April 2021
Dear Friends,
I’m writing to you on behalf of our volunteers and board members to express our thanks for your continued support of our outreach ministry to homeless and low-income people in our community.
We are grateful that during the COVID pandemic we have been able to hold twice-weekly outdoor lunches through the hospitality of Davis United Methodist Church and Pole Line Baptist Church.
We are thankful to these congregations for their continued support of our work, and we look forward to the day when our hospitality can be extended through their indoor facilities.
During these difficult days a number of churches and individuals have regularly provided sandwiches and other lunch items that we in turn share with our guests. We are privileged to share your generous gifts with those who trust that when they approach us, they will be fed. Those who come where we gather also know they can speak openly about life’s challenges. We continue to hear our guests speak with gratitude for the Spirit in which we relate to them. We offer words of encouragement, challenge and at times caution. We try to do so without judgement or criticism. Especially during the COVID pandemic, we try to show God’s Grace in our actions.
In these beautiful springtime days and weeks that constitute the season of Easter, when Christians focus on the experience of new life, we try to minister in ways that enhance people’s sense of worth and dignity. This is often, but consistently, done in small ways. People can count on us to see that they have access to bus rides and bicycle repair, masks and hand sanitizer, toiletries and laundry service, clean socks and overnight provisions when they lack them. When they have legal or thorny personal issues too, we are experienced listeners with an awareness of good references and connections to access help.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is recorded as having touted the merits of kindnesses as seemingly insignificant as a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple. (Matthew 10:42) In most of what we do, the names of the disciples are not uttered aloud. But when we are privileged to do such things, we think of you and the One we serve together as his disciples in these difficult days.
I recently attended an online church fellowship gathering. One person expressed a desire to sit in a familiar eating establishment. She desired to enjoy the food that had been prepared in that longed for setting, rather than having to take it home as a COVID precaution. I get it. But at today’s Grace in Action luncheon, I was struck by the stream of people arriving on foot and by bicycle, for whom we are presently that familiar outdoor establishment, a place of welcome, sharing and generous hospitality.
Thank you for being our partners in ministry during these trying times. May you experience the blessing of renewed life and hope as you have generously extended it to others.
Yours in Christ’s service,
Steve Smith
Director – Grace in Action