement in the local Irvine paper. Almost all the current members have come through this tiny announcement. In prayer, sometimes I joke with the Lord. We have one fishing pole and He gives us fish to care for – one at a time.

We are still a small, informal and loving group with an unavoidable level of transiency. The Lord brings the ones He desires to bring and takes away the ones He wishes to take away. Early on, Joyce and her two sons moved back to Taiwan to unite with the husband and dad. Sandra moved back to Honduras to unite with her family after 9-11. I was sad. We met for a short while in our lives and had to depart. Such is life. By late November 2002, Kenichi, Mayumi and Yuko – Japanese ESL (English as Secondary Language) students and young adults returned to their homeland as well.

Not every one stays with the group for long term. Some do. For few, one-on-one worked better than group gatherings. Some others seemed to have found what they were looking for and left. As for the rest, maybe they felt they could not find what they were looking so they left, too? Some may even come looking for business prospects. It doesn’t matter. We welcome all because God loves all..

Again, whatever the case may be, Yvonne treasures every individual, adult as well as child, who makes the effort to come to the parties. She appreciates every opportunity she gets in meeting, conversing and fellowshipping with the guests. Her right and left hands, Edmond and Sonya, appreciate every one of their playmates. They have taken care of kids younger than themselves very well. In each meeting, no matter how many come Jesus and the YES team are ready – to love and serve.

This is part of why Yvonne gets nervous every time. Everyone has families, careers and priorities to juggle. Some said they could come but did not. Some did not reply to the e-mail or phone invitation but actually came. The latter happens less then the former though. We’ve had all kinds of attendance – between 3 (counting YES) and 24. The highlight was the Mother’s celebration in May. We had 11 moms, one grandma and a dozen lively children. Talking about unpredictability… Well, we’ll just take it as part of the continual H.A.M. challenge.

So far, the cultural backgrounds of our guests have included American, Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan), Egyptian, Filipino, Indian, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Vietnamese and Thai. Our kids’ ages range between five and twelve. Miyuki has brought her pet dog Rosa – a Pomeranian, to the party several times. (They have a picture in the H.A.M. photo gallery.)

Our heritage mix has been changing. Helena is a Polish American descent. Since summer 2002, we have seen the percentage of single moms and widows increasing. We now also have more wives of mixed marriages.

Indeed, H.A.M. has a social purpose. Guests talk about children, work, daily schedule, experience in foreign countries, husband, loss of husband, divorce, single-parenting, heritage, culture, beliefs, likes, dislikes, and upbringing. We make friends. In listening to others and being listened to, we may satisfy our desire for encouragement, belonging to a circle of influence and need for friendship. But, fulfilling social need is only half of what H.A.M. provides.

The other half is the opportunity to hear and touch Christ – the supreme solution to our loneliness, isolation and ‘all’ our issues and problems. Everyone deserves a chance to be introduced to and nurtured in spiritual truth. Then, one exercises her or his free will to decide to accept or reject Creator. This is the same way with children, too. Depending how open a person is, the truth, including healing and deliverance, goes as deep as he or she is willing to absorb.

We have had children and moms and even a dad accept Jesus as their personal God. Some others are not yet ready. Several have been willing to receive prayer. Repentance and Salvation is just the beginning of a brand new life. We continue to pray that the Holy Spirit gives deeper hunger in the newborn spiritual babies. "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit." says the Lord Almighty. [Zechariah 4:6] It’s all in the hands of God Almighty. It’s His timing, not ours. Yet we know the King is coming soon and we have no time to waste.

This is also the other part that gets Yvonne nervous. She has wondered if the team could passionately present (or represent) their Head of household in an easily understandable way. She knows it’s a three-way calling. She is to speak freely from her heart. The Holy Spirit is to move the heart of the one listening. Next it’s up to the person to open up, consider, wait, accept or refuse – now or in the future. Coming to repentance and salvation takes great effort and a long process most of the time. The Lord often sends many to sow the seed of truth in one’s life. If it takes 100 sowers for the seed to grow, the YES team may be number 50 or even number 99. How can we not get a little nervous? When doing something for the one we love the most… When doing something for the moms and children God created...

Oh yes, Yvonne had doubts and insecurities ‘sometimes.’ The Lord has mercifully and faithfully encouraged her each time. In the beginning, she wondered whether she has truly received instructions from the Lord to serve Him through H.A.M., His answer was 'focus on souls.’

In fall 2001, she asked, "Lord, what am I doing?" The Lord told her not to look at the mere number of moms but look at the greater number impacted through the moms. So she started to do a little math. If one mom received love and encouragement in the party, she’d bring that back to the family, and even coworkers and friends. Yvonne used an average family size of 4 and realized even when only one mom came the impact is four. If five came, the impact would be 20. The Lord reaffirmed what His will is about H.A.M.

In April 2002, Yvonne wondered again, "Should we change semi-monthly back to monthly gatherings?" The Lord simply said, "Keep the momentum." Once again, Yvonne was heartened. And this is how and why Home Alone Mothers has continued…

We love Jesus because He first loved us. He not only loves us but also others. He came for all. Some want Him while others may reject Him. We choose him. We love and serve Jesus through serving those whom He loves. We have made a personal and family commitment to live and show what He commands us. Our goal is to please God and glorify Him.