Happy summer! The season officially began Saturday morning and we're so very glad it's here. Our friends David Gregory and Tripp Hanson marked the day by getting married. David, as you may know is the former pastor  of North Congregational UCC in Middletown and the driving force behind Spirit of Peace UCC, a "new church start" in Kingston. David also served as Ecclesia's board secretary. He and Tripp, acupuncturist extraordinaire and all around great guy, were married at Linwood Spiritual Center in Rhinebeck. We wish them much joy. Speaking of joy - it was a real joy to host a lightbulb during the last two weeks in a run up to this past weekend's Illumination Festival here in the Burgh. More than 90 artists participated in this project that celebrat  es art and Newburgh's role in the life of Thomas Edison. Our bulb - Intuitive Hypothesis - was the creation of Beacon artist Amanda Henneberry. You can learn more about Amanda at her website or by looking her up the next time you're at the Dia Museum in Beacon. Of course, there's all sorts of other stuff going on around Hope - an LGBT center is incubating here; the New Jim Crow Working Group is talking about prisoner re-entry; poetry groups are meeting as is a shelter group, and, on Friday evenings, we gather for a half-hour service of readings, music and quiet before adjourning to the "Upper Room" (the third floor kitchen) for food and conversation. It all begins with Street Church every Sunday afternoon at 1:30. Now that the weather's great, maybe you'll take time to join us as we celebrate God's abundant love . . . |
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A lot of help from our friends
 Pastor Ferdinand and 15 other friends from Danbury's Long Ridge United Methodist Church joined us last Saturday (June 14) for a day of work at the Hope center. While one crew painted one room, another crew installed trim in another and other crews went to work on our big frame building removing junk, taking two bathrooms apart and generally helping us to take a giant step toward the day when we'll be able to welcome new members of our residential community. A half dozen of our friends from the neighborhood also joined us in what turned out to be a great day of hard work, great conversations, community-building and . . . fun. |
Every day, 50 to 60 of our friends walk through the doors of Our House. Some are regulars; some are newbies. Some are under the influence; some struggle with mental health issues; some struggle with both. Some have been on the streets for years; some just lost their housing. It doesn't matter - no matter where they are on their journey through life, Our House welcomes them. Even the local shelter won't take them and they have nowhere to lay their head at night, they can stay with us.
We're not really sure how things got to be this way. I mean, we didn't set out to become a welcome center for homeless a nd near homeless women and men and we sure didn't figure on people spending the night. It just kind of happened. A grant opportunity came along so we opened a drop-in center serving "those people." Then "those people" became our sisters and brothers and now that the grant is gone we keep on opening the doors, getting to know our friends.
Welcoming and caring for the stranger is what we're supposed to do if we're "people of the book" - Muslims, Jews, Christians. There are lots of places in the gospels where Jesus tells us to serve others. Next week's gospel reading - Matthew 10:40-42 - is no exception. We're even promised a "reward" if we do.
Funny the way it works. We set about to do something because Jesus tells us to and then we discover why we're really doing it - to discover God's overwhelming love for us and all of Creation by actively sharing it with others.
It doesn't matter who receives care. What matters is that care is offered, that we give of ourselves. And, in that giving there is less of us and more of us all at the same time.
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Thank you for all you do to make this world a better place.
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