February
4, 2016
January
update
Our
people come not only in ones but also in twos and threes. At first, on any
given winter day, you may "see" the ~150 people inside the Preble Street Resource center and the ~50 people outside in the courtyard only as “ones.”
But soon you see the “twos,” the couples, those just forming to those long
bonded. And then you notice the “threes” (just look for the strollers). These
are the families who have lost homes. One such family we’ve known for three
months by now was forced to move out of their apartment last summer after the
landlord repeatedly refused to abate the dangerous levels of lead that were
built up in that apartment and that were thus building up in their infant. Can
you imagine the anguish of that? Then though they searched there was no
affordable alternative for them in greater Portland, no room for them at the
Inn of the housed. But … there was the Family shelter, and there was the
Resource center, and there were the Case workers, and there was the Soup kitchen,
the whole kit and caboodle. And there was Grace-Street Ministry and our modest
mission of presence, prayer, and advocacy with and for all our people, those
who come in threes and twos and ones alike. For all this we thank God and keep
ministering. Amen