Isaiah 25:6-8 On Mount Zion the Lord who rules over all will prepare a feast for all of the nations. The best and richest foods and the finest aged wines will be served. On that mountain the Lord will destroy the veil of sadness that covers all of the nations. He will destroy the gloom that is spread over everyone. He will swallow up death forever. The Lord and King will wipe away the tears from everyone’s face. He will remove the shame of his people from the whole earth. The Lord has spoken. (NIRV)
So much tragedy in our communities recently that it sometimes seems overwhelming. Disasters, both man-made and natural, wars, crime, and corruption on both a political and corporate scale, seem to be the norm rather than the exception. The denigration of the church and erosion of Godly principles and ideals in this nation, while openly mocking Christianity in public, is particularly disturbing to me.
Paul’s description of the Gentiles, or non-believers: Ephesians 4:18 They can’t understand the truth. They are separated from the life of God. That is because they don’t know him. And they don’t know him because their hearts are stubborn. (NIRV)
All this brings me to remember how temporary the material things of this life really are. Everything we have ever made, worked for, built, or spent our lives chasing, will be wiped away. The prophet Isaiah really gets to the heart of this in chapter 24. “3 The earth will be completely destroyed. Everything of value will be taken out of it. That’s what the Lord has said.4… The most important people on earth will fade away. 5 The earth is polluted by its people. They haven’t obeyed the laws of the Lord. They haven’t done what he told them to do... 6So the Lord will send a curse on the earth. Its people will pay for what they’ve done. They will be burned up. Very few of them will be left.”, “21At that time the Lord will punish the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens above. He will also punish the kings on the earth below. 22 They will be brought together like prisoners in chains. They’ll be locked up in prison. After many days the Lord will punish them. 23 The Lord who rules over all will rule on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The elders of the city will be there. They will see his glory. His rule will be so glorious that the sun and moon will be too ashamed to shine.” (NIRV)
HIS plan is beyond our understanding. From the scriptures we can know what is right to do now and how it will end (we win by the way), beyond that we have no control. All we can do is have faith that HIS plan will work out for HIS glory, and that we should do our part, whatever that is.
We have been busy this spring doing some building maintenance, fixing faucets and plumbing and hoping to do some much needed roof repairs. Benjamin and I recently planted 13 apple trees alongside the garden. I have been busy helping coach a little league team that we host at the ball field here at the shelter. We won our first game June 3rd (go Yankees)! Dad and Benjamin do a lot of hard work getting and keeping the field in good shape for our home games. I have also taken up beekeeping as a hobby this spring with two bee hives in the area to help pollinate the garden and apple trees.
This spring has also been productive here at the shelter. We have provided more nights of shelter this year so far (1,640 Aug. 2012-May. 2013), than all of last year (1,490 Aug. 2011-July 2012). Things had slowed a bit as winter was coming to a close, but have picked up this spring with 7 people here in the month of May. We receive an average of about 8-10 calls per month. We are currently down to a family of 5 in our Emergency Shelter program and a single male and a family of 3 in our Transitional Housing program. We just had a 2 single men check-out, one with a job and apartment, praise the LORD!
Our office staff ladies have been busy accepting and sorting donations, answering the phones, transporting residents to appointments, and volunteering their time in the food pantry. Kathy is our primary secretary/receptionist handling most of the daily shelter needs, maintaining the food pantry database, handling donations, and phone calls. Valerie helps Kathy manage the office operations as well as helping balance the books, and process grant applications among her other AmeriCorps duties. She will be finished with her AmeriCorps tour in August and she will be sorely missed. Margaret takes over for Kathy three days a week in the afternoons and shares in Friday’s food pantry volunteer rotation. Angela is our case manager, contracting with both Social Services and the shelter, doing most of our in-depth case management with the residents, which has been a welcome and much needed addition. She also shares the Friday pantry rotation with Margaret. All of these ladies do a wonderful job keeping the shelter running smoothly, I absolutely could not do it without them.
Please join with us in praise and prayer about this upcoming summers Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) grant application. Praise the LORD, this spring we received a grant from the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation which will help us through the upcoming months keep the shelter open and operating. Please keep in prayer our staff, community service volunteers, and our residents as we are presented with the opportunity to help share the Gospel and meet the needs of the families in our area.
THANK YOU to all who have donated time or supplies this past year, no donation is too large or too small. We couldn’t do what we do here without YOUR help. If there is a specific area that you feel led to make a donation towards, whether that’s cleaning supplies, work clothes for the residents, transportation costs, or food, let me know and we’ll make sure it gets used for that purpose.
I’m terrible at keeping our website “www.newhopeshelter.net” up to date but feel free to come check us out anyway. You can also find us on Facebook. Please feel free to contact me anytime: via email at director@newhopeshelter.net , via phone (715) 478-3669
Thanks again for your support and prayers!
In His service, Micah Dewing Shelter Director