A happy day to you! We got some exciting news this week - Exodus is coming to town! By that we mean Exodus, an awesome prison re-entry program, will be open for business here at the Hope Center next month. We're excited because there are roughly 300 women and men here in Newburgh who are on parole. More join them every week. Yet, there's very little by way of support in a town were there are very few jobs and way too many temptations for people leaving "Egypt" for the "Promised Land." It's one reason why New York's recidivism rate is 40 percent. A program like Exodus working with a supportive faith community can make all the difference in the life of this city and the people who live here. That's the conclusion of a working group that has grown out of the New Jim Crow Film Series which your ministry has been co-sponsoring and supporting. We'll keep you posted as things unfold including ways in which you can become involved in the work. In the meantime, you're more than welcome to join the working group when it meets 6-8 p.m., Thursday, August 7, here at Hope, 85 Grand Street. And, please join us for the next video - Hard Road Home - which we'll view at the Newburgh Free Library Auditorium (124 Grand Street) at 1 p.m., Saturday, August 23. This film is a PBS documentary about Exodus and three men trying to beat the odds that are stacked against them. You can watch the trailer here. |
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Sugar, Toilet Paper & the Kingdom of Heaven
We'll run out of sugar today at Our House this afternoon.
Fifty to 60 friends come to the drop-in center every day for relief from the stress of being destitute. Sugar's a part of it. We run through as much as two pounds of the sweetener every day as we dispense decaf coffee and tea to anyone who asks.
The good news is that the lack of sugar will mean our supply of coffee and tea and coffee cups and stirrers will last longer . . . The even better news is that Cornwall Presbyterian Church sent us a care package last week that contained a precious supply of toilet paper. That would have been disastrous!
 What's going on? What's all this about? It's about us running out of money to keep Our House up and running. We've found that we have to cut back where ever possible so that we can pay our one salaried employee and the phone and electric bills. Making matters worse - we just learned this morning that the Salvation Army's going to be closed for a month which means that homeless folks will be out of luck when it comes to dinner three nights a week.
As you probably remember, funding for Our House ran out April 30th and we've been beating the bushes for money ever since. We did alright in June, thanks to a $3,000 grant from Ecclesia Missions which was matched by many EcclesiaGram subscribers.
The real problem is not that no one cares about the homeless. The problem is that we're lousy fundraisers. We're not good at going out and beating the bushes for bucks. We haven't figured out how to get enough folks to click on Donate Now buttons or cut us a check when we give a talk somewhere. And, we don't have enough folks working with us, asking people they know or stepping up to help organize our October 17th fundraising dinner or putting together mailings and all that sort of stuff competent people know about.
That's why it was particularly annoying to find that next week's gospel reading is about Jesus feeding the 5,000 on a shoestring - Matthew 14:13-21. I found myself siding with the disciples, wanting to send folks away to fend for themselves . . . feeling badly for having such thoughts . . . then hearing "The Lord will provide" echo through my mind and feeling even worse because of my lack of faith.  But, wait! It dawned on me that the story may not really about Jesus being a miracle worker doing things you and I can't do. Rather it might be another parable about the Kingdom of Heaven that Matthew's Jesus said is within and without us right here, right now. Maybe it's a story about a just world where all receive their daily bread, where everyone has enough. Maybe it's a story about how we're supposed to do more then tell folks how great God is and how much God loves them and send them on their way. Maybe it's a story about how we're to live into the reality of the Kingdom as the way to show folks what God's love might look like.
That, of course, took me back to my concerns over supplies, utilities and a paycheck for the cornerstone of Our House. This time I'm reminded that while it is true that "The Lord will provide," it is also true that, as Desmond Tutu's words, "With out God, we can't and without us, God won't."
So . . . we'll go out and beat the bushes for bucks the best we can. And, perhaps you'll join us.
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Thank you for all you do to make this world a better place.
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